The Week in Pictures: Jan. 19 - 26

A flurry of snow passes a man as he speaks on a phone from a stranded vehicle on the outskirts of Bucharest, Romania, Jan. 26. Heavy snow storms paralyzed southern and eastern Romania, causing many people to walk to work after authorities intervened late to clear the roads leading to the capital. The man, who declined to be identified, spent the night in his car as he feared it would be damaged by road-clearing vehicles if he abandoned it.

The aurora borealis is seen near Tromsoe, Norway, Jan. 25, as a solar flare from the broiling sun turned the chilly northernmost skies of Earth into an ever-changing and awe-provoking art show.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who was shot in the head during a shooting spree in Tucson, Ariz., in January 2011, throws a kiss as she stands with Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., left, as they await President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday on Capitol Hill in Washington. The next day, Giffords formally submitted her resignation as she was surrounded by hundreds of House members. The House, on a 408-0 vote, passed and sent to the president the final legislative act she sponsored, a bill to increase penalties for those flying ultralight planes to smuggle drugs.

A Bhartiya Chaitanya Party candidate for the member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), Sham Lal Gandhi, speaks through a TV cutout, Jan. 26, during his bicycle-driven campaign in Amritsar, India. State assembly elections will be held on Jan. 30.


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Workers assemble a 500,000 gallon water tank for the Flemingsburg Industrial Park in Flemingsburg, Ky., Jan. 25.

Local residents hold a fire hose and cheer as firefighters succeed in getting water to shoot out over an area where dozens of homes had already burned, Jan. 23, at the New Building slum neighborhood in central Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. As firefighters struggled to make their fire hoses work, residents fought the fire with buckets of waste water and used mallets to tear down homes in the fire's path.

Chinese folk artists perform a lion dance at a temple fair, Jan. 22, to welcome the Lunar New Year of the Dragon in Beijing, China. Falling on Jan. 23 this year, the Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, which is based on the Lunisolar Chinese calendar, is celebrated from the first day of the first month of the lunar year through the Lantern Festival on the 15th day.

Students cling to steel cables on a collapsed bridge as they cross a river to get to school, Jan. 19, at Sanghiang Tanjung village in Banten village, Indonesia. Flooding from the Ciberang River broke a pillar supporting the suspension bridge, built in 2001. Sofiah, a student crossing the bridge, says she would need to walk for an extra 30 minutes if she were to take a detour over another bridge.

Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard, second from left, is escorted to safety by body guards and police through a crowd of rowdy protesters following a Jan. 26 ceremony to mark Australia's national day in Canberra, Australia. Some 200 supporters of indigenous rights surrounded a Canberra restaurant and banged on its windows while Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott were inside officiating at an award ceremony.

A firefighter searches for survivors, Jan. 25, in a multistory building that collapsed in downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Rubble was strewn over a wide area, leaving confusion about the number of possible victims and the cause of the crumbling.

Left: An occupy protester throws glitter onto former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum as he signs autographs after speaking, Jan. 21, at a South Carolina Republican presidential primary-night rally at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. Right: One of two crowd members who hit Santorum with glitter in a second attack Jan. 23 gets dragged out of the American Legion Hall in Lady Lake, Fla.

Scuba divers of the 'Gruppo Carabinieri Subaquei' swim under the wreck of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia, Jan. 19, off the coast of the Giglio island, Italy. At least 16 people died and another 16 were missing days after the 950-foot long ship struck a rock and listed all the way over to one side on Jan. 13.

A Palestinian home construction worker screams in pain, Jan. 25, after an Israeli soldier drove a trailer hooked to a tractor over his legs near Yatta, West Bank. Israeli forces seized equipment because they said the workers were building a house in an area where Israel prevents Palestinians from building.


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Indians feed birds from a boat on the River of Yamuna as it is enveloped by winter morning fog in New Delhi, India, Jan. 20.

A skull lies in the grass near the mass graves of tens of thousands of Haiti earthquake and cholera victims. People from Port-Au-Prince and surrounding areas have divided up this public property where they eventually will build homes.

The amorphous black blob, a group of performers huddled underneath stretched black material, makes its way among Occupy Wall Street West protesters, Jan. 20, in the San Francisco financial district. Protesters rallied at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and delivered to the court a proposed 28th amendment to the Constitution to outlaw "corporate personhood."

Justin Bonderach carries his dog, Jack, in a sling when the pooch refused to walk in the rain, Jan. 23, in Los Angeles.


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