AP PHOTOS: Happy New Year! World celebrates 2016

Peoples release balloons to celebrate the New Year with Tokyo Tower in the background in Tokyo, early Friday, Jan. 1, 2016. Japan celebrated the start of 2016, the Year of the Monkey in the Japanese Zodiac.

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.