MSNBC - Best photos of 2008

South Korea loses historic gateSouth 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 GeorgiaA 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 gassedTear 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 KenyaA 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 tensionThis 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 FloridaBrothers 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 JordanJordanians 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 UkraineA 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 TexasDead 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 vaccinatedA 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 stormLena 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 CongoPeople 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

Bloody seal hunt in CanadaA 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 evictedA 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 journeyA 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 battleAn 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 GermanyResidents 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 OregonA 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 blastFireworks 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 ChileLightning 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 seedsA 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 GermanyA 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 zooA 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 quakePeople 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 quakeThe 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 deadRelatives 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 victimA 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 survivorZeng 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 TexasFire 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 floodingBuildings, 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 heckledProtesters 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 TexasThe 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 AfghanistanA 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 CarolinaFrom 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 ClintonSen. 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 ObamaWith 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' nomineeSen. 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