US News

Day in photos: Dec. 20, 2012

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People, including a few in traditional Mayan gear, gather in front of the Kukulkan Pyramid in Chichen Itza, Mexico. With the end of the current cycle of the Mayan calendar at hand, one seer said: "We are preparing ourselves to receive a huge magnetic field straight from the center of the galaxy,"

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Early-morning commuters battle blinding snow along Interstate 70 near Lawrence, Kan. -- the Midwest's first major snowstorm of the season.

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Croatians gather in front of a museum in Zagreb to participate in an initiative by local artist Kresimir Tadija Kapulic to release into the night sky Chinese lanterns carrying Christmas and New Year.

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The casket of Hawaiian Sen. Daniel Inouye lays in state inside the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington. Inouye was a decorated WWII veteran of and one of the longest-serving members of Congress.

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An unexploded ordnance sits ominously in the middle of the road in Ghouta, Syria.

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Santa-clad window washers work on the outside a hotel in Tokyo's business district.

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Butcher Doug Nicholson prepares for a long winter's nap with his stock -- something of a tradition for the owner of C Nicholson & Son in Britain's Whitley Bay since thieves attempted to abscond with his customers' Christmas dinners a few years ago.

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A Syrian man seeking to escape his country's bloody civil war crosses illegally into Turkey through a gap in the border fence in Cilvegozu.

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Tourists cross a stone bridge over the Tuojiang River in Fenghuang, China.

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Masked members of the left-wing Quebracho movement monitor a burning-tire roadblock in Buenos Aires during a demonstration marking the anniversary of the '01 clashes that signified the height of the nation's economic crisis.

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Pictures of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting adorn a bouquet of roses at a roadside memorial in Newtown, Conn.

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British Prime Minister David Cameron attends a carol service with soldiers during a visit to Forward Operating Base Price in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.