GlobalPost
Mining of minerals essential to mobile phones and laptop computers is blamed for fueling continuing violence in eastern Congo. Here a man working in a gold mine is pictured on Feb. 23, 2009 in Chudja, near Bunia, northeastern Congo.
Greenpeace activists perform their symbolic "Sinking Icons" activity, by submerging icons of famous buildings, in Cancun, Mexico, on December 8.
A group of Afghans outside a market in Bamiyan province, Afghanistan, on June 8, 2008. Public opinion polls show that support for the U.S. military is only slightly higher than support for Osama bin Laden.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during a press conference at the Geneva Press Club on November 4 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Pakistani paramilitary soldiers stand guard on a street in Karachi on October 19.
U.S. President Barack Obama addresses troops at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan on Friday, December 3 during a surprise visit for the holidays.
Greenpeace's "tunamobile" is parked on November 19 in front of the Palais des Congres in Paris, France, where the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas is holding a 10-day meeting.
Indonesian police in Denpasar, on the resort island of Bali, on March 19, 2010.
The NATO summit in Lisbon agreed that their Afghanistan mission should end in 2014. Here a U.S. soldier from 2nd Platoon Chaos Company climbs down a wall during a patrol in Didar village in Zari district of Kandahar province, south of Afghanistan.
A man smokes a cigarette next to a government sign that bans smoking in Jakarta, Indonesia.
U.S. President Barack Obama sets his ear phone during a news conference on June 5, 2009
Brazilians cross the muddy bottom of the Rio Negro, a major tributary to the Amazon River, in the city of Manaus, October 26, 2010.
A woman joins in the singing of the national anthem at the Tea Party Election Day party at the Hyatt Regency Washington, November 2.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (right) is greeted by South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak as she arrives the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders gala dinner in Hanoi on October 29, 2010.
Residents of a camp for displaced Haitians fill jugs with clean water, October 26. An outbreak of cholera has killed nearly 300 people.
A police dog exits Emirates flight 201 sitting on the tarmac after being escorted in by fighter jets because of cargo from Yemen in its hold at JFK Airport in New York October 29, 2010.
Gangsters involved in the drug trade also traffic young women throughout China.
Afghan soldiers fresh from basic training stand in formation at Camp Hero on July 25, 2010.
In last weeks arms deal, one of the biggest single U.S. arms deals ever, Saudi Arabia will acquire 84 F-15 fighter jets like the one pictured above.
Above: Children await treatment in St. Marc, northern Haiti, amid a cholera outbreak, October 21. Below: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon delivers a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, October 19.
The Yawanawa are an indigenous people who live in Acre (Brazil), Madre de Dios (Peru), and Bolivia.
Rare earths, used in everything from iPhones to guided missiles, are controlled primarily by China, alarming the United States and other western countries. Here, protesters in China burn an iPhone on May 25, 2010.
A U.S. soldier with the 101st Airborne Division Alpha Battery 1-320th battles Taliban from the rooftop of Lugo patrol base in Chahar Qolbah on the outskirts of the village of Jellawar in the Arghandab Valley on September 10.
U.S. soldiers walk across a mountain pass in Mizan, Afghanistan.
Catholic priest with a baby girl in Havana.
Tankers carrying NATO supplies burn following an attack by gunmen in Pakistan on October 1, 2010. Gunmen torched more than two dozen trucks and tankers, police said.
An aerial image of Kandahar province, Afghanistan.
U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks at a rally for Gov. Martin O'Malley in Bowie, Maryland on October 7.
A Thai transsexual listens to speeches as thousands of Red Shirt supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra take over the streets of Bangkok's main shopping district on April 4, 2010.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai talks during the first Afghan Women's Council gathering in Kabul in 2008.
The Ariang mass gymnastics team, featuring 100,000 performers, wave North Korean and Chinese flags at May Day Stadium in Pyongyang to mark the 65th anniversary of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea on September 24, 2010.
U.S. servicemen sit inside a C-17 Globemaster waiting to take off for Afghanistan at Manas Air Base near Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek, February 13, 2009.
Using a technique called drive fishing, hunters in a line of motorized boats create a “wall of sound” between the dolphins and the open ocean by banging on metal poles lowered into the water; the poles have bell-shaped devices at one end to amplify the sound. The dolphins, who rely on sonar to navigate, are immediately disoriented and terrified and swim frantically to shore to escape the noise. There they are coralled into a small cove and trapped overnight by nets; at sunrise the next morning they are herded into an adjacent “killing cove,” where they are stabbed to death by hunters using harpoons, fish hooks, and knives.
A U.S. 4th Infantry Division, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Alpha Company soldier walks with Afghan soldiers as they patrol in Gandamak village in the province of Nangarhar in eastern Afghanistan.
