Year 2009 in Pictures

Prepared by Zash
foxyzash007@gmail.com
• Pakistani Imran Zargul,
71, from the tribal
region of Bajur wait to
get donated food
during a distribution at
the Jalozai refugee
camp near Peshawar,
Pakistan, Friday, Feb.
13, 2009.
• A boy suffering from malnutrition
is cradled in the arms of his
mother at a camp for Internally
Displaced People (IDP) on the
outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia
on July 11, 2009. More than
200,000 people had been
displaced in the previous two
months, while hundreds of
civilians were believed to have
been killed and wounded,
according to the UN Office of the
High Commissioner for Human
Rights. In an effort to escape the
fighting, thousands of families
relocated to refugee camps
outside the city where they faced
extremely harsh living
conditions.
• Michael Jackson's
daughter Paris (center) is
comforted by family
members at a memorial
service for the music
legend at the Staples
Center in Los Angeles on
July 7, 2009.
• Palestinian civilians and
medics run to safety during
an Israeli strike over a UN
school in Beit Lahia, northern
Gaza Strip early on January
17, 2009. A woman and a
child were killed early today
in the Israeli strike on the
UN-run school in northern
Gaza where civilians were
sheltering from the fighting,
medics and witnesses said.
• A Palestinian demonstrator uses a tennis racket to return
an empty tear gas canister at Israeli soldiers during a
protest against the controversial Israeli barrier in the West
Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah October 23, 2009.
• A leopard walks with a tranquilizer dart hanging from its neck, in the
residential area of Jyotikuchi in Guwahati, the capital city of the
northeastern state of Assam, India on March 15, 2009. Three people were
mauled by the leopard after the cat strayed into the city before it was
tranquilized by forestry department officials. The full grown male leopard
was wandering through a part of the densely populated city when curious
crowds startled the animal, a wildlife official said.
• Pakistani men pray next to a bullet-ridden vehicle parked in the
compound of radical Lal Masjid or Red mosque as the chief cleric
Maulana Abdul Aziz, not seen, talks to his supporters during Friday
prayers, in Islamabad, Pakistan, on April 17, 2009.
• Gigantic puppets The Big Giant and the Little Giantess,
part of France's Royal de Luxe street theatre company
production titled "The Berlin Reunion". The two sleep,
reunited once again, in each others' arms in front of the
Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009
• Romain Grosjean (left)
and Adam Khan (right)
test Renault F1 cars in
the desert in Dubai,
April 9, 2009. The
testing was part of the
Renault F1 Roadshow
taking place in Dubai.
• Chinese military singers take part in a chorus performance of
patriotic songs involving 10,000 participants held at a gym in
Beijing, China, Wednesday Aug. 26, 2009. More than 80 chorus
groups from various units in Beijing sang patriotic songs to
celebrate China's 60th national day.
• Smoke from the Station Fire rises over downtown Los
Angeles Monday, Aug. 31, 2009. The Station Fire (caused by
arson) lasted over a month, burning over 250 square miles,
destroying 200 structures, and cost over $100 million (USD)
and the lives of two Los Angeles County Firefighters.
• War-orphan Faustin Mugisa, 8, who has machete scars on his head and body, stands at the Kizito
orphanage in Bunia in northeastern Congo February 24, 2009. Mugisa was left for dead in a pile of
corpses when ethnic Lendu militiamen hacked to death his mother and seven siblings in 2003.
Mugisa's father discovered him alive and took him to the bush to recover, but his father was later
hacked to death by the same militia group. Ethnic violence has simmered for years in northeastern
Congo, part of broader civil and regional conflict currently uprooting hundreds of thousands of
Congolese fleeing massacres and reprisal killings by various armed groups roaming the country's vast
and lawless wilds.
• Spanish matador
Israel Lancho is
gored by a Palha's
ranch bull during a
bullfight at the San
Isidro's fair in Las
Ventas bullring in,
Madrid, on May 27,
2009. Lancho was
hospitalized with
an eight-inch
wound below his
ribcage.
• Before the Iranian election, a supporter of main challenger and
reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi forms a heart shape with
her hands to indicate her support, while wearing green ribbons - the
color of the party, amidst a festive atmosphere at an election rally
rally in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, June 9, 2009.
