Top news photos of 2013

These are some of the top news photos of the year, as chosen by the Associated Press and Time magazine.

This may be the most haunting photo of the year.

 In late April, activist and photographer Taslima Akhter captured this image of the fire and building collapse that killed more than 1,000 in a Bangladeshi garment factory. Notice the tear-shaped drop of blood coming from the man's left eye.  Although she has spent months trying to learn the names of the victims shown in this unsettling, moving picture, Akhter has been unable to identify them (TIME/photo).

Typhoon Haiyan killed 6,111 people in the Philippines and left 1,779 others missing on November 8,  making the storm, which also left 4.4 million people homeless, one of the deadliest natural disasters in Philippine history. Photographer Philippe Lopez described his photo, above, this way: Clouds gathered in front of the setting sun while along the road residents lit fires to burn the debris left by the typhoon. Momentarily, the devastated landscape took on a strange beauty, and it was just then that this group of women and children appeared on the road. I think people gravitate towards this picture not only because it is visually strong and emotional, but also because, in a way, it draws on some viewers' own faith.  (Philippe Lopez--TIME—AFP/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama looks to see if it is still raining as a Marine holds an umbrella for him during his joint news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, not pictured, Thursday, May 16, 2013, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington.(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Two grief-stricken men in Cairo, Egypt, carry a dead young man who was shot in the head on July 27, 2013, as supporters of President Morsi clashed with military forces. Photographer Mosa'ab Elshamy described for TIME the scene: I rushed to Rabaa Adaweya square shortly after midnight on July 27th after hearing that security forces were attacking Morsi supporters who had been camped there for two months. Throughout the night I would alternate between the front-line, the makeshift hospital and a room where dead were kept, documenting a level of brute violence and horror I hadn't witnessed until that night. There was a constant stream of ambulances and motorbikes in the camp. The sound of 

sirens and panicked shouts mixed with that of live ammunition, and the 

air was filled with tear gas and black smoke.
(Mosa'ab Elshamy—Anadolu Agency--TIME)

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, left, applauds as the members of the ‘Malala Day’ Youth Assembly wish Malala Yousafzai, center, a happy birthday, Friday, July 12, 2013 at United Nations headquarters. Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot in the head by the Taliban for promoting education for girls, celebrated her 16th birthday by addressing the United Nations. The U.N. has declared July 12 "Malala Day," to honor the teen who returned to school in March after extensive medical treatment in Britain for injuries suffered in the October attack. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

An Egyptian soccer fan of Al-Ahly club displays scales of justice to fans celebrating a court verdict that returned 21 death penalties in last years soccer violence. The photo was taken inside the club premises in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, after at least 8 people died in the Mediterranean city. A judge sentenced 21 people to death in connection to one of the world's deadliest incidents of soccer violence. (AP Photo/Ahmed Ramadan)

 

First lady Michelle Obama pretends to dance to music as she arrives to speak in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Nov. 8, 2013, at a workshop for high school students from Washington, New York and Boston about careers in film. Film and musical theater composer and pianist Alan Menken performed a medley of his music before the start of the event. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Thania Sayne of Effingham, Ill., leans on the headstone at the grave of her husband, Army Sgt. Timothy D. Sayne, during the playing of taps at a nearby burial service at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Va., Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, a day before what would have been their third wedding anniversary. Sayne, was 4 months pregnant with their second son, Douglas, when her husband was killed on Sept. 18, 2011, in the Kandahar province of Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

In January, the damage from Superstorm Sandy was still evident on the New Jersey shoreline. Parking meters stand out from sand dunes at the Seaside Heights, N.J., amusement park and boardwalk which was devastated by the October 2012 storm.
(Marko Georgiev—The Record of Bergen County/AP)

LaTisha Garcia carries her 8-year-old daughter, Jazmin Rodriguez, near Plaza Towers Elementary School after a massive tornado carved its way through Moore, Okla., May 20, 2013, leaving little of the school and neighborhood. (AP Photo Sue Ogrocki)

