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)

Now celebrating its 40th year, Nikon Small World is widely regarded as the leading forum to recognize proficiency and photographic excellence of photography taken under the microscope. To select the winners, competition judges analyzed entries from all over the world covering subjects ranging from chemical compounds to up-close-and-personal looks at biological specimens. The 2014 winners will be revealed on October 30th. In 2014, the competition received over 1,200 entries from more than 79 countries around the world. (Photo by Dr. Igor Robert Siwanowicz/Nikon Small World 2014)

“Old Mursi woman”. Old woman by the huts of her village. Location: Marenke, Omo valley, Ethiopia. (Photo and caption by Jorge Fernandez/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

A statue by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan of Adolf Hitler praying on his knees in Warsaw, Poland, on Friday Dec. 28, 2012. The work, «HIM» has been drawing visitors since it was installed last month and even some anger. One Jewish group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, this week condemned the work's placement in the former ghetto as “a senseless provocation which insults the memory of the Nazis' Jewish victims”. (Photo by Czarek Sokolowski/AP via La Presse)

A dog sits in the shade of a mangrove tree as a woman uses a fork to dig for shellfish on the reef-mud flats of a lagoon located at South Tarawa in the central Pacific island nation of Kiribati May 23, 2013. Kiribati consists of a chain of 33 atolls and islands that stand just metres above sea level, spread over a huge expanse of otherwise empty ocean. With surrounding sea levels rising, Kiribati President Anote Tong has predicted his country will likely become uninhabitable in 30-60 years because of inundation and contamination of its freshwater supplies. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

Revellers pose during the 24th Street Parade dance music event in Zurich, August 29, 2015. (Photo by Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)

A Dancer, dressed with the traditional Yi costume, waits to perform at the Torch Festival, in Xichang, China's Sichuan province on July 27, 2016. As a result of fast urbanisation in the rural area of China Like Lienchang prefecture, the traditional costume is fading away for the Yi people in daily life. (Photo by Fred Dufour/AFP Photo)

A collection of Sir Winston Churchill's wartime cigars, including four Romeo y Julieta Cuban Cigars given to Mr Percy Bower, Manager of the cigar department of his suppliers, the Army and Navy Stores to mark the end of the war, are displayed on January 13, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)