Another year has come and gone and with it hundreds of thousands of images have recorded the world's evolving history; moments in individual lives; the weather and it's affects on the planet; acts of humanity and tragedies brought by man and by nature. The following is a compilation - not meant to be comprehensive in any way - of images from the first 4 months of 2012. Parts II and III to follow this week. -- Paula Nelson ( 64 photos total)
Fireworks light up the skyline and Big Ben just after midnight, January 1, 2012 in London, England. Thousands of people lined the banks of the River Thames in central London to ring in the New Year with a spectacular fireworks display. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
- Abir Sultan
- Acapulco
- Adnan Abidi
- Afghan intelligence
- Afghanistan
- afghanistan africa
- Afghanistan's New Year's Day
- Africa
- Air Assault Brigade
- Al-Masry
- Albert Gea
- Alcoa
- Alessandro Bianchi
- Alex Wong
- Ali Ali
- America
- Ammar Awad
- An Afghan police
- Anatoly Maltxev
- Anders Behring Breivik
- Angela Corey
- Ankara
- Apache
- Asia
- Association of Housing Debtors
- Athens
- Aung San Suu Kyi
- Ayesha Ishaque
- Bali
- bank facility
- Barack Obama
- Barcelona
- Bashar al-Assad
- Beijing
- Beit Hanoun
- Benedict
- Benedict XVI
- Benoit Doppagne Yorick Jansens
- Bhoja Air
- Bnei Brak
- Bobby Yip
- Boeing 737
- Bolivia
- Bolivia's government
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Business
- Cairo
- Caribbean
- Carsten Koall
- Chantilly
- Chardon
- Chardon, Ohio
- Chernobyl
- Chile
- China
- China Daily
- Ching Ming Festival
- Chinook
- Colombia
- Congress
- Crisis
- Cuba
- Cuba
- Dallas
- Dan Kitwood
- Daniel Parmertor
- David Cameron
- David Gray
- David Mercado
- DigitalGlobe
- Dorothy Jackson
- east coast
- Egypt
- Environmental Protection Agency
- EPIPHANY
- European Union
- flash
- Florida
- food
- Francisco Guasco
- Freetown
- Fujian
- Fukushima
- Funeral services
- Gaza
- Gaza Strip
- George Zimmerman
- Getty Images
- Goran Tomasevic
- Greece
- Greek Parliament
- Guanajuato
- Guangdong
- Guangzhou
- Guerrero
- guided media
- Gulf island
- Hamas
- Harrisburg
- Havana
- Heiko Junge
- Helmand
- High School
- Homs
- Hosni Mubarak
- Huang Sufang
- Idlib
- Illinois
- India
- Indonesia
- International Monetary Fund
- International Security Academy in Israel
- Iran
- Isaac Billy
- Islamabad
- Israel
- Italian police
- Italy
- Japan
- Jawad Jalali
- Jeff J Mitchell
- Jerusalem
- Joe Raedle
- John Moore
- Joint Helicopter Force
- Kabul
- Kampala
- Karachi
- Kawhmu Township
- KCNA
- KCNA
- Kim Jong-un
- Kintamani
- Kitaizumi beach
- La Paz
- Labour Party
- Laghman
- Lagos
- Lancaster
- Let it Snow
- local airline
- London
- Lucas Papademos
- Madhya Pradesh
- Malakand
- Manama
- Manila
- Manmohan Singh
- Mario Ruiz
- Mary Osman
- Mazen Mahdi
- Mecca
- Medellin
- Medical Sciences hospital
- Medina
- Mexico
- Michelle Obama
- Milos Bicanski
- Ministry of Employment
- Mohamed Abd El Ghany
- Mohammad Saud Ishaque
- Mohammed Abu Odah
- Mohammed Salem
- Moshe Yehoshua Hager
- Moshe Yhoshua Hager
- Myanmar
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- New Year's Day
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- North Korea
- northeastern Japan
- northern Israel
- northern Japan
- Nuba Mountains
- Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre of Shivpuri
- Ohio
- oil producing nation
- Omar Sobhani
- Orthodox Catholic Church
- Oslo
- Pakistan
- Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences
- Parachute Brigade
- Paula Nelson
- Peshawar
- Philippines
- Police Academy
- Pope John Paul II
- Popocatepetl Volcano
- Puebla
- Pyongyang
- Qazi Rauf/Associsted Press
- Rahmat Gul/Associated Press
- Rajni
- Raul Castro
- Rebecca Conway
- religion science society sports technology
- religion science society sports technology
- Reuters
- river Thames
- Rome
- Romeo Ranoco
- rubber bullets
- Russia
- Samantha Cameron
- San Bartolome
- San Juan
- Sana'a
- Sanford
- Santiago
- satellite photograph
- Scotland
- Shanghai
- Shannon Stapleton
- Shenouda
- Shivpuri
- Sierra Leone
- Sierra Leone
- Sinai
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
- South Sudan
- Spain
- St. Petersburg
- Starkey Hearing Foundation
- Starnraer
- Steve McDonald
- sub-Saharan Africa
- Sudan's air force
- Sudanese air force
- Switzerland
- Syria
- Taliban
- tear gas
- tear gas cartridges
- Tel Aviv
- Texas
- The Boeing
- The Dallas Morning News
- Tianjiao Special Guard/Security Consultant Ltd.
- Tomb Sweeping Day
- Uganda
- United Kingdom
- United Nations Mission
- United States
- Uriel Sinai
- Vernal Equinox Day
- Viktor Everstov
- Virginia
- War in Afghanistan
- Washington, DC
- western Mediterranean
- western Syria
- White House
- Whitney Curtis
- Workers' Party of Korea
- World Food Programme
- Xavier Toya
- Yahya Arhab
- Yakutsk
- Yemen
- Yuriko Nakao