2013 Year in Pictures: Part II

December 19, 2013

Documenting the power of humans and nature resulted in images that depict great achievements and horrible destruction. Here is a selection of images from May - August 2013 from around the world (and here's Jan.-April and Sept.-Dec.). --Leanne Burden Seidel (32 photos total)

Rescuers pull out a female survivor, Reshma, alive on the 17th day after the Rana Plaza building collapsed, in Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh, May 10. (EPA)

2

A view of the activity of volcano Tungurahua, seen from the village of Cotalo, Ecuador, May 8. (Jose Jacome/EPA)#

3

A man falls from a high floor of a burning building in central Lahore, May 9. Fire erupted on the seventh floor of the LDA plaza in Lahore and quickly spread to higher floors leaving many people trapped inside the building. At least three people fell from the high floors trying to avoid the fire that engulfed the building. (Damir Sagolj/Reuters)#

4

LaTisha Garcia carries her 8-year-old daughter, Jazmin Rodriguez, near Plaza Towers Elementary School after a massive tornado carved its way through Moore, Okla., May 20. leaving little of the school and neighborhood. (Sue Ogrock/Associated Press)#

5

M23 rebel recruits stand at attention during a training session at the Rumangabo military camp in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo May 16. (James Akena/Reuters)#

6

Rescue workers break away bits of a pipe to remove a newborn baby boy stuck inside a sewage pipe in the city of Jinhua, in the eastern province of Zhejiang. The newborn baby boy was rescued in a Chinese apartment building after being flushed down a toilet, state media said, provoking online outrage on May 28. (AFPTV/AFP/Getty Images)#

7

Vincent Autin (R) and Bruno Boileau kiss on a balcony in front of the crowd after their marriage, France's first official gay marriage, in the city hall in Montpellier on May 29. France is the 14th country to legalize same-sex marriage, an issue that has also divided opinion in many other nations. (Gerard Julien/AFP/Getty Images)#

8

Men play soccer between the shadows of buildings on Boa Viagem Beach in Recife, Brazil, June 14. (Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)#

9

Lightning strikes the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) on June 12, in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)#

10

A submerged statue of the Hindu Lord Shiva stands amid the floodwaters of the Ganges river at Rishikesh in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand June 17. Early monsoon rains have swollen the Ganges, India's longest river, swept away houses, killed at least 60 people and left tens of thousands stranded. (Reuters)#

11

A protestor is hit by water sprayed from a water cannon during clashes in Taksim Square, Istanbul, Turkey, June 11. (Kerum Okten/EPA)#

12

A supermoon rises next to the ancient Greek temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, some 65 kilometers south of Athens, on June 23. (Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images)#

13

Egyptians wave national flags as fireworks light the sky over Tahrir Square, where hundreds thousands opponents of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi celebrate in Cairo, Egypt, July 3. Egyptian military announced it was ousting Morsi, who was Egypt's first freely elected leader but drew ire with his Islamist leanings. The military says it has replaced him with the chief justice of the Supreme constitutional Court, called for early presidential election and suspended the Islamist-backed constitution. (Amr Nabil/Associated Press)#

14

An excavator is used to move villagers away from a flooded area during heavy rainfall in Yingxiu, Wenchuan county, Sichuan province, July 10. More than 300 hundred people were evacuated in Yingxiu after roads connecting the township to the outside world were cut off by floods and landslides. (Reuters)#

15

Trayvon Martin supporters rally in Times Square while blocking traffic after marching from a rally for Martin in Union Square in Manhattan on July 14 in New York City. George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges in the shooting death of Martin July 13 and many protesters questioned the verdict. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)#

16

A nun reacts as the tide comes in fast on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 27. Pope Francis was to preside over an evening vigil service on Copacabana beach that was expected to draw more than 1 million young people. (Victor R. Caivano/Associated Press)#

17

Russia's team competes at the synchro free combination preliminary round as part of 15th FINA World Championships at Palau Sant Jordi pavilion in Barcelona, Spain, July 21. (Alberto Estevez/EPA)#

18

A Filipino resident tries to salvage his belongings from a burning building as a fire engulfs a shanty town in Makati's financial district, Philippines, July 11. (Francis R. Malasig/EPA) #

