From the campaign trail to wildfires in California to war in Iraq, TIME presents the best photographs of 2007
Let the Race Begin
Republican Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani makes a campaign stop at Suzie's Diner in Hudson, New Hampshire.Brooks Kraft / Corbis for TIME
Wacky Winter
An unexpected snowfall surprised residents of Johannesburg, South Africa, in June.AFP / Getty
Frosty
A young girl surveys the January cold in Stavropol, Russia.Eduard Korniyenko / Reuters
Poised
Actress Penelope Cruz waits to go on stage at the 79th annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, California.Chris Carlson / AP
Been Caught Stealing
Talkshow Host Ellen Degeneres jokingly grabs an armful of Emmy statuettes backstage at the television award show in September.Kevork Djansezian / AP
Champagne Shower
The Boston Red Sox celebrate their second World Series win in four years.Jim Davis / Boston Globe / Landov
Everything a Man Needs
Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney visits a hardware store in Goffstown, New Hampshire.Brooks Kraft / Corbis for TIME
New Face
Eight-year old Leslie Garcia walks in a rally in support of better treatment of immigrants in Denver.Nathan W. Armes / Sipa
Passage
An alleyway cuts through Hebron, in the Israeli occupied West Bank.Tivadar Domaniczky for TIME
Two Heads
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and CIA Director Michael Hayden listen to the swearing-in of National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington.Christopher Morris / VII for TIME
Lookouts
Secret Service agents survey the landscape adjacent to the Victory Junction Gang Camp, a center for children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses, during a presidential visit to North Carolina in October.Christopher Morris / VII for TIME
Getting Down to Business
The President sheds his coat after delivering a speech on immigration policy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia.Brooks Kraft / Corbis for TIME
Dust Storm
A gigantic cloud of dust, known as a "Haboob" advances on Khartoum, Sudan in April. These seasonal types of monsoons can reach a heights of 3000 feet.AFP / Getty
Flood
Water rushes down a stairwell during heavy rains in Chongqing, China in July.China Daily / Reuters
Wildfire
Firemen watch a helicopter douse flames near Escondido, California. A series of blazes destroyed a half million acres and displaced thousands of residents in October.K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune / Zumapress
Child Labor
Sixteen-year-old Rubel works at an aluminum factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh.Shiho Fukada / WPN
The Killer Among Us
The class photograph of Seung-Hui Cho is isolated in the 2002 yearbook of Westfield High School in Falls Church, Virginia. Twenty-three-year old Cho went on a shooting rampage that claimed the lives of 32 Virginia Tech students and faculty members.Chip Somodevilla / Getty
Memorial
The day after the shooting, thousands of people gathered on the commons of the Virginia Tech campus to honor the victims.Hector Emanuel for TIME
Grief
Palestinian women mourn the death of Hamas supporter.Heidi Levine / Sipa
Takeover
A member of Hamas sits behind a desk at rival Fatah's security headquarters in Gaza City. In June, Hamas forces took control of the Gaza Strip.Wissam Nassar / AP
Defender
A member of the Afghan National Army engages in a skirmish with Taliban forces near an outpost at Gowardehs.Alvaro Ybarra Zavala / VU for TIME
Displaced
Refugees from fighting in Mogadishu seek shelter at a camp in Baletwayne, Somalia.Marcus Bleasdale / VII
Sealing the Deal
A television broadcasts a meeting between President Bush and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in Rome, Italy during a presidential tour of Europe in June.Christopher Morris / VII for TIME
Dealer
Black market gasoline is sold on the streets of Lagos, Nigeria.Thomas Dworzak / Magnum for TIME
Scavenger
A Nigerian woman protects herself against a fire in a trash dump where she harvests garbage.Jacob Silberberg / Panos
Street Fighting
Kenji Nagai, a Japanese photographer, falls to the ground after being shot in confrontations between Burmese protesters and government security forces. Kenji later died.Reuters
Back to Normal?
A monk winds his way through a crowded market in the days after the Burmese government's crackdown.James Nachtwey / VII for TIME
Commander
A Kurdish rebel pauses on a roadside in Northern Iraq. PKK forces mounted incursions into Turkey through the spring and summer.Philippe Dudouit for TIME
Man of the World
Former Vice President and Nobel Prize Winner Al Gore works in his home office in Tennessee.Steve Pyke for TIME
Candidate
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama waits to be introduced at a campaign event in Manning, South Carolina.Callie Shell / Aurora for TIME
Checking In
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton checks her Blackberry before a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa in January.Diana Walker for TIME
Royal Guest
Britain's Queen Elizabeth waits for the family of U.S. President George W. Bush to arrive at dinner at the British Embassy in May.Brooks Kraft / Corbis for TIME
Hogwarts Bound
Harry Potter fans board a train to a secret location for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in Sydney, Australia.Lisa Maree Williams / Getty
Confrontation
A protester shows red-painted hands to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice before the Secretary testifies at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on U.S. policy in the Middle East.Yuri Gripas / Landov / UPI
Pie Eyed
World Pie Championship judge John Young poses with two scotch pies at a competition in Dunfermline, Scotland.David Moir / Reuters
Power Stroke
Tennis star Rafael Nadal poses underneath the surface of a pool in Monte Carlo, Monaco.Clive Brunskill / Getty
Champion
Willi Chevalier, of Sigmaringen, Germany is the winner of the 2007 Partial and Freestyle Beard competition.Sheri Manson for TIME
Trunk Show
A three-day old baby elephant reaches for its mother at an animal park in Berlin.Marcus Brandt / AFP / Getty
Collapse
Cars and trucks lie scattered on the remains of Interstate 35W Bridge in Minneapolis shortly after it crashed into the Mississippi River in August.Heather Munro / Polaris
Terror in the U.K.
Baggage handlers and police detain one of two men who drove a Jeep Cherokee laden with explosives into the airport terminal at Glasgow Airport.Maurice McDonald / WPN
No Man’s Land
Two women make their way through the rubble of Muqdadiyah, Iraq. Sectarian violence has stripped the town of its male population.Franco Pagetti / VII for TIME
Halt
A Sunni volunteer refuses to be photographed in Muqdadiyah.Franco Pagetti / VII for TIME
Protected
U.S. soldiers shield a wounded comrade from debris kicked up by a rescue helicopter in Qubah, Iraq.Yuri Kozyrev / Noor for TIME
Mourned
A member of the military accompanies Rachel Guy-Latham at a viewing of the body of her husband, Sergeant Thomas Lee Latham, 23, who was killed by an IED in Baghdad, Iraq in March.Anthony Suau for TIME
Training
Newly recruited female police officers practice with their rifles before a test on a shooting range in Pol-E Khumri, Afghanistan.Balazs Gardi / Alexia Foundation
Civil War
Lebanese troops battle with militants from Fatah al-Islam in Tripoli. Fighting between the militants and the government soldiers spread across northern Lebanon in May.Nicholas Blanford / Landov / UPI
Aftermath
The fighting in Lebanon spread to the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp, where the dust settles after several days of fighting.Ben Curtis / AP
