《TIME》：Pictures of the Week: December 28, 2012 – January 4, 2013

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From the Sandy Hook Elementary students’ return to school and the death of a gang-rape victim in India to New Year’s celebrations and a giant rubber duck in Darling Harbor, Australia, TIME presents the best images of the week.



Musadeq Sadeq—AP
Dec. 30, 2012. Afghan women wait to receive winter relief assistance donated by the United Nation's refugee agency (UNHCR) outside a refugee camp in Kabul, Afghanistan.






Felipe Dana—AP
Jan 1, 2013. Young residents watch fireworks exploding over Copacabana beach during new year celebrations at the Pavao Pavaozinho slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.






Ahmed Jadallah—Reuters
Dec. 30, 2012. A boy watches men dig graves for future casualties of Syria's civil conflict at Sheikh Saeed cemetery in Azaz city, north of Aleppo, Syria.






Majdi Mohammed—AP
Jan 2, 2013. Surrounded by Israeli border police, Jewish settlers from the Esh Kodesh settlement outpost sit in a field to try to prevent Palestinians from farming land in the northern West Bank.






Tony Gentile—Reuters
Dec. 29, 2012. Pope Benedict XVI waves as he arrives to attend a meeting with members of the Taize Community in St Peter's Square at the Vatican.






Carlo Allegri—Reuters
Dec. 30, 2012. Members of the West Webster fire department load the casket of slain firefighter Michael Chiapperini onto a fire truck following his funeral service in West Webster, New York.






NASA/ESA/Hubble/Reuters
Dec. 31, 2012. A photograph, taken by NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the bright star-forming ring that surrounds the heart of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097.






Danish Ismail—Reuters
Dec. 28, 2012. A boy looks through the damaged wall of a residential house after a gun battle in Chinigam, 28 miles south of Srinagar, India.






Alberto Saiz—AP
Dec. 28, 2012. Revelers take part in festival of Els Enfarinats, in the town of Ibi near Alicante, Spain.






Christopher Furlong—Getty Images
Dec. 28, 2012. A general view of derelict holiday chalets as they await demolition at Pontins Holiday Camp on in Blackpool, England.

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Abbas Moman—AFP/Getty Images
Dec. 28, 2012. A Palestinian protester waits to throw stones towards Israeli security forces during clashes in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh.






Dibyangshu Sarkar—AFP
Dec. 30, 2012. Indian activists take part in a candlelight vigil in Kolkata, India, after the cremation ceremony for a gang rape victim, whose attack triggered an outpouring of grief and anger across the country.






Adnan Abidi—Reuters
Dec. 30, 2012. Police stand guard outside the Singapore residence of the rape victim, whose attack in India provoked protests and rare national debate about violence against women in the country.






Musadeq Sadeq—AP
Dec. 30, 2012. Internally displaced Afghan children from Helmand province, wait for winter relief assistance from the United Nation's refugee agency (UNHCR) at a refugee camp in Kabul, Afghanistan.






Filip Singer—EPA
Dec. 30, 2012. The foot of an eight-day-old gorilla baby at the Prague Zoo, Czech Republic.






Oswaldo Rivas—Reuters
Dec, 31, 2013. A worker carries sugarcane during harvest time at the Montelimar sugar mill on the outskirts of Managua, Nicaragua.






Pilar Olivares—Reuters
Dec. 31, 2012. A flower thrown into the sea as an offering by followers of the Afro-Brazilian religion Umbanda is seen on the shore of Praia Vermelha (Red Beach) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.






Kai Pfaffenbach—Reuters
Dec. 31, 2012. Switzerland's Simon Ammann pushes himself from the starting bar during the first practice session for the second jumping of the 61st four-hills ski jumping tournament in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany.






AFP/Getty Images
Dec. 31, 2012. Syrians wait for bread at a bakery in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria.






