The year 2012 was a cyclone of news. The civil war in Syria grew bloodier and more desperate even as the rest of the Middle East was grappling with life after the so-called Arab Spring. Egypt’s democratic evolution at times seemed to verge on revolution again. Libya produced a bloody controversy for the U.S. on an inauspicious date, Sept. 11, with the death of the American ambassador amid an attack on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi. And as the U.S. itself marched toward the scheduled climax of a presidential election, what should slam into the country but superstorm Sandy, wrecking much of the northeast coast. The election itself, while it had many people holding their breath, produced another term for Barack Obama and the country promptly started to worry about falling off the fiscal cliff. And then another unexpected event occurred: the madness of mass murder in a quiet town in Connecticut. The death of children and teachers left the country breathless and in tears. The only news fizzle of the year was the predicted end of the world. No one needs to be concerned about that, just about dealing with what ails it as it goes on and on and on.
—Howard Chua-Eoan, News Director, TIME
Dan Kitwood—Getty Images
Jan. 1, 2012. Fireworks light up the London skyline and Big Ben just after midnight in London. Thousands of people lined the banks of the River Thames to ring in the New Year with a spectacular fireworks display.
Xinhua Press/Corbis
Jan. 2, 2012. Egypt's ex-President Hosni Mubarak (C) is wheeled on a hospital stretcher into court for the resumption of his trial in Cairo, Egypt.
Adnan Abidi—Reuters
Jan. 3, 2012. A child sits next to a fire to warm herself on a cold winter morning in the old quarters of Delhi.
Patrick Farrell—Miami Herald/MCT
Jan. 4, 2012. Young Geralda Cheristin views her reflection inside her family's home in Corail, Haiti.
Jorge Saenz—AP
Jan. 5, 2012. Librada Martinez, member of the Ava Guarani ethnic group, resists arrest by police as she and others are evicted from Uruguay square in Asuncion, Paraguay.
Logan Mock-Bunting—The New York Times/Redux
Jan. 6, 2012. A young attendee stands on her toes to get a better view during a campaign rally for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at the Peanut Warehouse in Conway, S.C.
STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images
Jan. 7, 2012. A leopard attacks and wounds an Indian laborer in a residential neighborhood in Guwahati, India.
Andrew Biraj—Reuters
Jan. 8, 2012. Workers weld at a ship-building yard next to the Buriganga River in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Matt Rourke—AP
Jan. 9, 2012. A resident reads over her ballots before the stroke of midnight when she can cast her vote in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, at The Balsams Grand Resort in Dixville, N.H.
Carl Court—AFP/Getty Images
Jan. 10, 2012. Iraqi citizen and British resident Bisher al-Rawi, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was arrested in Gambia, speaks during a press conference in central London to mark the 10-year anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees at the US military prison facility at Guantanamo Bay. |