An Afghan boy stands by the petrol pump of an abandoned gas station, in Marjah, southern Afghanistan, on April 12, 2010.
A couple admires Mexico flags used through its history at the Obispado lookout in Monterrey, September 14, 2010.
Dancers present Bavarian Lederhosen with golden applications during the Angermaier fashion show in Munich, Germany.
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao takes part in a morning practice with a college baseball team at Sophia University in Tokyo on May 31, 2010.
U.S. Marines take a position during a joint landing exercise between the U.S. and South Korea in the southeastern port city of Pohang on November 4, 2009.
Brazil is one of the world's fastest-growing major economies and an emerging player on the international stage. But a glaring weakness remains: its unequal education system.
Chinese paramilitary policemen keep watch outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing on September 20, 2010.
Students from Bangkok's Chao Phraya Technical School hang out and munch fish cakes after the day's final classes. A rash of beatings and gunfights between Bangkok's feuding school students has authorities struggling to reign in the violence. Most attacks break out when students spot other teenagers wearing a rival school's insignia.
An elderly Afghan man shows his inked finger at a polling station in Kabul on Sept. 18, 2010. Afghanistan was voting for a new parliament against a backdrop of rebel attacks and a full security alert following Taliban threats to derail the high-stakes election.
Sabrina Saqeb, pictured December 15, 2005, at age 25, was the youngest lawmaker to be elected to the 249-seat House of Representatives, the Wolesi Jirga, that year.
Sergio Enrique Villarreal of the Beltran Leyva drug cartelis is presented to the press at the Mexican Navy headquarters in Mexico City, on September 13.
Courtroom No. 1, which sits on McCalla Hill near Camp Justice in Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba, was the site of the trial of Omar Khadr. McCalla Hill is where U.S. Marines lfirst landed in Cuba during the Spanish-American War in 1898.
Demonstrators arrive on motorcycles to attend a rally with the Coalition to Honor Ground Zero, August 22 in New York. The rally was held to oppose the construction of an Islamic Center and mosque near Ground Zero.
Chinese fishing boats are berthed along the coast in Jinjiang, in southeast China's Fujian province on September 9, where Zhan Qixiong the 41-year-old Chinese captain and his crew set sail before being arrested by Japanese authorities.
Muslim women pray outside Mecca's Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia.
Afghan Muslim boys read the Quran at a mosque in Kabul, September 22, 2008, during the holy month of Ramadan.
A relative reacts after arriving at a crime scene where 17 patients were killed at a rehabilitation center in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, September 2, 2009. Journalist murders in Mexico have hit a new record. Censorship increases as killings become routine.
Roma eat in front of a tent in a new camp on August 27 after being resettled a day after their deportation from another camp in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, northern France. The U.N. anti-racism committee has urged France to avoid the collective deportations of Roma.
Striking members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) chant slogans under heavy police presence during a march in Durban on September 03.
An Iraqi army helicopter patrols the skies above Baghdad's Green Zone on Sept. 1, 2010 as top U.S. and Iraqi officials prepare for official ceremonies to delcare an end to U.S. combat missions in Iraq after seven years of war.
Orpha Dessources is a reporter and anchor for Cite Soleil's community radio station, Radio Boukman.
In Japan, recycling is a $360 billion dollar industry.
An elderly Pakistani woman eats food at a makeshift camp in Mehmood Kot in Punjab province on August 26.
South Korean students wearing traditional costume wave national flags during the 65th Independence Day ceremony on Aug. 15, 2010 in Seoul. Korea was liberated from Japan's 35-year colonial rule in 1945.
Heavy-duty machinery waits at Kandahar Airfield to be shipped all over Afghanistan to help in the war effort.
An Afghan man watches over caged fighting partridges as he waits for an early morning match at the Central Park in Kabul on Aug. 27, 2010. Election fever has taken over the capital, with fears of violence ahead of the September 18 parliamentary poll.
Models dressed as bandaged nurses take part in a film promotional event on June 22, 2006 in Tokyo.
Philippine policemen move to take control of a bus full of Hong Kong tourists hijacked by an ex-policeman on August 23 in Manila.
U.S. Navy sailors walk past the USS Iwo Jima, docked on the Hudson River during on May 22, 2009 in New York City.
Pakistani flood-affected families travel through water as they return home to Bassera village in Punjab province on August 20.
Above: Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, along with Senator Donna Mercado Kim, Speaker of the House Calvin Say, and Mike McCartney, participating in the official ribbon cutting ceremony to kick off Hawaii Day at the Shanghai Expo. Below: A Chinese worker makes his way along a construction site in Suining, in southwest China's Sichuan province. China overtook world number two economy Japan in the second quarter but said it still had tens of millions of people living in poverty.
