Best 40 Photos of 2008 by MSNBC

South Korea loses historic gate
South Korea's "No. 1 national treasure," Namdaemun, burns in Seoul on Feb. 11. Police said a 69-year-old man admitted setting the fire. Namdaemun, "the great southern gate," was built in the original walls surrounding Seoul during the Joseon Dynasty. Construction began in 1395.
Lee Jin-man/AP


Russian bombing kills 5 in Georgia
A Georgian man holds the body of a relative after a Russian warplane dropped a bomb on an apartment block in Gori, 50 miles from Tbilisi, on Aug. 9. At least five people were killed. In August, Georgia and Russia fought a short war over the region known as South Ossetia.
Gleb Garanich/Reuters


Palestinian protesters gassed
Tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers on May 27, envelops Palestinian protesters taking cover behind an olive tree in the West Bank village of Nilin. The protest was over the separation barrier that Israel is building and says is necessary for security. Palestinians call it a land grab.
Kevin Frayer/AP


Violence breaks out in Kenya
A man suspected of trying to vandalize a store is held after being beaten by private guards in Nakuru, Kenya, on Jan. 26. Hundreds of people were killed and hundreds of thousands were left homeless by rioting and tribal killings sparked by a disputed presidential election.
Walter Astrada/AFP Getty Images


Brief pause in Gaza border tension
This Israel soldier was among those deployed Feb. 25, in a wheat field along the border with Gaza. Israel deployed thousands of police and troops against the threat of a mass penetration of Palestinian protesters from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
Uriel Sinai/Getty Images


Hooping it up in Florida
Brothers Andrew Horton, 6, right, and Isaiah McLeod, 7, hula-hoop outside their grandmother's home in Port Lucie, Fla., after a rain shower July 2. "They kept crashing into things with their hoops so I sent them outside to play," said their grandmother, Bonnie Smith.
Amanda Voisard/The Palm Beach Post via Zuma Press


Big chill: Snow hits Jordan
Jordanians take advantage of a rare snowfall to have some fun in Amman on Jan. 31. A heavy snowstorm blanketed Jordan the night before, closing schools and stores, halting public transportation and turning men into kids for the moment.
Muhammad Hamed/Reuters


Striking a pose in Ukraine
A woman straightens her overcoat as she passes one of the monuments in the open-air World War II museum in Kiev, Ukraine, on May 8. The next day Ukraine, Russia and other post-Soviet countries were to celebrate Victory Day, the anniversary of the end of the war.
Sergei Supinsky/AFP Getty Images


Hurricane casualties in Texas
Dead fish remain stuck in a fence as flood waters from Hurricane Ike recede in West Orange, Texas, on Sept. 15. Ike killed more than 80 people in the United States and caused severe damage in Galveston and nearby towns and cities.
Eric Gay/AP


Dutch children vaccinated
A boy gets a shot March 12, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He was one of about 3,500 children to be vaccinated that day against infectious diseases, such as tetanus and measles.
Robin Utrecht/AFP Getty Images


Turf war?
A vicious fight for dominance between two Cape grey squirrels is seen at a campground at Etosha National Park in Namibia on Dec. 5. A colony of the squirrels, which are poor tree climbers so tend to live below ground in burrows, ventured to the surface to forage for food.
David Slater/Zuma Press


Flood fun follows tropical storm
Lena Davis, 5, swims in the water surrounding her home in Chauvin, La., on Aug. 4. The storm surge from Tropical Storm Edouard put almost 2 feet of water in her front yard. Storms caused substantial damage along the U.S. Gulf Coast during the 2008 hurricane season.
Matt Stamey/The Houma Courier


Deadly jet crash in Congo
People rush for water to fight a blaze started when a plane crashed in Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on April 15. Nearly 50 people died when the DC-9 plane plowed into a market, but almost all the casualties were on the ground.
Lionel Healing/AFP Getty Images


Hostages held in Venezuelan bank
Hostages inside a branch of the Banco Provincial in Altagracia de Orituco, Venezuela, plead for help Jan. 29. After a botched robbery the previous day, four armed men held more than 30 people for more than 24 hours. They surrendered after fleeing the bank in an ambulance.
Juan Barreto/AFP Getty Images


Bloody seal hunt in Canada
A blood trail from a harp seal is left after sealers loaded carcasses from an ice floe off the coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia on March 31. Canada's fisheries agency estimated the harp seal population at 5.9 million, more than triple what it was in the 1970s.
Paul Darrow/Reuters


Brazilian peasants evicted
A woman tries to resist Amazonas state policemen who expelled her and some 200 other members of the Landless Movement from privately owned land on the outskirts of Manaus in the Brazilian Amazon on March 11. The peasants fought with bows and arrows against tear gas and trained dogs.
Luiz Vasconcelos/Reuters


Congolese face desperate journey
A man and two children head north from the city of Kibati to their village in Congo on Nov. 2. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced in fighting between rebels and government troops in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP Getty Images


Surrender in Comoros battle
An injured man is arrested by Comoran soldiers and African Union soldiers from Tanzania after the soldiers shot rockets into his house in Mutsamudu, the second-largest city in the Comoros islands, on March 25. The soldiers were battling rebels on the island of Anjouan.
Jose Cendon/AFP Getty Images


Tossed to safety in Germany
Residents of an apartment building throw 9-month-old Onur Celar from a fourth-floor window to rescuers below Feb. 3, in Ludwigshafen, Germany. A fire started on the first floor, trapping residents above, but a policeman safely caught the girl. The fire killed nine people and injured 28.
Rene Werse/AFP Getty Images


