Best pictures of the year

Bjorn, aged 5, smiles as he poses with a Owl butterfly during an event to launch the Sensational Butterflies exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London, Britain. (Reuters)

Waves crash over the sea wall at Porthcawl in Wales, Monday Feb. 8, 2016, as winds of nearly 100mph battered Britain after Storm Imogen slammed into the south coast bringing fierce gusts and torrential downpours. (AP)

General view shows a partially collapsed overpass in Kolkata, India, Friday, April 1, 2016. The overpass spanned nearly the width of the street and was designed to ease traffic through the densely crowded Bara Bazaar neighborhood in the capital of the east Indian state of West Bengal. About 100 meters (300 feet) of the overpass fell, while other sections remained standing. (AP)

A full moon rises over the Statue of Liberty seen from the Port Liberte neighborhood of Jersey City, N.J. (AP)

A man rides a horse through a bonfire as part of a ritual in honor of Saint Anthony the Abbot, the patron saint of domestic animals, in San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain. On the eve of Saint Anthony's Day, dozens ride their horses through the narrow cobblestone streets of the small village of San Bartolome during the "Luminarias," a tradition that dates back 500 years and is meant to purify the animals with the smoke of the bonfires and protect them for the year to come. (AP)

In this photo taken with a slow shutter speed, autumn's colors peak on hardwood trees in a cemetery near the Congregational Church in Cumberland, Maine. (AP)

Caim, better known as El Diablo, strikes a pose at the "Mitad del Mundo" tattoo convention in Quito, Ecuador. With 70 percent of his body modified with tattoos, piercings and implants, Caim calls himself a hybrid of "half animal, and half human." (AP)

Smoke bombs explode near a South Korean army K-2 tank during a live firing drill at a fire training field in Yangpyeong, South Korea. (AP)

Air Force One carrying U.S. President Barack Obama and his family flies over a neighborhood of Havana as it approaches the runway to land at Havana's international airport. (Reuters)

People watch as fireworks explode over Copacabana beach during New Year celebrations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Reuters)

Jackeline, 26, holds her son who is 4-months old and born with microcephaly, in front of their house in Olinda, near Recife, Brazil. Recent laboratory analyses identified Zika virus infections in three people who died in Brazil last year, the health ministry said on Thursday, although authorities could not confirm that Zika alone was responsible for their deaths. (Reuters)

A masked reveller hangs from an inflatable balloon during the first day of the carnival in Venice, Italy. (Reuters)

Audience member Robin Roy (C) reacts as U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets her at a campaign rally in Lowell, Massachusetts (Reuters)

An Indian Muslim devotee on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti for the festival of Urs, performs a stunt during a procession at Ajmer in the desert Indian state of Rajasthan The annual festival of Urs is held for over six days at Ajmer to commemorate the death anniversary of Sufi saint Chishti. (Reuters)

Tourists take pictures at Mai Khao Beach, as a plane approaches the Phuket International Airport in Phuket.   (Reuters)

A Guardsman faints at Horseguards Parade for the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony in central London, Britain.  Trooping the Colour is a ceremony to honour Queen Elizabeth's official birthday. The Queen celebrates her 90th birthday this year.    (Reuters)

A winter swimmer swims after breaking the ice on a frozen lake at a park in Shenyang, China. (Reuters)

Male chimpanzee Chacha screams after escaping from nearby Yagiyama Zoological Park as a man tries to capture him on the power lines at a residential area in Sendai, northern Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo.  The chimp was eventually caught after being shot with a tranquilizer gun and falling from the power lines, Kyodo news reported. (REUTERS/Kyodo )

A student of the General Yermolov Cadet School is pictured after jumping with parachute from an airplane, as the moon is seen in the sky, in the village of Novomaryevskaya outside the southern city of Stavropol, Russia. (Reuters)

LED lights attached to pigeons leave light trails in the sky while they fly as part of the "Fly By Night" art installation by Duke Riley above the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S. (Reuters)

Dawn breaks behind the Houses of Parliament and the statue of Winston Churchill in Westminster, London, Britain. (Reuters)

A statue on the roof of Notre-Dame cathedral is silhouetted in front of a supermoon in Paris, France. (Reuters)

