A Hindu holy man, or sadhu, smeared with ashes smokes marijuana in a chillum during the Shivaratri festival on the premises of Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, March 7, 2016. Hindu holy men from Nepal and India come to this temple to take part in the Maha Shivaratri festival. Celebrated by Hindu devotees all over the world, Shivaratri is dedicated to Lord Shiva, and holy men mark the occasion by praying, smoking marijuana or smearing their bodies with ashes. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

A Buddhist monk uses a traditional needle to tattoo the body of a man at Wat Bang Phra in Nakhon Pathom province on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, March 18, 2016. Believers from across Thailand travel to the monastery to have their bodies adorned with tattoos and to pay their respects to the temple's master tattooist. They believe the tattoos have mystical powers, ward off bad luck and protect them from harm. (Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters)

Myanmar revellers take part in celebrations on the fifth and last day marking Thingyan, a water festival which brings in the country's new year, in Yangon on April 16, 2016. The Buddhist festival of water pouring symbolizes spiritual cleansing and begin the new year free from worldly impurities with celebrants devoting the four days of Thingyan in merry making of water dousing until the eve of new year. (Photo by Romeo Gacad/AFP Photo)

A cosplayer uses moving stairs during the first public day of the world's largest computer games fair Gamescom in Cologne, Germany August 23, 2017. (Photo by Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

People look at the paintings depicting Russian president Vladimir Putin dressed as Father Frost, Russian equivalent of Santa Claus, at the “SUPERPUTIN” exhibition at UMAM museum in Moscow, Russia on December 6, 2017. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Australian cosplay enthusiast Sunni Daniele dressed up as his favourite character from either animation, comic or video game poses for a photograph during Oz Comic Con in Sydney, Australia, 27 September 2015. Cosplay is a combination of the words 'costume' and 'play' where fans dress up as their favourite Japanese comic characters. (Photo by Dan Himbrechts/EPA)

Migrant Haya from Artoz, Syria, shows a picture of her town as she waits to cross the Slovenia-Austria border in Sentilj, Slovenia October 25, 2015. (Photo by Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters)

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)