Goslings cuddle up in Oregon
A Canada goose shelters her goslings from the rain at a park in Roseburg, Ore., on April 23.
Robin Loznak/The News-Review


Kansas barn stormin'
An old barn stands in a wheat field as a powerful thunderstorm passes overhead near Ogallah, Kan., on May 22. Severe thunderstorms spawned tornadoes across much of northwest Kansas that day.
Charlie Riedel/AP


Festival is a Bucharest blast
Fireworks explode above a crowd in a grassy field during the Golden Nights International Pyrotechnic Festival in Bucharest, Romania, on July 5.
Mihai Barbu/Reuters


Volcano lights up southern Chile
Lightning bolts crackle around a towering column of ash as southern Chile's Chaiten volcano begins its first eruption in thousands of years on May 2. Scientists differ over what causes electrical storms that break out directly above erupting volcanoes.
Carlos Gutierrez/Patagonia Press


Indian villager collects lily seeds
A villager collects seeds from giant water lilies, commonly known as makhana, near Guwahati city in northeast India on June 6. The lilies' puffed seeds are a delicacy, and villagers sell them to earn money.
EPA


Bird meets its double in Germany
A blue tit comes beak to beak with its reflection through raindrops in a car's rearview mirror in Friedrichshafen, Germany, on Feb. 29.
Felix Kaestle/AP


Shaking up a Quebec zoo
A polar bear sends water droplets flying as it shakes at St-Felicien Wildlife Zoo in St-Felicien, Quebec, Canada, on March 6.
Mathieu Belanger/Reuters


Chinese flee landslide in quake
People flee a massive landslide during an aftershock on May 17, in Lixian County in China's Sichuan province. The aftershock occurred five days after the country's worst earthquake in 58 years; about 70,000 people were killed in the May 12 quake and its aftershocks.
China Photos/Getty Images


Student killed in China quake
The body of a student is carried from the debris of the collapsed Juyuan Middle School on May 13, in Juyuan Township, in Dujiangyan in southwest China's Sichuan province. Tens of thousands of people were killed in the May 12 quake, many of them children who died in collapsed schools.
Xi Xui/Zuma Press


Family mourns China's dead
Relatives cry next to the body of a student near a school in Hanwang Town, Mianzhu County, Sichuan province, on May 14. China faced a daunting rebuilding task to replace millions of homes, schools and businesses destroyed by the May 12 earthquake.
Jason Lee/Reuters


Rubble reveals China quake victim
A body lies in the rubble of a collapsed building in Dujiangyan, China, on May 13. About 70,000 people were killed by the May 12 earthquake and its aftershocks, and millions of people were left homeless.
Ng Han Guan/AP


Tears of pain for quake survivor
Zeng Peng, 7, is comforted by his father as a doctor removes stitches from his leg at a hospital in Chengdu in southwest China's Sichuan province on June 2. The boy lost his left leg to injuries suffered during the May 12 earthquake.
Oded Balilty/AP


Fire strikes before storm hits Texas
Fire destroys homes along the beach on Galveston Island, Texas, as Hurricane Ike approaches on Sept. 12. The storm's center struck the next day north of the city of Galveston, causing severe damage. Many Galveston residents who fled were not allowed to return for nearly two weeks.
David J. Phillip/AP


Debris jams bridge in Iowa flooding
Buildings, boats and debris are pushed against a railroad bridge over the swollen Cedar River on June 14, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Rain that began falling in early June caused flooding in the upper Midwest that drove tens of thousands from their homes and caused billions in damage.
Jeff Roberson/AP


Lehman Brothers executive heckled
Protesters hold signs behind Richard Fuld, chairman and chief executive of Lehman Brothers Holdings. Fuld testified Oct. 6, before a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in Washington on the causes and effects of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters


Casualty of Iraq buried in Texas
The casket of Cpl. Joshua Alexander Molina, 20, is taken from St. Matthews Episcopal Church to Houston National Cemetery on April 8. Molina died five days before in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds from an explosion. He was assigned to the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.
Eric Kayne/Houston Chronicle


Close call in Afghanistan
A U.S. Marine from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit ducks debris after Taliban fighters opened fire on his position near Garmser in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on May 18. The Marine was not injured.
Goran Tomasevic/Reuters


Future voters in South Carolina
From left, Shaniece Sprattling, 8, Ilona Cooper, 5, Imani Cooper, 10, Indya Cooper, 8, and Ciera McNeil, 10, cheer as Barack Obama speaks at a rally in Dillon, S.C., on Jan. 23. The Democrat toured South Carolina in the week leading up to the state's presidential primary.
Scout Tufankjian/Polaris


Swirl of optimism for Clinton
Sen. Hillary Clinton celebrates in Columbus, Ohio, on election night after winning Democratic presidential primaries in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island on March 4. In the end, Clinton was not able to overcome Barack Obama's lead in delegates.
Robyn Beck/AFP Getty Images


McCain concedes to Obama
With his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, at his side, Sen. John McCain of Arizona speaks to the crowd during his election night rally before Republican supporters in Phoenix on Nov. 4. McCain conceded the presidential election to Democrat Barack Obama.
Mike Blake/Reuters


Spotlight on Democrats' nominee
Sen. Barack Obama walks toward daughters Malia and Sasha and wife Michelle after accepting the party's nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 28, in Denver.
Win McNamee/AFP Getty Images

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