The Week in Pictures: Dec. 30 - Jan. 5

Fireworks light up the London skyline and Big Ben just after midnight on Jan. 1 in London. Thousands of people lined the banks of the River Thames to ring in the New Year.

Slideshow: 2012 welcomed around the world

Tea party supporter William Temple, of Brunswick, Ga., sits in the Des Moines, Iowa, airport on Jan. 4 as he awaits a flight home after the Iowa caucuses.

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, talks with U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., former presidential nominee, on Romney's campaign bus Jan. 4 near Manchester, N.H. McCain announced his endorsement of Romney the day after Romney beat former Sen. Rick Santorum by only eight votes in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses.

Slideshow: Mitt Romney's life in politics

Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters assist a man with a cage of birds out of his apartment Dec. 31 as cars burn in a carport in the Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles. The series of arson fires ended in the arrest of a German man.

A man watches as an airliner flies over his house into Hongqiao International airport in Shanghai on Jan. 5.


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Armenian clergymen scuffle with police and Greek Orthodox clergymen, Dec. 28, during the annual cleaning of the Church of Nativity, the traditionally accepted birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. Several hundred clergy of different Christian sects, as well as some faithful, pitch in to clean the entire church, one of the oldest in the world, but with special care taken not to overstep one's boundaries and delicate cleaning responsibilities.

New North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (front row, center) poses for photos on Jan. 1 with soldiers of the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division of the Korean People's Army at an undisclosed place in North Korea. More than 100,000 North Koreans rallied in support of new leader Kim Jong-Un on Jan. 3, days after he was proclaimed the "great successor" to his father.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This picture was taken by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency.

A Dutch resident in his house looks at high water levels in Dordrecht on Jan. 5. Gale force winds reaching up to 70 miles an hour as well as heavy rains were expected along the Dutch coast. About a quarter of the country sits below sea level.

Workers carry red lanterns through a small lane in Yaxi village, China, Dec. 27.

An elderly woman holds onto a lamppost amid strong winds at South Shields, England, Jan. 3.


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Spc. John Lundy, right, and Spc. Matthew Sturgill, obscured, leap into the arms of Pfc. Devin Horton, Dec. 23, at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, Ind., as 109 members of the 1st Battalion, 149th Infantry, Army National Guard, prepare to board a bus home for the holidays. The unit was one of the last to leave Iraq.