Whirling Dervishes perform a traditional "sema" ritual during a ceremony in Istanbul on Saturday, December 13. The ceremony marked the death of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, the father of the Mevlevi sect the Dervishes belong to.
A museum staff member checks the lighting near the "Earlier Mona Lisa" before the painting went on exhibition at The Arts House in Singapore. A private Swiss art foundation says the painting was done by Leonardo da Vinci years before his "Mona Lisa" masterpiece.
People gather around a downed aircraft in Athurugiriya, Sri Lanka, as firefighters try to extinguish flames amid the debris on Friday, December 12. The Sri Lanka Air Force plane crashed into a rubber plantation, killing all four people on board, police said.
A crane fell on the roof of a house in Ijesselstein, Netherlands, on Saturday, December 13. No one was hurt in the incident, which happened when a man tried to surprise his girlfriend by proposing from the top of the crane, according to Dutch affiliate RTL News.
Lazaro Iglesias, left, debates Peter Bell outside a restaurant in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood Wednesday, December 17, after U.S. President Barack Obama announced a change in approach toward Cuba. Iglesias, left, is against the policy shift, while Bell supports it.
Plain-clothed police officers in Adana, Turkey, detain a man who was trying to set up a tent Monday, December 15, to mourn those killed in Kobani, Syria. Kobani, near the Turkish border, has been devastated by heavy fighting between Kurdish forces and ISIS militants.
U.S. contractor Alan Gross is welcomed with a hug after he arrived at an Air Force base in Maryland on Wednesday, December 17. Gross, held in Cuban custody since 2009, was freed as part of a landmark deal with Cuba that paves the way for a major overhaul in U.S. policy toward the island. "It's time for a new approach," said President Barack Obama, who said he's instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to begin discussions with Cuba to re-establish diplomatic relations.
The best man in a wedding party holds an AR-10 rifle while the party was having its pre-wedding portraits taken on the steps of the state capitol in Olympia, Washington, on Saturday, December 13. The man was handed the gun by activist Brandon Lyons, who was participating in a protest against the state's new law that requires background checks on all gun sales and transfers, including private transactions. The wedding party, which declined to be identified, was not part of the protest.
A woman runs to police officers after she escaped a hostage situation at a Sydney cafe on Monday, December 15. The siege ended with the death of the gunman and two of his hostages, but questions remain unanswered.
A poster for the movie "The Interview" is taken down from a theater in Atlanta on Wednesday, December 17. Sony Pictures canceled its plans to release the comedy -- which depicts an assassination plot against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un -- following a threat from a group that hacked the movie studio. FBI investigators tracked the hackers back to the North Korean regime, U.S. law enforcement officials said.
Parents leave with their children after a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, was attacked on Tuesday, December 16. Several members of the Pakistani Taliban stormed the school, killing more than 140 people, mostly children. More than 100 people were injured.