Wild bluebells, which bloom around mid-April, turning the forest completely blue, form a carpet in the Hallerbos, also known as the "Blue Forest", near the Belgian city of Halle, Belgium. (Reuters)

An emu runs to escape an approaching wildfire as it burns near Potrero, California. (Reuters)

Model feebee poses as part of art installation "Narcissism: Dazzle room" made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo. Matsuyama’s installation features a strong contrast of black and white, which he learned from dazzle camouflage used mainly in World War I. (AP)

2016 Rio Olympics - Diving - Men's 10m Platform Final - Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 20/08/2016.     Qiu Bo (CHN) of China competes.   (Reuters)

An Indian boy looks for recyclable materials near resting greater adjutant storks at a dumping site on the outskirts of in Gauhati, India. Countries around the world annually recognize April 22 as Earth Day with hopes in urging local action and increasing awareness about the state of the world's environment. (AP)

A Chelsea Pensioner poses as he views displays through a floral design of Britain's Queen Elizabeth at the Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain. (Reuters)

A pilot looks up from a U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter as it prepares to refuel in mid-air with a KC-135 refuelling plane over European airspace during a flight to Britain from Mihail Kogalniceanu air base in Romania. (Reuters)

A monkey catches knives as it balances on a board during a daily training session at a monkey farm in Baowan village, Xinye county of China’s central Henan province, February 2, 2016. Baowan village of China’s central Henan province appears to be your average farming community from the surface, but at a closer look, one can hear monkey hoots from every direction. Although no official number exists, villagers say that they have been a breeding ground for both monkeys and monkey trainers for centuries. (Reuters)

France's Gael Monfils dives for a shot during his fourth round match against Russia's Andrey Kuznetsov at the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park, Australia. (Reuters)

South Korean (blue headbands) and U.S. Marines take positions as amphibious assault vehicles of the South Korean Marine Corps fire smoke bombs during a U.S.-South Korea joint landing operation drill in Pohang, South Korea. (Reuters)

A worker applies images of swimmers on a glass building overlooking Copacabana beach ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (AP)

A jet airliner leaves a vapor trail as the planet Mercury is seen, lower left quadrant, transiting across the face of the sun in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Mercury passes between Earth and the sun only about 13 times a century, with the previous transit taking place in 2006. (Reuters)

A streak of lightning is seen above the skyline of Shanghai, China, August 19, 2016. Picture taken through a glass window. (Reuters)

Floral Spinner is washed down after a Handicap Hurdle horse race during Classic Chase Day at Warwick Racecourse, Warwick, central England. (AP)

A rat's head rests as it is constricted in an opening in the bottom of a garbage can in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S. (Reuters)

The supermoon rises behind the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft, ahead of its upcoming launch to the International Space Station (ISS), at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (Reuters)

A man walks through a garden on an autumn day in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir, (Reuters)

A car covered with ice remains stranded on the waterfront in Hamburg, New York January 12, 2016. The owner left his Mitsubushi Lancer parked overnight outside a restaurant on Sunday and by the next day, spray from Lake Erie had encased it in ice. (Reuters)

Attendees listen to U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speak at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa.<br> (Reuters)

Debris and mud are strewn around Clendenin, W.Va., Saturday, June 25, 2015, after flood waters from the massive storm that hit the area on Thursday evening receded.   (AP)

People visit the artwork titled Seven Magic Mountains by artist Ugo Rondinone, Wednesday, May 11, 2016, near Jean, Nev. The artwork was recently completed in the desert south of Las Vegas. (AP)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel looks at a combat diver during her visit to Naval Base Command in Kiel, Germany. (Reuters)

A man looks into a sinkhole which appeared in his fish pond in Guiping, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Reuters)

Aerobatic pilot Sean D. Tucker, top, flies inverted in his Team Oracle Challenger III biplane while in formation with U.S. Navy Lt. Ryan Chamberlain, the lead solo pilot for the Blue Angels, in a Boeing F/A-18 Hornet, near Seattle. (AP)

Sails of some of the yachts poke above the swell during the start of the Sydney Hobart yacht race in Sydney, Australia, Monday, Dec. 26, 2016. The 88 yachts started in the annual 628-nautical mile race to Australia's island state of Tasmania.   (AP)