Grand Terre Island, USA: Crude oil washes ashore following the sinking of the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on Grand Terre Island, LA., June 7, 2010.Benjamin Lowy—Reportage by Getty Images
This year saw a series of long running news stories. The disasters of the Haiti earthquake, the oil spill in the Gulf, the Pakistan floods, the fallout from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano and an epic story of survival which ended with the rescue of 33 miners in Chile. These and other events produced some dramatic and spectacular images. Here LightBox presents a selection of the more unexpected and unusual images you might have missed — but should see now
Grand Terre Island, USA: Crude oil washes ashore following the sinking of the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on Grand Terre Island, LA., June 7, 2010.Benjamin Lowy—Reportage by Getty Images
Gadabedji, Niger: Entrails of dead animals hang in Gadabedji, Niger, where meat traders buy the animals' dead bodies to cook on the spot and send to Nigeria, June 27, 2010.Marco Di Lauro—Reportage by Getty Images
Yushu County, Qinghai Province, China: An ethnic Tibetan monk throws the body of a child onto a funeral pyre in a ditch in Jiegu Town of Yushu County, Qinghai province, after an earthquake registering 7.1 on the richter scale hit the area. April 19, 2010. Over 1,400 people died in the disaster.Ni Yuxing—EPA
Port-Au-Prince, Haiti: This temporary shelter on the site of a tent city in Port-Au-Prince, was constructed from various materials, plywood, metal, sheetrock and . A number of these huts contained televisions powered by electricity drawn from the nearby presidential palace, February, 2010.Bruce Gilden—Magnum Photos
Madrid, Spain: Spanish Bullfighter Julio Aparicio is gored in the throat by a bull during a bullfight at the San Isidro Feria at the Plaza de Toro las Ventas bullring in Madrid, May 21, 2010. The bull's horn went though Aparico's tongue and penetrated the roof of the mouth, fracturing the jawbone. His life was saved after two operations. The bull, however, was quickly killed by other matadors.Alberto Simon—AFP/Getty Images
Karachi, Pakistan: An arrested member of the outlawed militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is presented to the media at the Police Crime Investigation Department in Karachi, March 29, 2010. Police had earlier arrested three members of the outlawed Sunni militant group and seized up to 60 kg (132 lbs) of explosives and detonators.Akhtar Soomro—ReutersHelmand Province, Afghanistan: Graffiti left behind by Taliban fighters remains on the walls of a compound now used as a command center for the U.S Marine Corps's First Battalion, Eighth Marines at Musa Qala in southern Afghanistan's Helmand provinceNovember 10, 2010. An important battleground in the war against Taliban insurgents and the narcotics industry, Musa Qala has changed hands several times, most recently in December 2007 when Afghan and international forces retook the town from the Taliban. Artwork by British and American troops stationed at the command center now sits alongside that of their Taliban foes.Finbarr O'Reilly—ReutersAzakhel, Pakistan: A Pakistani child displaced by flooding sleeps in a makeshift tent at a roadside camp near Nowshera, Aug. 15, 2010. Photographer Sajjad recalls "I have taken a lot of pictures of children, including those wounded by bombs, but I have never seen a boy in such bad shape. You can imagine one, two, three or even five flies sitting on someone's face, but so many flies on a small face, that was my first ever experience."Mohammad Sajjad—AP
Kuwait: McDonald's is one of the few comforts at Ali Al Salem Air Force Base in Kuwait, a primary hub for U.S. soldiers and contractors transiting to and from Iraq and Afghanistan.Peter van Agtmael—Magnum Photos
Castel Gandolfo, Italy: Pope Benedict XVI watches the movie Pius XII, Under the Roman Sky, at his residence south of Rome, Apr. 13, 2010. Starring James Cromwell as Pius XII, the film explores Hitler's treatment of the Jews in Rome and his attempt to kidnap the Pope.Osservatore Romano—Reuters
Kandahar Province, Afghanistan: Air Force pararescuemen ride in the back of a medevac helicopter with the bodies of two U.S. soldiers killed in a roadside bomb attack in Kandahar Province, October 10, 2010. Photographer Guttenfelder describes the scene: "When the pararescue guys were covering the bodies, they only had two flags with them. The wind was shipping through the open window...and the wind caught it and it blew out the window and they lost it. So they only had one flag. (But) one of the pilots had a flag that he kept behind the plate of his flak jacket, one that he'd kept with him for every deployment he'd ever done: Iraq, Afghanistan. He flew over Washington DC with it, his children had kissed it. He took it out and passed it to the back of the helicopter and that was one of the flags they used to cover one of the guys. The family of the soldier who died, who was covered by the donated flag, has reached out to me to ask for a contact for the pilot. They are hoping to give the flag back to him."David Guttenfelder—AP
