Photos of the Day

An Israeli Arab boy dressed up as Santa Claus sits in a cardboard box during a Christmas parade through the town of Nazareth on Christmas Eve, Thursday. (Moti Milrod/AP)

Jacob Schneider of the Connecticut National Guard, 1st Battalion, 102nd Infantry Regiment hugs his mother Lori Schneider (r.) at the William A. O'Neill Armory in Hartford, Conn. on Wednesday. Two units of the Connecticut National Guard are returning home for the holidays, thanks to a fundraising effort that will bus them back to the state from bases in Wisconsin and Indiana. They have been training for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan early in the new year. (Jessica Hill/AP)

Indian children dressed in festive clothing sit on a bench during a Christmas party at a kindergarten on the last day before school holidays in New Delhi. Christmas day is observed as a national holiday for all Indians. (Kevin Frayer/AP)

Young red deer search for food in their snow-covered enclosure at a park in Hamburg, Germany, on Tuesday. (Christian Charisius/Reuters)

Fatma Mrisho waits for food at a temporary shelter for flood victims in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Government officials put the death toll at 25 but more than 4,000 are still missing. (Khalfan Said/AP)

A worker passes by the statue of Vladimir Lenin, abandoned in the backyard of the Mogosoaia Palace in Romania, on Monday. The statue was removed from a square in Bucharest in 1990. This week Romanians commemorate 20 years since communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu fled Bucharest during an uprising on Dec. 22 after ruling Romania for 25 years. More than a thousand people are reported to have lost their lives during the Romanian revolution. (Vadim Ghirda/AP)

Astrid, a two week-old Red Lechwe calf, walks with her keeper at Chester Zoo in Chester, northern England on Dec. 21. The calf is being hand-reared by keepers at the zoo after being abandoned by its mother, and will be spending Christmas at a keepers house. (Phil Noble/Reuters)

Giant pandas Qiqi (l.) and Zhizhi eat at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China. China will begin sending pandas bred in captivity into a controlled wilderness area in southwestern Sichuan province next month. The first six pandas will be released to a protected natural area covering more than 2,000 acres. (China Daily/Reuters)

A group of elderly Chinese women wearing Christmas hats take a dip in the icy waters on a frozen river in Shenyang, northeastern China's Liaoning province on Dec. 20. Winter swimming is especially popular amongst the elderly and retired as it's believed to benefit health, and also said to increase the level of mental awareness, and release stress. (Newscom)

An employee prepares to load fire crackers at a factory in Katunayake, Sri Lanka. December is one of the high seasons for fireworks because of Christmas and New Year celebrations. (Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)