2009 in photos (part 2 of 3)-2

2009 in photos (part 2 of 3)

The year 2009 is now coming to a close, and it's time to take a look back over the past 12 months through photographs. Historic elections were held in Iran, India and the United States, some wars wound down while others escalated, China turned 60, and the Berlin Wall was remembered 20 years after it came down. Each photo tells its own tale, weaving together into the larger story of 2009. This is a multi-entry story, 120 photographs over three days. Please watch for part 3 tomorrow and have a look back at part 1 from yesterday. (40 photos total)

 

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. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

 

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. (AP Photo) #

 

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. (OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Images) #

 

A boy touches an ice sculpture of a polar bear as it melts to reveal a bronze skeleton in Copenhagen, Denmark, host city of the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference, on December 8, 2009. (REUTERS/Bob Strong) #

 

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. (AP Photo/Jon Vidar) #

 

Spot fires glow after the Station Fire burned through August 30, 2009 in Acton, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) #

 

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. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

 

A burning Su-27 jet from the Russian air force elite aerobatic team Russkiye Vityazi (Russian Knights), dives just seconds after the aircraft collided with a two-seat Su-27, not seen, not far from the Zhukovsky airfield, east of Moscow, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009. Two Russian air force jets rehearsing aerobatic maneuvers collided Sunday near Moscow, killing one stunt pilot and sending one fighter crashing into nearby vacation homes, a military official said. The Su-27 fighters were part of the elite Russian Knights flying group preparing to perform at the MAKS-2009 air show, the largest and most important showcase for Russia's aerospace industry. (AP Photo/Dmitry Karpov) #

 

Snow-covered pine trees sit in flood water March 31, 2009 near Moorhead, Minnesota. A snowstorm slowed recovery efforts as residents of Moorhead and neighboring Fargo, North Dakota tried to return to their homes as the flooded Red River slowly receded. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) #

 

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. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) #

 

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. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza) #

 

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. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) #

 

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 oncew again, in each others' arms in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009. (AP Photo/Maya Hitij) #

 

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. (REUTERS/ Eric Vargiolu) #

 

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. (AP Photo) #

 

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. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) #

 

Stars in the night sky rotate above the distinctive chimney stack on the top of Cape Cornwall near St Just on April 12, 2009 in Cornwall, England. The landmark, orginally built for the Cape Cornwall Mine in 1850 and was recently damaged when it was struck by lightning, was bought, along with the rest of Cape Cornwall, for the nation by Heinz in 1987 and given to the National Trust to mark Heinz's centenary. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images) #

 

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. (MOHAMED DAHIR/AFP/Getty Images) #

 

People sunbathe as Ferrari Brazilian's driver Felipe Massa drives at the Monaco racetrack on May 21, 2009 in Monte Carlo, during the second free practice session of the Monaco Formula one Grand Prix. (PASCAL GUYOT/AFP/Getty Images) #

 

An old car dropped in an industrial trash bin advertising the Cash for Clunkers program at Battlefield Ford in Culpeper, Virginia, August 1, 2009. "Cash for Clunkers", or the Car Allowance Rebate System was a $3 billion U.S. federal scrappage program to allow U.S. residents to trade in older cars for newer, more fuel-efficient models. Nearly 700,000 cars were traded under the program. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst) #

 

Pro-democracy protesters carrying a mock coffin try to cross a police line during a demonstration demanding China improve its human rights record, outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong October 1, 2009 as China celebrates the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. (REUTERS/Tyrone Siu) #

 

Norway's Anders Jacobsen competes in the first jump during the third stage of the Four Hills FIS ski jumping championship (Vierschanzentournee) on January 04, 2009 in Innsbruck. (JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images) #

 

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. (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images) #

 

From 20 degrees above the ring plane, Cassini's wide angle camera shot 75 exposures in succession for this mosaic showing Saturn, its rings, and a few of its moons a day and a half after exact Saturn equinox, when the sun's disk was exactly overhead at the planet's equator. The images were taken on Aug. 12, 2009, at a distance of approximately 847,000 km (526,000 mi) from Saturn. (NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute) #

 

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. (BIJU BORO/AFP/Getty Images) #

 

The sun sets behind the London eye on March 16, 2009 in London, England. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) #

 

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. (MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images) #

 

Thousands of scrapped taxis are abandoned at a yard in the center of Chongqing city on March 4, 2009. Traffic congestion and pollution have worsened dramatically in Chinese cities as the country's long-running economic expansion has allowed increasing numbers of consumers to make big-ticket purchases such as cars. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) #

 

Bengal Tiger Kingda Ka smashes pumpkins during Fall at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, November 8, 2009. (REUTERS/Six Flags Great Adventure) #

 

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. (REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis) #

 

Ultra-Orthodox Jews belonging to the Vishnitz Hassidic sect dance on their benches as they celebrate the Jewish festival of Purim late on March 9, 2009 in Bnei Brak, a religious town near Tel Aviv. (MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images) #

 

A ring of water vapour is created around pilot Lt. Justin Halligan (left) and Lt. Michael Witt (right) as they fly their F/A-18F Super Hornet airplane while performing at New York Air Show at Jones Beach in Wantagh, New York, May 23, 2009. (REUTERS/Christopher Pasatieri) #

 

SC Braga's goalkeeper Eduardo Carvalho pulls his shirt over his head at the end of their Portuguese First league football match against FC Porto at the AXA Stadium in Braga, on September 19, 2009. Braga won the match 1-0. (MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP/Getty Images) #

Supporters of former South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun gather during a funeral ceremony in downtown Seoul on May 29, 2009. Thousands of weeping morners packed the streets to pay their last respects to former President Roh Moo-Hyun amid a massive outpouring of grief and tight security. (KOREA POOL/AFP/Getty Images) #

 

Belgian milk producers pour about 3 million liters (793,000 gallons) of milk onto a field near the Belgian city of Ciney September 16, 2009 in protest over a growing industrial dispute over low prices. Support is growing among European Union member states for a new regulatory set-up for milk farmers struggling with depressed prices, France's agriculture minister, Michel Barnier, said on Tuesday. (REUTERS/Yves Herman) #

 

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. (REUTERS/RIA Novosti/Pool/Alexei Druzhinin) #

 

Debris hangs on a destroyed building next to a giant statue and restaurant boat swept away along the Marikina river on September 29, 2009, outside Manila. Hundreds of thousands of exhausted Philippine flood survivors endured squalor in schools, gymnasiums and other makeshift shelters on September 29 as the death toll from Typhoon Ketsana (known in the Phillippines as ondoy") eventually climbed to over 650. (TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images) #

 

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. (REUTERS/Anita Olsen/Scanpix Norway) #

 

A local performer dressed in traditional costume sings during the celebrations for the lantern festival in the city of Tianjin, located 100 km (62 miles) east of Beijing February 9, 2009. The lantern festival marks the last day of the two-week Chinese lunar new year celebrations. (REUTERS/David Gray) #

 

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. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi) #