Ahmed Jadallah—Reuters
Dec. 31, 2013. A Free Syrian Army fighter pulls a boy off the street to escape sniper fire during fighting with forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar el-Assad in Aleppo, Syria.

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Alex Brandon—AP
Dec. 31, 2012. Vice President Joe Biden gives two thumbs up following a Senate Democratic caucus meeting about the fiscal cliff on Capitol Hill in Washington.






Pete Souza—The White House
Jan. 1, 2013. U.S. President Barack Obama jumps into the ocean at Pyramid Rock Beach in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.






Ronen Zvulun—Reuters
Jan. 1, 2013. Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men take part in a yoga class at a studio in Ramat Beit Shemesh, 12 miles from Jerusalem.






Uriel Sinai—Getty Images
Jan. 1, 2013. Ultra Orthodox Jewish men carry the body of Rabbi Abraham Jacob Friedman of Sadigura Hasidic dynasty during his funeral on in Bnei Brak, Israel.






Ben Nelms—Reuters
Jan. 1, 2013. A man wearing a goat mask runs into English Bay during the annual New Year's Day Polar Bear Swim, in Vancouver, Canada.






Athar Hussain—Reuters
Jan. 1, 2013. An injured man receives treatment at a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan.






Khuram Parvez—Reuters
Jan. 1, 2013. A police officer stands near the body of an aid worker, killed by unidentified gunmen, at a hospital in Swabi, Pakistan.






Navesh Chitrakar—Reuters
Jan. 1, 2013. Children play near the fire to keep themselves warm on a cold evening at Kathmandu, Nepal.






Andy Wong—AP
Jan. 1, 2013. A Chinese woman holds incense while offering prayers on the first day of the New Year at the Yonghegong Lama Temple in Beijing, China.






Ishara S.Kodikara—AFP/Getty Images
Jan. 1, 2013. Buddhists light incense sticks as they offer prayers at the Kelaniya Temple in Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

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Muzaffar Salman—Reuters
Jan. 1, 2013. A boy climbs a tree at a public park as he cuts branches to be used for heating in Aleppo, Syria.






Muzaffar Salman—Reuters
Jan. 1, 2013. A girl looks up to the sky after hearing the sound of shelling, as she sits on a toy pony in the playground of Al-Tawheed school in Aleppo, Syria.






Kenzo Tribouillard—AFP
Jan. 1, 2013. A French gunner sits in a military helicopter flying above Kabul, Afghanistan.






Mohammad Ismai—Reuters
Jan. 2, 2013. An Afghan family walks along a snow-covered street in Kabul, Afghanistan.






Hoshang Hashimi—AP
Jan. 2, 2013. An Afghan boy tries to hit ball with a stick during an Afghani game known as 'Top Danda' in Herat, west of Kabul, Afghanistan.






Menahem Kahana—AFP/Getty Images
Jan. 2, 2013. An ultra-Orthodox Jewish boy looks over a cloth to watch the wedding celebrations in Netanya, Israel.






Sakis Mitrolidis—AFP
Jan. 2, 2013. Smog lays over the suburbs north west of Thessaloniki, Greece.







Jim Hollander—EPA
Jan. 2, 2013. Orthodox Christian clergy sweep the main nave in the Church of the Nativity, place where Jesus Christ was thought to be born, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.






Spencer Platt—Getty Images
Jan. 2, 2013. The remains of part of the boardwalk lie along the beach in the Rockaways in the Queens borough of New York City.






Anindito Mukherjee—EPA
Jan. 2, 2013. A child carries placards showing pro-women slogans, at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial, Rajghat, in New Delhi, India.

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Victor Drachev—AFP
Jan. 2, 2013. A man uses a headlamp while ice fishing at sunrise in the Lake Vileika near the Belarus village of Kasun.






Dimitar Dilkoff—AFP/Getty Images
Jan. 2, 2013. Fatme Ulanova stands during her wedding ceremony with Djamal Sirakov in the village of Ribnovo, in southwestern Bulgaria.






