Sumayya

WARNING: SOME IMAGES CONTAIN GRAPHIC CONTENT OR NUDITY
From the uprisings across the Arab world to the devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, there was no lack of news in 2011. Reuters photographers covered the breaking news events as well as captured more intimate, personal stories. In this showcase, the photographers offer a behind the scenes account of the images that helped define the year.

August was dominated by news of the fall of Tripoli, rioting in Britain, the aftermath of Hurricane Irene and the famine in the Horn of Africa. This selection of our top photos of the month includes these news stories alongside the IAAF championships in Daegu, Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s release and Thailand’s election of their first female prime minister. Warning: Graphic content

WIDE-EYED: Sumayya, 8, whose uncle, Imran Ali, was injured by gunmen, looked at him in a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a political party, called a strike to protest the deaths of at least 96 people killed in the city in the past week. (Athar Hussain/Reuters)

PINNED DOWN: Police officers arrested a protester on Market Street in San Francisco Monday. Dozens of people protested against the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency’s decision to shut down wireless service in its stations on Aug. 11 to quell a brewing protest that day. (Jeff Chiu/Associated Press)

SANDSTORM: Soldiers shielded themselves from sand as a helicopter transported their wounded comrades to a hospital in Kandahar, Afghanisan, Tuesday. At least three soldiers were wounded by an improvised explosive devise. (Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

STATION STRESS: A mother held her daughter as people scrambled into the Pasar Senen train station Tuesday in Jakarta, Indonesia, to begin their journey back to their hometowns for the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday. (Beawiharta/Reuters)

FLOATING ALONG: Rattanaporn,13, floated on a street near her home Tuesday in Phinchit, Thailand, after the Yom River overflowed. Dozens of people have died in flooding. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)

LOTUS SHADE: Girls rode their bicycles with lotus leaves keeping their heads cool in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China, Monday. (ChinaFotoPress/Zuma Press)

Athar Hussain / Reuters

Eight-year-old Sumayya, whose uncle, Imran Ali, was injured in a shootout by unidentified gunmen, looks at him as he is brought to a hospital for treatment in Karachi, Pakistan, on August 23.

Athar Hussain / Reuters

A man rides a donkey-cart on the deserted streets during a strike in Karachi on August 23. Karachi faced a complete shutdown on Tuesday after the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) announced that a day of mourning would be observed against the ongoing wave of violence that has claimed nearly 100 lives in less than a week, local media reported.

David R Arnott writes

Karachi, a city of 18 million people, ground to a halt Tuesday, with most residents staying off the streets after a political party called a strike to protest the deaths of at least 96 people killed in the past week, the AP reported.

Yet the violence shows few signs of abating. Police chief Saud Mirza told the AP that the bodies of 10 more people were found overnight, some of them stuffed in bloody sacks. Read the full story.

Also on PhotoBlog: August 18 - Wave of violence in Karachi kills 39 in two days.