Firefighters walk along Highway 120 after a burnout operation as firefighters continue to battle the Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

 

Michael Kiefer, of DeFuniak Springs, Fla., checks out a display of rifles at the Rock River Arms booth during the 35th annual SHOT Show, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013, in Las Vegas. As Congress debates new gun-sale restrictions, purchases of firearms skyrocketed.  (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Former President George H.W. Bush shakes hands with his son, former President George W. Bush during the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, Thursday, April 25, 2013, in Dallas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)


 

A Syrian man mourning over a dead body after a monstrous poison gas attack fired by regime forces in Douma town, Damascus, Syria, on Aug. 20, 2013. The Bashar 

Assad regime used outlawed toxins to kill nearly 1,500 civilians,

 including at least 426 children. (AP photo)

Smoke rises from railway cars that were carrying crude oil after derailing in downtown Lac Megantic, Quebec, Canada, Saturday, July 6, 2013. A large swath of Lac Megantic was destroyed after a train carrying crude oil derailed, sparking several explosions and forcing the evacuation of up to 1,000 people. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Paul Chiasson)

Vladimr Franz, Czech artist and composer and candidate for the Czech presidency, attends a public pre-election debate in Prague, Czech Republic, on Jan. 4, 2013.

(Filip Singer—EPA--TIME)

People pause for a picture while digging out their cars in Boston, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. A howling storm across the Northeast left the New York-to-Boston corridor shrouded in 1 to 3 feet of snow, stranding motorists on highways overnight and piling up drifts so high that some homeowners couldn't get their doors open. More than 650,000 homes and businesses were left without electricity. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, before the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the difficulties plaguing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. As Sebelius was peppered with questions from lawmakers, the Obama Administration claimed the botched rollout was the result of contractors failing to live up to expectations – not bad management at HHS. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

 The sun rises in Seaside Heights, N.J., on Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, behind the Jet Star Roller Coaster which was sitting in the ocean after part of the Funtown Pier was destroyed during Superstorm Sandy. The private owners of the amusement pier that collapsed in Seaside Heights were working with insurers to devise a plan to dismantle the ride and get it out of the ocean. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

A Free Syrian Army fighter feeds a cat bread in the old city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013. The revolution against Syrian President Bashar Assad that began in March 2011, started with peaceful protests but morphed into a civil war that has killed more than 60,000 people, according to a recent United Nations estimate. (AP Photo/Andoni Lubaki)

        An emergency responder and volunteers, including Carlos Arredondo in the cowboy hat, push Jeff Bauman in a wheel chair after he was injured in an explosion near the finish line of the Boston Marathon Monday, April 15, 2013 in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

       Herring worth billions are seen floating dead Tuesday Feb. 5, 2013, in a small fjord in western Iceland, for the second time in two months. Between 25,000 and 30,000 tons of herring died in December 2012 and more in February, due to lack of oxygen in the fjord thought to have been caused by a a nearby landfill. (AP Photo/Brynjar Gauti)

An anti-government protester reaches through the barbed wire and gives a rose to a Thai soldier at the Defense Ministry during a rally in Bangkok Thursday, Nov. 28, 2013. Thailand's embattled prime minister begged protesters who have staged the most sustained street rallies in Bangkok in years to call off their demonstrations and negotiate an end to the nation's latest crisis. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

A displaced Pakistani girl, Amina Bibi, attends class at a school rebuilt by the Pakistani army, in Tank, a border town in South Waziristan, the Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, March 28, 2013. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

A field of parked cars and trucks sits partially submerged near Greeley, Colo., Saturday, Sept. 14, 2013, as debris-filled rivers flooded into towns and farms miles from the Rockies. Hundreds of roads, farms and businesses in the area were damaged 

or destroyed by the floodwaters. (AP Photo/John Wark)