Dover Air Force Base, USA: A Marine carry team carries a transfer case containing the remains of Cpl. Claudio Patino IV at Dover Air Force Base, Del, June 25, 2010. According to the Department of Defense, Patino, 22, of Yorba Linda, Calif., died June 22 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province. In 2009, the Pentagon lifted a ban that forbade members of the news media from covering the dignified transfer of the remains of U.S. servicemen and women at Dover Air Force Base. On April 5th, 2009 right after the ban was lifted, around 40 reporters and photographers were present for the return of the remains of Air Force Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers of Hopewell, Virginia. But these days, Photographer Steve Ruark a freelance photographer with the Associated Press is often the only member of the news media present. He has been to Dover for dignified transfers more than ninety times.Steve Ruark—AP
Panjshir Province, Afghanistan: A donkey transports ballot boxes to villages unreachable by vehicles north of Kabul, Sept. 17, 2010. Afghanistan held parliamentary elections on September 18. Voter turnout was lower than in any of the four national elections held in post-Taliban Afghanistan, with violence keeping voter numbers low. Widespread allegations of fraud tainted the final results.Ahmad Masood—Reuters
Nupur, Iceland: Farmers team up to rescue cattle from exposure to toxic volcanic ash at a farm in Nupur, Iceland, Apr. 17, 2010. The volcano in southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier kept much of Europe land-bound for six days in April, with the ash disrupting world air travel and stranding thousands of passengers.Brynjar Gauti—AP
Luliang, China: A fish is encased in dried mud at Dege reservoir in Luliang county, Yunnan province of China, Mar. 31, 2010. The worst drought to hit the country in a century affected a total of approximately 7.75 million hectares of arable land and left more than 24 million people short of water.Yang Yingbo—ChinaFotoPress/Zuma PressRacoon Island, Louisiana, USA: A Carcass of a dead pelican lies in the oily sand of Raccoon Island, Jul. 21, 2010. Rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina and located on the far west tip of Terrebonne Parish, the island is the largest Pelican rookery in Louisiana. Before the Gulf oil spill it was home to over 60,000 pelicans, but in the spill's aftermath hardly one mature pelican could be found on the day photographer Levin took this picture. Instead there were thousands of dead birds as well as numerous emaciated and abandoned juvenile and baby birds, some walking around as if in a daze.Andy Levin—Polaris
El Viento, Ecuador: A 33-meter-long submarine designed to smuggle cocaine floats in a jungle shipyard near the Colombia border. The vessel was seized by Ecuadorean authorities with the help of U.S. drug enforcement agents as it was preparing for its first voyage.Jaime Echeverria—EPA
Elwood, Illinois, USA: President Barack Obama walks off stage in the rain after urging the crowd to go to their cars, Monday, June 31, 2010, during a Memorial Day ceremony at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Illinois.Evan Vucci— AP
Batac, Ilocos Norte Province, Philippnes: Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos kisses the glass coffin of her husband, late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, March 26, 2010. The former Philippine leader has remained unburied since his death in 1989. Imelda replaced her son, incumbent Rep. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., who is running for Senator, as she won her bid for congress for the northern province of Ilocos Norte in this year's Philippine election.Romeo Ranoco— Reuters
San Diego, California, USA: A U.S. border patrol vehicle, seen from the Mexican side of the border, drives near Otay Mountain on the outskirts of San Diego, California, June 6, 2010. In response to spiralling drug violence in northern Mexico, where cartels are battling for smuggling routes, President Barack Obama announced he would send 1,200 more National Guard troops to the region and ask for an additional $500 million to secure the almost 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.Jorge Duenes—Reuters
