AP PHOTOS: Editor's picks from Mideast, Afghanistan-Pakistan

In this Saturday, Dec. 19, 2015 file photo, a Lebanese couple take selfie in front men and women wearing Santa Claus costumes during a parade for Christmas, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon.  

The evolution of Santa Claus

Santa through the years: medieval fresco depicting St Nicholas, the inspiration for today's Santa Claus. A medieval fresco depicting St. Nicholas from the Boyana Church, near Sofia, Bulgaria.

AP PHOTOS: A selection of pictures from the past week

Kyle Blessing, of Chesapeake, Va., hugs his fiancee, Petty Officer 2nd Class Sophie Mulkey, as Petty Officer 2nd Class Dan Ravo, of Norfolk, Va., kisses his girlfriend, Kelly Rancier, alongside the guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul after returning to Norfolk Naval Station after an eight-month deployment.  

AP PHOTOS: Editor's pick from Mideast, Afghanistan-Pakistan

In this Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2015 photo, the gold mask of King Tutankhamun is displayed in its glass case, in the Egyptian Museum near Tahrir Square, in Cairo. Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty says the famed golden burial mask has been fixed, over a year after the beard was accidentally knocked off and hastily glued back with epoxy. A German-Egyptian team began the restoration work in October.  

AP PHOTOS: Top pictures in 2015 from Europe and Africa

In this Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015 photo, a child is helped cross from Serbia to Hungary through the barbed wire fence near Roszke, southern Hungary. Round the clock, thousands of refugees cross daily along the approximately 110-mile (175-kilometer) border with non-EU member Serbia to the south.  

AP PHOTOS: Horses make wild patients at Israeli hospital

At Israel's main equine hospital, the animals can be wild patients, creating some unique challenges for the veterinarians treating them.

"They are not good patients," said Dr. Gal Kelmer, who heads the large animal department at Hebrew University's Koret School of Veterinary Medicine. "I get a lot of satisfaction when things work."

AP PHOTOS: A selection of pictures from the past week

The skyline of downtown Pittsburgh, Pa., is reflected in the Allegheny River as it is silhouetted by the rising sun on a foggy morning on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015.  

AP PHOTOS: Editor selections from the Middle East for 2015

In this Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015 file photo, Lebanese activists hold up a makeshift shield as they are sprayed by riot police using water cannons during a protest against the ongoing trash crisis, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon. Lebanese riot police fired several rounds of tear gas and water cannons for the second consecutive day in downtown Beirut Sunday as they battled protesters with batons and stones _ a marked escalation of mass demonstrations against an ongoing trash crisis.  

AP PHOTOS: Editor selections from Latin America for 2015

In this Sept. 17, 2015, file photo, a worker prepares to fit a wooden arm onto a Christ statue during preparations of the altar where Pope Francis will celebrate Mass in the Plaza of the Revolution, in Havana, Cuba. When Francis arrives in Havana on Sept. 19, he'll find his church ministering to more Cubans than at any time since the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.

AP PHOTOS: Sports selections from Latin America for 2015

In this Nov. 12, 2015, file photo, Colombia's James Rodriguez kicks Chile's Matias Fernandez as he tries to play the ball during a 2018 World Cup qualifying soccer match in Santiago, Chile, Thursday.   

AP PHOTOS: Program fights student hunger in Peru's Amazon

Hunger haunts the jungle home of the Ashaninka.

Incursions and assaults by loggers, miners, colonists and Shining Path rebels have reduced the lands of the Ashaninka people in the Peruvian Amazon, leaving many of the 97,000 members of the group malnourished.

The problem may be worst among children.

AP PHOTOS: A selection of pictures from the past week

A Palestinian man inspects the house of Raeb Ahmed Muhammad Alivi which was demolished by the Israeli army, in the West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015. The military says Alivi led a five-member Hamas cell that shot and killed U.S. citizen Eitam Henkin and his wife, Naama, as they drove in the northern West Bank on Oct. 1. He was arrested days after the attack.  

Flood waters swirl in south India even as rain eases

Tens of thousands of people were crowding into government-run relief camps in southern India's Tamil Nadu state on Friday, as floods continued to swirl despite a respite from days of relentless rains.

By late morning, state capital Chennai had seen little or no rain for almost 24 hours. The government has set up 97 relief camps, which are currently providing food and shelter to an estimated 62,000 people. But local residents were still complaining bitterly that their homes remained inundated and help from the government was either very slow or entirely absent.