19

Andy Murray of Britain holds the winner's trophy up to spectators after defeating Novak Djokovic of Serbia in their men's singles final tennis match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, in London July 7. (Stefan Wermuth/Reuters) #

20

Tourists and inhabitants find shelter in the sea as a wildfire approaches the village of Megalo Livadi in Serifos island at the Aegean sea, Greece, July 27. Major wildfires raged at the island of Rhodes and Crete as the one in Serifos was brought under control on early July 28. (Chloe Kritharas/EPA)#

21

Water is seen on part of the glacial ice sheet that covers about 80 percent of the country is seen on July 17 on the Glacial Ice Sheet, Greenland. As the sea levels around the globe rise, researchers affilitated with the National Science Foundation and other organizations are studying the phenomena of the melting glaciers and its long-term ramifications. The warmer temperatures that have had an effect on the glaciers in Greenland also have altered the ways in which the local populace farm, fish, hunt and even travel across land. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)#

22

Pakistani student Malala Yousafzai is greeted by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon (2nd L), Vuk Jeremic (R), President of the UN General Assembly, and Gordon Brown (L, back to camera), United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education July 12, at UN headquarters in New York during the UN Youth Assembly. Yousafzai became a public figure when she was shot by the Taliban while travelling to school last year in Pakistan -- targeted because of her committed campaigning for the right of all girls to an education. The UN has declared July 12 "Malala Day", which is also Yousafzai's birthday, and will host the UN Youth Assembly. (Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images)#

23

A runner gets gored by a bull on Estafeta Street during the sixth running of the bulls at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona July 12. The runner, a 31-year-old man from Castellon, Spain, identified by local media as Diego Miralles, was gored three times. (Susana Vera/Reuters)#

24

An injured man sits next to the body of a victim covered with a blanket following a train accident near the city of Santiago de Compostela. A train hurtled off the tracks on July 24 in northwest Spain killing at least 78 passengers and injuring more than 140, the country's deadliest rail disaster in more than 40 years. (Xoan A. Soler/AFP/Getty Images)#

25

A woman carrying her baby and wrapped with a shawl walks through a sandstorm in Timbuktu July 29. (Joe Penney/Reuters)#

26

Song Xuxia, 19, receives treatment at a hospital after a 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit Minxian county, Dingxi, Gansu province, July 23. The death toll from two earthquakes in China's western Gansu province has climbed to 95, with more than 1000 people injured, after around 51,800 buildings collapsed and tens of thousands more were badly damaged. Song's leg, waist and face were injured during the earthquake when she was stuck in a collapsed house. Fortunately the villagers heard her cry and managed to pull her out from the debris in time. (Reuters)#

27

Fire-fighters spray water near a burning house in the Twin Pines Road area where the Silver Fire is raging, near Banning, California August 7. The fire broke out near a back-country road south of Banning, about 90 miles (145 km) outside Los Angeles in Riverside County, and within hours had blackened more than 5,000 acres. (David McNew /Reuters)#

28

Urs Huber from Switzerland falls to the ground celebrating his victory after the Swiss Mountain Bike Marathon 'Grand Raid' from Verbier to Grimentz, Southwestern Switzerland, August 24. (Valentin Flauraud/EPA)#

29

A man holds the body of a dead child among bodies of people activists say were killed by nerve gas in the Ghouta region, in the Duma neighbourhood of Damascus August 21. Syrian activists said at least 213 people, including women and children, were killed in a nerve gas attack by President Bashar al-Assad's forces on rebel-held districts of the Ghouta region east of Damascus. (Bassam Khabieh/Reuters)#

30

Locals combat a forest fire at Satao, near Viseu, Portugal, August 11. About 200 firemen were dispatched to tackle the blaze. (Nuno Andre Ferreira/EPA)#

31

Students with the Dupont Park Adventist School take part in a march 'For Jobs and Justice' on Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, USA, August 28. The march and ceremony commemorated the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington led by the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., where he famously gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA)#

32

A protester comforts a wounded colleague after Egyptian security forces began to clear a sit-in by supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in the eastern Nasr City district of Cairo, Egypt, Aug. 14. (Ahmed Gomaa/Associated Press)#