From house breaking in Johannesburg to hippos on the loose in Tbilisi to rioters attacking a policewoman in Burundi, Reuters photographers tell the story behind some of the most iconic pictures of the year. Here: Protesters drag a female police officer accused of shooting a protester in the Buterere neighbourhood of Bujumbura, Burundi, May 12, 2015. Goran Tomasevic: Protesters started throwing stones at a group of police, who then started to run away. The policewoman in the photo, Medikintos Inabeza, 33, got left behind and then some protesters started to push her, saying that she had shot a female protestor in the stomach with an AK47 rifle. I didn't see anything of that. There were 5 or 10 protesters pushing the policewoman at first, then others came and joined in. Up to 20 or 30 protesters were surrounding her at one point. The protesters kicked and beat her very badly; I also saw a couple of knives. I thought they were going to kill her... (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

A woman is cooled down with a watering can as she sunbathes using insulating tape, at a beauty center in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on December 21, 2017. Brazilian women take advantage of the beginning of the summer to sunbathe using the new national trend: natural tanning with insulating tape. Instead of using tiny bikinis on the beach, women avoid being bothered or stalked by getting taped in the shape of them, and lay in the sun over rooftops to enjoy the morning sun and get the perfect “marquinha” tan lines. (Photo by Douglas Magno/AFP Photo)

Christ the Redeemer is seen from the Vista Chinesa (Chinese View) during sunrise in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 4, 2016. Rio de Janeiro is a marvel and a mess all at once. When it hosts the first ever Olympics in South America, starting Aug. 5, visitors will see a city whose stunning topography – stark, verdant mountains loom over packed and playful beaches – competes only with the drama of daily life here. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

Riot Police form a cordon as a Police car burns on the opening day of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on March 18, 2015. Supporters of the so-called Blockupy alliance consisting of social movements, activists, workers, trade unions and parties are expected to stage large protests against austerity and the authority of the European Central Bank when the bank's new headquarters officially will be on March 18, 2015. (Photo by Odd Andersen/AFP Photo)

“A Hadaka Matsuri (“Naked Festival”) is a type of Japanese festival, or matsuri, in which participants wear a minimum amount of clothing; usually just a Japanese loincloth (called fundoshi), sometimes with a short happi coat, and rarely completely naked. Whatever the clothing, it is considered to be above vulgar, or everyday, undergarments, and on the level of holy Japanese shrine attire. Naked festivals are held in dozens of places throughout Japan every year, usually in the summer or winter. The most famous festival is held in Okayama, where the festival originated. Every year, over 9,000 men participate in this festival”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Japanese men wear loincloths as they splash about in freezing cold water during Saidaiji Naked Festival, at Saidaiji Temple on February 18, 2012 in Okayama, Japan. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)

A migrant woman pulls a girl out of the water as refugees and migrants arrive on an overcrowded dinghy in rough sea on the Greek island of Lesbos, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast, October 2, 2015. A record number of at least 430,000 refugees and migrants have taken rickety boats across the Mediterranean to Europe this year, 309,000 via Greece, according to International Organization for Migration figures. (Photo by Dimitris Michalakis/Reuters)

Two men help each other cross a street covered in deep mud in Copiapo, Chile, Thursday, March 26, 2015. Unusually heavy thunder storms and torrential rains that began on Tuesday have blocked roads, caused power outages and affected some 600 people on this normally dry region. (Photo by Aton Chile/Marcelo Hernandez/AP Photo)