An Afghan youth flies a kite on the remains of a building during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on August 16 in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow speaks at a news conference to show support for a proposed mosque at 45 Park Place in New York City on Aug. 5, 2010. The controversial Cordoba Initiative Mosque and Cultural Center, if built, would be only blocks from Ground Zero.
A U.S. soldier walks past Iraqi military police vehicles lined up at a U.S. army base west of Baghdad on July 29, 2010.
U.S. Basketball team members Michael Jordan (middle), Scottie Pippen (left) and Clide Drexler (right) acknowledge the crowd after receiving their gold medals as members of "The Dream Team" the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Canadian defendant Omar Khadr sits with his defense team as FBI Special Agent Robert Fuller testifies during a pre-trial hearing at the Camp Justice compound on Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, April 29, 2010.
Two Afghans on a motorbike pass by British Army soldiers in Sangin Valley, Helmand province, Afghanistan.
A repossessed sculpture sits in a warehouse.
Fans blow horns and wave American flags during the U.S. national soccer team's open training session at Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria on June 6, 2010.
A Guantanamo detainee runs inside an exercise area at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on April 27, 2009.
Members of Christian groups campaigning against homosexuality in Kampala. Ugandan gays are petitioning the government to scrap the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which calls for the death penalty for some gay acts.
A Japanese 20-year-old woman enjoys a cigarette at Toshimaen Amusement Park on Jan. 11, 2010 in Tokyo.
Laura Fattal, Cindy Hickey and Nora Shourd, the mothers of Josh Fattal, Shane Bauer, and Sarah Shourd respectively, hold pictures of their children while protesting for their release outside the Iran Mission in New York on July 30, 2010.
A group of illegal immigrants deported from the United States, eat in a shelter near the Mexico-U.S. border, in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, on July 28, 2010. A U.S. federal judge blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona's new immigration law, barring police from checking the immigrant status of suspected criminals.
Julian Assange of the WikiLeaks website holds up a copy of The Guardian newspaper as he speaks to reporters in front of a Don McCullin Vietnam war photograph on July 26, 2010 in London, England. The WikiLeaks website has published 90,000 secret U.S. Military records. The Guardian, The New York Times newspapers and the German Magazine Der Spiegel have also published details.
In this handout from the U.S. Navy, the aircraft carrier USS George Washington arrives July 21, 2010 in Busan, Republic of Korea, the first port visit for the vessel during its 2010 summer patrol in the western Pacific Ocean. The Republic of Korea and the United States are holding joint military exercises in the seas east of the Korean peninsula from July 25 to 28, 2010.
A worker pumps concrete into the foundations for a new house on Sept. 7, 2009 in the Israeli settlement of Tekoa in the West Bank.
British Prime Minister David Cameron (fourth from the left) goes for an early morning run with British soldiers at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, on June 11, 2010.
Niquitao is situated in the foothills of the Andes.
Photos from top to bottom: Workers watch oil being sucked out of a pond near Salt Lake City, Utah; The fishing industry is crucial to the Timor Sea area; Egyptian workers clean up the Red Sea; Montreal is a hub for traffic headed up the St. Lawrence River; The Petron refinery in the Philippines.
Approval ratings for Naoto Kan, Japan's new prime minister, fell sharply after he revealed plans for sweeping economic reforms.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni gestures toward Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei during peace talks in 2008.
Police arrest a protester at a rally outside the temporary G20 police detention center in Toronto, June 27, 2010.
A Ugandan man injured in a terrorist explosion is carried into Mulago Hospital in Kampala July 12, 2010. Two separate explosions killed 64 people in the Ugandan capital Kampala to watch the World Cup final on Sunday night, police said.
Sumo wrestlers line up during a ritual ceremony at the start of an annual tournament.
South Africans protest against the xenophobic attacks that killed 13 people in 2008. There are fears that after the World Cup, there will be another wave of the violence against foreigners.
An Indonesian policeman stands guard in front of Indonesian militant Abdulah Sunata. Police arrested Sunata June 23, 2010 for plotting bomb attacks. He had previously been released early from prison for good behavior.
An Afghan National Army soldier keeps watch as people wait to receive food aid in Kabul, May 5, 2010.
A Ghana soccer fan celebrates after the team's victory over the United States in the 2010 World Cup second round match at Royal Bafokeng stadium in Rustenburg, June 26, 2010.
Russian fighter jets fly in formation over Red Square and the Kremlin during a military parade dress rehearsal in Moscow May 6, 2010.
Swans swim in Moscow's zoo. Nassim Nicholas Taleb named his book on financial risk "The Black Swan" based on his theory on the role of high-impact, hard-to-predict events -- like the discovery that not all swans are white.
Ghana's Asamoah Gyan celebrates after scoring against the United States in extra time during a 2010 World Cup second round match at Royal Bafokeng stadium in Rustenburg June 26, 2010.