The Week in Pictures

Joe St. Georges, a Los Angeles city firefighter, approaches a dog stranded in the swift waters of the Los Angeles River. St. Georges, who was lowered into the river from a Fire Department helicopter, was able to save the dog.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

A family watches from a desert ridge as a Gulf Air passenger jet leads the French team, Patrouille de France, during Bahrain’s International Air Show. Hundreds of people scattered on rocky desert cliffs watched the show.  (Hasan Jamali / Associated Press)

San Diego’s Vincent Jackson can’t hold on to a pass from quarterback Philip Rivers, deflecting it to New York cornerback Darrelle Revis for an interception in the second half of the AFC divisional playoff game at Qualcomm Stadium. The underdog Jets stunned the Chargers, 17-14.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre, right, talks to his Dallas counterpart, Tony Romo, after the Vikings’ resounding 34-3 victory over the visiting Cowboys in an NFC divisional playoff game.  (Paul Sancya / Associated Press)

Massachusetts state Sen. Scott Brown, a Republican, speaks at the Wachusett Mountain Ski Area as he campaigns against Democrat Martha Coakley and Joseph Kennedy, a Libertarian running as an independent, in a special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat held by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. President Obama made a rare campaign-style visit to Boston in a last-ditch effort to boost Coakley’s chances and preserve the party’s filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Full story  (Robert F. Bukaty / Associated Press)

Massachusetts Atty. Gen. Martha Coakley, right, greets Donna Kelly-Williams, president of the Massachusetts Nurses Assn., during a campaign stop. Democrats are worried that Coakley’s chances of winning the seat held by U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy are fading. Full story  (Julia Cumes / Associated Press)

New York safety Jim Leonhard, minus his helmet, gets to the ball ahead of San Diego’s Malcolm Floyd, left, and Mike Tolbert in their AFC divisional playoff game. The visiting Jets upset the Chargers, 17-14, snapping San Diego’s 11-game winning streak.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Ukrainian presidential candidate and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko waves to the news media after casting her vote in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. Polls opened today in the presidential election, which is expected to see a comeback by pro-Russian forces five years after the Orange Revolution.  (Alexander Prokopenko / AFP/Getty Images)

Japanese skier Kato Taihei at the 13th Nordic Combined World Cup competition in Chaux-Neuve, eastern France.  (Jeff Pachoud / AFP/Getty Images)

A man casts his vote during general elections in La Union, Chile. Voting started Sunday in a presidential election that promised to be an extremely tight contest between a conservative billionaire, Sebastian Pinera, and a former leftist president, Eduardo Frei.  (Rodrigo Arangua / AFP/Getty Images)

People watch fireworks light up the sky on the Pierre Loti hill in Istanbul. The Turkish city is launching a year of art events as it becomes one of three Cultural Capitals of Europe for 2010, marking the event with concerts, street shows and firework displays.  (BULENT KILIC / AFP / Getty Images)

FC Porto forward Radamel Falcao from Colombia, left, tries to score a goal as he faces Pacos Ferreira goalkeeper Cassio dos Anjos from Brazil, right, during their Portuguese first league soccer match at Dragao Stadium.  (Miguel Riopa / AFP / Getty Images)

Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis jumps during the FIS World Cup men’s downhill on Saturday.  (Franck Fife / AFP / Getty Images)

People run toward a U.S. helicopter as it makes a water drop near a country club used as a base by the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division. Relief groups and officials are focused on moving aid to survivors of the powerful earthquake that hit the country on Tuesday.  (Jae C. Hong / AP Photo)

A freestyle motocross rider performs for the public at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Square in the capital of Taiwan.  (Wally Santana / AP Photo)

A man feeds the fire he set to a corpse in downtown Port-au-Prince four days after the earthquake. Residents have started to take action since many bodies have not yet been picked up and the stench is overwhelming. The deceased was a street vendor, who was killed when a cement block fell on her according to those who were around her.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Looters swarm a building in downtown Port-au-Prince, where the number of people scavenging continues to rise.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

A photograph of earthquake victim Leslie Polynice lies in the rubble of a home in Port-au-Prince. Full coverage  (Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)

The Charlotte Bobcats’ D.J. Augustin (14) passes as DeJuan Blair of the visiting San Antonio Spurs exerts defensive pressure during Charlotte’s 92-76 win.  (Chuck Burton / Associated Press)

