Pictures of the year - January
Reuters photographers were on the scene to cover the news that shaped 2013, from the raging civil war in Syria to the death of Nelson Mandela. In countries around the world they documented social change, sporting drama, developing industry and tales of the unexpected.
This is the first in a series of stories rounding up some of the best images of 2013, accompanied by comments and blog extracts from the photographers behind the lens.
South Africa's Riaan Van Niekerk rides his KTM during the fifth stage of the Dakar Rally 2013 from Arequipa in Peru to Arica in Chile.
An aerial view shows the brine pools and processing areas of the Rockwood lithium plant, on the Atacama salt flat of northern Chile.
A Hindu devotee stands in the waters of the River Ganges to offer prayers at dawn.
A girl balances on a swing at the old Indian Museum in Rio de Janeiro, which stands next to the city’s famous Maracana stadium. Indigenous people squatting in the building protested their anticipated eviction to make way for construction work connected with Brazil’s 2014 soccer World Cup.
A French soldier peers into the barrel of a tank at a Malian air base in Bamako. France poured troops into Mali in January to help wrest control of the country's north from Islamist rebels.
An activist reacts as hundreds of coffins burn outside Kenya's parliament during a protest against legislators who voted to triple their end-of-term bonuses and award themselves state funerals.
Thirty-five-year-old Ruslan loads blocks of ice onto a truck outside Yakutsk in the Republic of Sakha, a region in the far northeast of Russia where the coldest temperatures in the northern hemisphere have been recorded.
Protesters against Egypt’s then-president Mohamed Mursi flee from tear gas fired by riot police during clashes near Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
A fly lands between U.S. President Barack Obama's eyes as he speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House.
A woman walks behind Belgian riot police during clashes with Arcelor Mittal steel plant workers, who were demonstrating outside the Walloon Region's parliament.