• An Iranian supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein
Mousavi is beaten by Basiji (volunteer paramilitary militia) and government
security members as supporters come to his aid during riots in Tehran, Iran,
Sunday, June 14, 2009. Iranian youth opposed to President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad take to the streets Sunday, setting dumpsters and tires on fire,
in a second day of clashes triggered by voter fraud claims.
• A supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir
Hossein Mousavi helps evacuate an injured Iranian riot-police
officer during riots in Tehran on June 13, 2009. Hardline
incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a crushing victory in
Iran's hotly-disputed presidential vote, according to official
results that triggered mass opposition protests.
• Supporters of former South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun
gather during a funeral ceremony in downtown Seoul on May
29, 2009. Thousands of weeping mourners packed the streets
to pay their last respects to former President Roh Moo-Hyun
amid a massive outpouring of grief and tight security.
• Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rides a horse in southern Siberia's
Tuva region August 3, 2009. Putin, a judo black belt who has flown in a
fighter aircraft and shot a Siberian tiger in the wild, plunged into the depths
of Lake Baikal aboard a mini-submersible on Saturday in a mission that
added a new dimension to his macho image.
A bushman from the Khomani San
community stands on a dry pan, in the
Southern Kalahari desert on October
15, 2009 in the Kalahari, South Africa.
One of the largest studies of African
genetics by an international team from
the University of Pennsylvania,
published in April 2009, revealed that
the San, the last indigenous people of
South Africa, are the most genetically
diverse on earth, and that the San
homeland could be the spot where
modern humanity began.
• A strange light phenomenon is sighted in the night sky above parts of
northern Norway early December 9, 2009. Russia's new submarine-based
intercontinental missile suffered the latest in a series of test failures,
newspapers reported on Thursday, as unusual lights were spotted in Norway
across the border from the launch site.
• An empty wheelchair belonging to quadriplegic Patrick
Ivison, 15, sits idle on the beach while Ivison, his mother, and
friends prepare for another surf ride at the Cardiff State
Beach in San Diego, California on October 6th, 2009.
• Barack H. Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the United
States as his wife Michelle Obama holds the Bible and their
daughters Malia Obama and Sasha Obama look on, on the West
Front of the Capitol January 20, 2009 in Washington, DC.
• The body of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran is
carried on a stretcher through a group of Sri Lankan soldiers at Nanthikadal lagoon,
near the town of Mullaittivu in northern Sri Lanka May 19, 2009. Sri Lanka's army chief
said Tamil Tiger leader Prabhakaran's body was found on Tuesday, and Sri Lankan TV
stations aired video of what appeared to be his corpse, with the top of its head blown
off.
• A Iranian riot-police officer sprays tear-gas at a supporter of
defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi
attacking him with a police stick during riots in Tehran on
June 13, 2009.
• The moon passes between the sun and the earth,
nearing a total solar eclipse, as seen in Changsha,
Hunan province, China on July 22, 2009.
• Riot police contain supporters of Mozambique's national
soccer team after their World Cup 2010 qualifying soccer
match against Kenya in Maputo, September 6, 2009.
• A man walks his dog through Observatory Hill near Sydney on September 23,
2009 as Australia's biggest city is shrouded in an eerie blanket of red dust.
Sydney's cars and buildings turned orange as strong winds blew desert dust
across the city, snarling commuter and air transport and prompting a
warning for children and the elderly to stay indoors.
• Blood and bullet holes are seen on a car door
after an unidentified man was murdered in
Tijuana, northern Mexico, Wednesday, Aug. 19,
2009.
• An explosion is seen as missiles fired from an
Israeli aircraft fall towards a target in the northern
Gaza Strip, as seen from the Israeli side of the
border, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2009.
• Military and forensic experts inspect the body of a man who was killed
outside a nightclub in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on August 31,
2009. A man was handcuffed to a fence and shot several times by drug
hitmen outside a nightclub, according to local media. The assailants also left
a warning message, known as "narco mensaje", at the site of the shooting.
• Sixteen-month-old Aubrey Melton reaches for her father SSG Josh
Melton as she views his remains with her mother Larissa before his
funeral service June 27, 2009 in Germantown, Illinois. SSG Melton,
who was serving in Afghanistan with the Illinois National Guard, was
killed in Kandahar during an IED attack June 19.
• Surfer Masabumi Kanazawa (C) of Waikiki
washes his surfboard during the last sunset of
2009 on New Year's Eve on Waikiki Beach in
Honolulu, Hawaii, December 31, 2009.
• last sunset. Good Bye 2009