Elena Dementieva of Russia exults after defeating Serena Williams of the U.S., 6-3, 6-2, in the women’s singles final Friday at the Sydney International tennis tournament.  (Rick Rycroft / Associated Press)

One of several tent cities that have sprung up around Port-au-Prince, where thousands of residents have become homeless after a 7.0 earthquake. More photos from Haiti  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Thousands of people in the battered Haitian capital are still too afraid to sleep in their homes. A family gathers around a candle waiting for the sun to rise on the third night after the quake. They were singing hymns throughout the night. More photos from Haiti  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

The moon begins to obstruct the view of the sun from Earth during a solar eclipse at the Tiananmen Square. The eclipse is predicted to be the longest of its kind for the next 1,000 years.  (Feng Li / Getty Images)

Residents watch the solar eclipse, this year’s first annular solar eclipse and the millennium’s longest.  (Mohammad Abu Ghosh / Associated Press)

Swimmers brave subzero temperatures and snow to swim in a downtown pool.  (John McConnico / Associated Press)

From left, Pierre Vaultier and Xavier De Le Rue, both of France; Fabio Caduff of Switzerland and Nick Baumgartner of the U.S. compete during the semifinals of the men’s Snowboard Cross World Cup race. Vaultier won the competition.  (Jean-Christophe Bott / EPA)

Hindu devotees bathe in the “Sangam,” the confluence of rivers Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati, on Mauni Amavasya, a day considered auspicious to Hindus. Hundreds of thousands of devout Hindus take a bath at the confluence during the astronomically auspicious period of over 30 days celebrated as “Magh Mela” to rid themselves of their sins and attain prosperity.  (Rajesh Kumar Singh / Associated Press)

Models wear creations by Thai designers during a street fashion parade. Hundreds of models take part in the parade held to promote the fashion industry in Thailand.  (Narong Sangnak / EPA)

Japanese automotive accessories company D.A.D. staffer Ryota Mizoguchi checks a Mercedes-Benz SL-600 covered by Swarovski’s 300,000 gold shadow crystal pieces, designed by D.A.D, at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, east of Tokyo.  (Itsuo Inouye / Associated Press)

People walk in the street Thursday as aid begins to pour in to Haiti. Experts are stressing the importance of coordination between a weak central government, a constellation of nongovernmental groups and international governments. After being hit by four successive hurricanes that left untold damage two years ago, Haiti suffered a massive 7.0 magnitude quake Tuesday that devastated the capital and the central region of the country, which was already the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere.  (Julien Tack AFP / Getty Images)

A boy in Angola kicks a ball outside the soccer stadium in the coastal town of Lobito while the African Nations Cup football tournament is taking place in the country.  (Khaled Desouki / AFP / Getty Images)

An employee of Bonham’s auction house in London stands next to the skeleton of an enormous ice age cave bear (Ursus spelaeus), a species thought to have died out about 28,000 years ago. The bear skeleton was expected to sell for up to $40,000.  (Alastair Grant / Associated Press)

A couple walk under the pier at Santa Monica Beach, where a new report by the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission found a revival of bottom-dwelling marine life in the wake of upgrades at two big wastewater plants that empty into the bay several miles from shore.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Indian Hindu devotees offer prayers on the banks of the river Ganges in Haridwar. About 10 million pilgrims were expected to celebrate the Kumbh Mela religious festival.  (Manan Vatsyayana / AFP / Getty Images)

A man rides his bicycle on a road after Lake Skadar flooded land near the village of Plavnica, about six miles south of Montenegro’s capital, Podgorica.  (Risto Bozovic / Associated Press)

Dexter Pittman, left, of the No. 1-ranked Texas Longhorns vies for a loose ball Wednesday with the Iowa State Cyclones’ Justin Hamilton. Texas won, 90-83, and improved to 16-0.  (Charlie Neibergall / AP Photo)

Icicles hang from a statue in St. Petersburg, Russia.  (Dmitry Lovetsky / Associated Press)

The Budapest zoo’s 32-year-old male gorilla, Golo, thinks things over.  (Bela Szandelszky / Associated Press)

Mothers tow their children to day care in Hartley Wintney, in Hampshire, 40 miles west of London. Fresh snowfalls hit parts of Britain, forcing airports to close as businesses counted the cost of the worst winter in decades. More than 1,000 schools told pupils and teachers to stay home.  (Adrian Dennis / AFP / Getty Images)