Moshe Milner—GPO/Getty Images
Jan. 2, 2013. A view of the border security fence along the Israel-Egypt border, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony to mark its completion on in Israel.






Muhammed Muheisen—AP
Jan. 3, 2013. Pakistani schoolgirls in Islamabad, displaced with their families by conflict in Pakistan's tribal areas, chant prayers in tribute to five female teachers and two aid workers who were killed by gunmen earlier in the week.






Ben Curtis—AP
Jan. 3, 2013. A boy fisherman pulls in nets with others to try to make a living selling fish, though the catches are small and sparse, on the shores of the river Ubangi in Bangui, Central African Republic.






Muzaffar Salman—Reuters
Jan. 3, 2013. A father (center) reacts after the death of two of his children whom activists said were killed by shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, at al-Ansari area in Aleppo, Syria.






Vahid Salemi—AP
Jan. 3, 2013. Iranian mourners attend a ceremony commemorating Arbaeen, the final day of the annual 40-day mourning period for the seventh century martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, in Tehran, Iran.






Timothy A. Crary—AFP/Getty Images
Jan. 3, 2013. Sandy Hook Elementry students leave on a school bus in Newtown, Connecticut. Students at the elementary school where a gunman massacred 26 children and teachers last month were returning to classes at an alternative campus described by police as "the safest school in America." Survivors were finally to start their new academic year in the nearby town of Monroe, where a disused middle school has been converted and renamed from its original Chalk Hill to Sandy Hook.






Carlo Allegri—Reuters
Jan. 3, 2013. Crosses are seen at a memorial along the side of the road on the day the Sandy Hook School children from Newtown begin to attend classes in Monroe, Connecticut.






Carlo Allegri—Reuters
Jan. 3, 2013. Sandy Hook Elementary School first grade student Mamnun Ahmed, 6, watches videos he took on his camera as he poses next to the front window of his home, in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

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Muhammed Muheisen—AP
Jan. 3, 2013. Sadia Mukhteya, 12, displaced with their family from Pakistan's tribal areas due to conflict, reads in front of the class during an English language lesson at a school in a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan.






Ricardo Moraes—Reuters
Jan. 3, 2013. People carry their belongings after the floods of the Capivari river in Xerem, in Duque de Caxias near Rio de Janeiro.






Mohammed Al-Shaikh—AFP/Getty Images
Jan. 3, 2013. A Bahraini Shiite Muslims girl watches the Arbaeen religious festival from a window in the village of Sanabis, west of Manama.






Majdi Mohammed—AP
Jan. 3, 2013. Palestinians perform during a rally celebrating the 48th anniversary of the Fatah movement, in the West Bank city of Nablus.






Mohammed Salem—Reuters
Jan. 4, 2013. A masked Palestinian wearing a Fatah headband takes part in a rally marking the 48th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah movement, in Gaza City.






Lynn Bo Bo—EPA
Jan. 4, 2013. Myanmar boys try to stay on bamboo pole as they participate in pillow fight game to mark 65th anniversary of that country's Independence day in Yangon, Myanmar.






Ye Aung Thu—AFP/Getty Images
January 4, 2013. Guards of honour stand at attention during a flag-raising ceremony to mark of Myanmar's 65th Independence Day at the People's Square near Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar.






Patrik Stollarz—AFP/Getty Images
Jan. 4, 2013. A young carol singer visits the coal mine Prosper Haniel Schacht 10 in Bottrop, western Germany. The 2013 "Three King's Action" charity focuses on the plight of children in Tanzania.






Damian Shaw—EPA
Jan. 3, 2013. The giant Rubber Duck installation by Florentijn Hofman, is moored in Darling Harbour, Australia. Measuring 15m high and 18m wide, the oversized toy was commissioned for this year's Sydney Festival.






Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham/Reuters
January 3, 2013. Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai, who was shot by the Taliban last October, waves with nurses as she is discharged from The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, U.K.