A heavily armed Adam Lanza opened fire on schoolchildren and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, killing 26 people, including 20 childrenReuters
A heavily armed Adam Lanza opened fire on schoolchildren and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, killing 26 people, including 20 childrenReutersDesperate Greeks bustle for free onions and other vegetables offered by farmers in Athens' Syntagma SquareReutersJamphel Yeshi, a Tibetan exile in India, sets himself on fire in protest against a visit by Chinese president Hu JintaoReutersBrazil's Terezinha Guilhermina (left) and her guide Guilherme Soares de Santana cross the finish line to win the women's 100m - T11 final in the 2012 Paralympic GamesReutersArtist Pyotr Pavlensky, a supporter of jailed members of female punk band Pussy Riot, has his mouth sewn up in protest at their trial for religious hooliganismReutersBangladeshi police strike activists protesting against fuel price hikes in DhakaReutersA boy cries as he holds his sister in his lap after a confrontation between squatters and police who wrecked illegally built homes in Nepal's capital of KathmanduReutersSvyatoslav Sheremet, the head of Gay Forum of Ukraine, is beaten mercilessly by anti-gay thugs in Kiev after a pride march was called off. The attackers ran away when they realised they had been captured on filmReutersRefugees in Pibor, South Sudan, gather for supplies from the World Food ProgrammeReutersA satellite image of the stricken Costa Concordia cruise ship aground off the coast of Italy. Thirty-two people died in the capsize.ReutersImages of 2012ReutersA boy mourns school friends killed when a bus carrying Belgian students crashed in a tunnel in Switzerland. Twenty-eight people died, 22 of them children.ReutersHundreds of physically disabled people break through police lines in La Paz to lodge demands for disability payments from the Bolivian governmentReutersA doctor removes a bullet from the hand of a young girl wounded during an attack by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in the flashpoint city of HomsReuters
As 2012 draws to a close, the IBTimes UK has pulled together some of the most striking and powerful images from the past 12 months.
The past year has featured a bombardment of extraordinary news, with some phenomenal photography to help expand the stories further.
The Syrian civil war maintains its tense grip on the news agenda, national pride reached amazing highs with the triumphant London Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the year ended with the heartbreaking tragedy of the Sandy Hook school massacre.
No matter the story - whether protests about a jailed Russia punk band or a snapshot on how the eurozone crisis has hit millions across the continent - each picture communicates with an audience in a way words cannot.
Click through to see what IBTimes UK believes to be the most powerful images of 2012:
Follow the links below to read the IBTimes UK picks of the year, in:-