Man gather at the crumbled Haitian Department of Justice building to seek out survivors who might be buried inside.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

A woman pleads for help outside a hospital where no one was getting care. People waited on the ground for hours Wednesday, hoping someone would tend to their injuries.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

A woman tries to help rescue a survivor whose voice she heard from beneath the collapsed Haitian Department of Justice building in Port-au-Prince.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

The injured wait for help at a makeshift hospital in Port-au-Prince in the aftermath of the 7.0 earthquake.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Equipment and supplies are loaded onto trucks at the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s urban search and rescue facility in Pacoima, ready to travel to Haiti in the aftermath of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that brought destruction to the Caribbean island nation.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Body boarding in the high surf just south of the Seal Beach Pier is a thrill for some as a storm rolls into Southern California.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Two people on the Seal Beach Pier enjoy a quiet predawn walk in the rain as the first of several storms rolls into Southern California.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

A woman who was trapped in rubble is carried to safety.  (Lisandro Suero / AFP-Getty Images)

Lightning near Guanabara Bay can be seen from the port in Rio de Janeiro.  (Felipe Dana / Associated Press)

Kashmiri Muslim villagers turn out to watch the funeral procession of suspected militant Riyaz Ahmed. People shouting pro-freedom slogans participated in the procession. Ahmed was reportedly killed by government security forces in a gun battle.  (Dar Yasin / Associated Press)

Students at a women’s college dance around a fire to celebrate the Lohri festival. Lohri marks the beginning of the harvest season and the end of winter.  (Altaf Qadri / Associated Press)

A cross-country skier makes his way through a snowy landscape in the Erzgebirge mountain range.  (Norbert Millauer / AFP/Getty Images)

A man who lost his home to a shanty town fire surveys the damage caused by the blaze. According to a local news agency, the fire broke out near the Bidhanagar train station after a gas cylinder explosion.  (Bikas Das / Associated Press)

A cycle rickshaw pushes through a dense blanket of fumigating smoke released by the city administration to stop the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.  (Saurabh Das / Associated Press)

People hold a candlelight vigil for activist Liu Xiaobo outside the Legislative Council building. Liu was convicted by a Beijing court on Christmas Day on charges of subversion and sentenced to 11 years in prison. The outcome of the case has drawn condemnation from the U.S., the European Union and other Western governments.  (Mike Clarke / AFP/Getty Images)

An Indian boy tries to climb on a bridge as he collects coin offerings made by pilgrims to the Ganges River as they travel to Gangasagar Fair at Sagar Island. Gangasagar Fair is the annual gathering of Hindu pilgrims to take a dip in the sacred waters of the river.  (Piyal Adhikary / EPA)

A curler plays a game near a crack in the ice on the Lake of Menteith.  (Andrew Milligan / Associated Press)

A mother and her daughter walk in Jerusalem’s Old City.  (Bernat Armangue / Associated Press)

President Nicolas Sarkozy pays his respects at the funeral of Philippe Seguin, 66, former politician and president of the “Cour des Comptes,” France’s public finance watchdog committee. Seguin, an influential Euroskeptic, died of a heart attack.  (Ian Langsdon / EPA)

A man swims with beluga wales during a show at an aquarium in China’s northern Heilongjiang province. The aquarium is getting a boost in visitors because of its location next the International Harbin Ice and Snow Sculpture festival, a popular annual event.  (Diego Azubel / EPA)

The Tungurahua volcano spews ash and lava south of Quito.  (Cecilia Puebla / AFP / Getty Images)

Dancers perform at the opening ceremonies of the African Cup of Nations soccer championships at November 11 Stadium in Angola’s capital.  (Joe Klamar / AFP / Getty Images)

Angolan fans take part in the opening ceremony of the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament in the November 11 Stadium in Luanda. The stadium was built by the Chinese.  (Joe Klamar / AFP / Getty Images)

Visitors walk through a coloful corridor at an aquarium in Harbin, in China’s Heilongjiang province.  (Diego Azubel / EPA)

Edwin Garcia, 5, gets a flu shot in Arlington, Va. Flu shot drives for patients of all ages are scheduled this week for National Influenza Vaccination Week.  (Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

A relative of Hasan Qatrawi, an Islamic Jihad militant, reacts on seeing his body during his funeral in the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip. Qatrawi is one of three Islamic Jihad members killed in an Israeli airstrike near the Gaza border.  (Khalil Hamra / Associated Press)