In the nick of time
Pilot Capt. Brian Bews parachutes(用降落伞降落) to safety after ejecting from(从某处喷出) his CF-18 fighter jet moments before it plummeted(骤然跌落) to the ground during a practice flight for a weekend air show at the Lethbridge County Airport on July 23 in Alberta, Canada. Bews suffered back injuries but is expected to make a full recovery. The jet exploded on impact(冲击力).
No ordinary pothole
A sinkhole(天坑) created by tropical storm(热带风暴) Agatha is seen in the Ciudad Nueva neighborhood in Guatemala(危地马拉) City, Guatemala, on May 29. Agatha caused landslides(滑坡) and floods that left tens of thousands homeless in Central America.
Pelican in distress
A brown pelican(鹈鹕) coated in heavy oil wallows(翻滚) in the surf, June 4, on East Grand Terre Island, La. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster came ashore in large volumes across southern Louisiana.
Poisonous flood
Excavators(开凿机) work at a broken dike(堤坝) of a reservoir(水库) that contained red mud from an alumina(氧化铝，矾土) factory near Ajka, Hungary, Oct. 6. The dike broke on Oct. 4, releasing more than 1 million cubic yards of the poisonous chemical sludge(化学污泥) that inundated(淹没) three villages. At least four people were killed and more than 150 injured. The prime minister called the accident an "unprecedented ecological(生态的) catastrophe(灾害)."
Fighting disease
Flies surround a sick girl who is a flood victim, at the relief camp(救助营) set-up in Sukkur in Pakistan's Sindh province on Aug. 31. The United Nations issued warnings of waterborne diseases(水传播疾病), including typhoid fever(伤寒症), shigellosis(志贺氏细菌性痢疾) and hepatitis A and E(甲型戊型肝炎) and vector-borne(媒介传播的) diseases like malaria(疟疾) and dengue fever(登革热).
Land of fire and ice
The Northern Lights(北极光) are seen above the ash plume(烟流) of Iceland's erupting Eyjafjallajokull volcano in the evening on April 22. Ash from the eruption disrupted(扰乱) air traffic in many parts of Europe.
Cries of anguish
Dennise Pincochet, 24, cries in front of her destroyed house in Constitucion, Chile, on March 1. An earthquake on Feb. 27 devastated the town.
Fight against fire
Russians try to stop a wildfire(难以扑灭的烈火) spreading near the village of Golovanovo, in the Ryazan region, on Aug. 5. The worst wildfires in the country's modern history killed more than 50 people during the hottest summer since record-keeping began 130 years ago. The heatwave cost Russia more than a third of its wheat crop.
Acres of ash
A farmer walks through his cornfield covered in volcanic ash from Mount Merapi's eruption in Muntilan, central Java, Indonesia, on Nov. 8.
Road to nowhere
A landslide destroyed portions(一部分) of a major highway outside the port city of Keelung, northern Taiwan, as seen in this April 25 aerial image. Four people were killed.
The damaged and the dead
A Haitian man carries a coffin on his head in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 29 against a backdrop(背景) of damaged buildings. A magnitude-7 earthquake on Jan. 12 killed as many as 200,000 people.
Mesmerized by Bollywood
Cinema-goers watch the Bollywood(印度宝莱坞) movie "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" (The Big Hearted Will Take the Bride), starring actor Shah Rukh Khan, inside Maratha Mandir theater in Mumbai, India, on July 11. The 1995 film continued to set screening records throughout the year.
Tears of joy
Miner Osman Araya, right, is welcomed by his wife Angelica as he emerges from a rescue capsule that pulled him to safety from the collapsed San Jose mine near Copiapo, Chile, on Oct. 13. Araya was the sixth of 33 trapped miners to be lifted from nearly a mile underground two months after being trapped by a collapse. More that 1 billion people around the world watched the rescue on live television, according to TVN, Chile's state broadcaster(广播公司).