24 hours: Weathering woes and challenges

A Free Syrian Army fighter jokes with a child in the old city of Aleppo on Dec 27, 2012. Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, the international envoy seeking a solution to Syria's 21-month-old conflict said on Thursday political change was needed to end the violence which has killed 44,000 people, and called for a transitional government to rule until elections. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Hunters skin a wolf killed in forest near the village of Padar, some 180km east of Minsk on Dec 27, 2012. Wolves, foxes and raccoon dogs can be hunted all year around as they are not wanted in Belarus, the keepers said. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A farmer harvests rice next to the artist Suharyanto Tri's statue entitled "Planting Brain" at Nitiprayan village in Bantul, near the ancient city of Yogyakarta on Dec 27, 2012. Tri's work is a part of a outdoor sculpture exhibition called Last Harvest, that includes works from 30 artists who are voicing their concerns over diminishing agricultural land. The exhibition ends on Dec 31. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Demonstrators shout slogans as they are surrounded by the police during a protest rally in New Delhi on Dec 27, 2012. Several hundred people gathered in India's capital on Thursday in a bid to rekindle mass protests over the gang rape and ferocious beating of a young woman, who was airlifted to Singapore overnight for special hospital care to save her life. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Well-wishers walk through a snow storm after paying tribute at a memorial for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut on Dec 26, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Clouds roll over destroyed homes, almost two months after superstorm Sandy caused damage in the region of Breezy Point of Queens borough, New York on Dec 27, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) supporter uses a poster of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani to fan a woman who felt faint near former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's grave during her death anniversary at her family mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, near Larkana December on Dec 27, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A woman waits to receive a bag during a donation programme of the municipality of Athens on Dec 27, 2012. About 7,000 registered poor people visit the Node of Citizens' Mutual Help where donations of a variety of goods are distributed to them in an effort to financially relief them as Greece faces the country's worst economic crisis since World War II. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Denver Nuggets' Ty Lawson (front) is fouled by Los Angeles Lakers Metta World Peace during their NBA basketball game in Denver, Colorado on Dec 26, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

An ornament is surrounded by stuffed animals, lying at a memorial for victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, after snowfall in Newtown, Connecticut on Dec 27, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Sok Sam Oeun (centre, front) and Born Samnang (centre, rear) are escorted by police officers at the Appeals Court in central Phnom Penh on Dec 27, 2012. A Cambodian court ordered the return to prison on Thursday of two men seen by rights groups as scapegoats for the 2004 murder of a top unionist, the latest controversial ruling in a country chided for its low judicial standards. The Appeals Court upheld a lower court's handing down of 20-year jail terms for Samnang and Oeun for killing Free Trade Union (FTU) leader Chea Vichea, despite weak evidence. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A man sand skis in the desert near Tabuk, 1,500km from Riyadh on Dec 27, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

United States (US) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid returns from the Christmas recess to the US Capitol in Washington on Dec 27, 2012. Efforts to prevent the US economy from going over a "fiscal cliff" stirred back to life with less than a week to go before potentially disastrous tax hikes and spending cuts kick in at the New Year. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Workers install a panel with some of the new Waterford Crystal triangles with this year's "Let There Be Peace" design on the Times Square New Year's Eve Ball atop One Times Square in New York on Dec 27, 2012. Some 288 new crystal triangles adorn the ball. Thousands are expected to pack New York's Times Square on New Year's eve, December 31, to watch the ball drop at midnight in the annual celebration. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Sudan's President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir waves his walking stick as he attends the inauguration ceremony of the new Hadida oilfield in Hadida, South Kordofan State on Dec 27, 2012. Mr Bashir danced, waved his walking stick and delivered a defiant speech on Thursday at his first rally since undergoing surgery in Saudi Arabia and withstanding what officials called an attempted coup. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A villager prepares food at her flooded house in Rantau Panjang, a Malaysian town bordering Thailand, 500km north-east of Kuala Lumpur on Dec 27, 2012. The flood situation in the north-eastern states of peninsula Malaysia has worsened as the number of residents evacuated to relief centres reached nearly 14,000, The Star daily reported on Wednesday. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Australia's Mitchell Johnson (left), runs out Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne for one run during the third day of the second cricket test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Dec 28, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Men drink tea in an area that has many tannery workshops in Old Cairo on Dec 27, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Decorations on an elephant are seen during an elephant beauty contest at the Elephant Race event in Chitwan, about 170km south of Kathmandu on Dec 27, 2012. Elephants and mahouts from Chitwan will participate in the Elephant Race event, that began on Wednesday and ends on Friday, where elephants will play in an exhibition soccer match and various other sports and activities. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A man pushes his boat with the help of a bamboo stick to reach the bank of Rapti River at Sauraha in Chitwan, about 170km south of Kathmandu on Dec 27, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A woman cries next to the coffin of one of the four police officers who was killed, during a tribute ceremony and a funeral mass in Pihuamo, Mexico on Dec 26, 2012. The decapitated bodies of four municipal police officers were found on Monday morning on the border with Michoacan, local media reported. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Team USA's J.T. Miller (right) scores on Germany's goalie Marvin Cupper (1), Max Meirandres (7), and Stephan Kronthaler (8) during the third period of their preliminary round game during the 2013 IIHF U-20 World Junior Hockey Championship in Ufa on Dec 27, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

An Afghan woman walks past a burning tyre, which was set on fire by residents to warm themselves, along a street on a snowy day in Kabul on Dec 27, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A deceased beached whale lies on a beach with the skyline of New York rising behind it in the Queens borough region of Breezy Point, New York on Dec 27, 2012. A 18.3m finback whale that washed up on a beach in New York City on Wednesday has died, a marine rescue official said on Thursday. -- PHOTO: REUTERS