Amer Hilabi / AFP - Getty Images
A Saudi woman applies makeup on a model during a beauty and style competition at the 2010 Cosmetic Expo in the coastal city of Jeddah on December 21, 2010.
Even though the model's eyes are the only body part revealed, the photo is still interesting. The four-day beauty and style exhibition was held for the first time this year in Saudi Arabia, a country often described as being descriminatory against women.
Channi Anand / AP
A man decorates a church ahead of Christmas celebrations in Jammu, India, on Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010.
Channi Anand / AP
Men clean colored glass panels and a portrait of Jesus Christ at a church ahead of Christmas celebrations in Jammu, India, on Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010.
You can read more about the Stonehenge winter solstice event HERE.
Matt Cardy / Getty Images
Druid Arthur Uther Pendragon, formally known as John Rothwell, knights British soldier Lance Corporal Paul Thomas during a sunrise service at Stonehenge on Dec. 22 in Wiltshire, England.
Matt Cardy / Getty Images
Revellers enjoy a impromptu snow ball fight after druids conducted a sunrise service at Stonehenge on Dec. 22 in Wiltshire, England. Hundreds of people gathered at the famous historic stone circle to celebrate the sunrise closest to the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year.
Matt Cardy / Getty Images
A couple kiss and embrace at a sunrise service at Stonehenge on Dec. 22 in Wiltshire, England. Hundreds of people gathered at the famous historic stone circle to celebrate the sunrise closest to the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.
Kieran Doherty / Reuters
A druid recites an incantation during the winter solstice at Stonehenge on Salisbury plain in southern England, Dec. 22. In the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year.
Jason Redmond / Reuters
Los Angeles Sheriffs Reserve Deputy John Camphouse, left, gets a signed liability waiver from an unidentified resident who has decided to ignore mandatory evacuation orders in a neighborhood at risk for mudslides in La Canada, California, Dec. 21, 2010. Southern California residents braced on Monday for several more days of heavy showers, and the threat of mudslides, from an unusual burst of wet weather that has dumped up to a foot of rain in parts of the region since last week.
Jason Redmond / Reuters
Los Angeles Sheriffs Reserve Deputies Jason Johnson, left, and John Camphouse check a list of residents that are staying home and ignoring evacuation orders as they go door-to-door in a neighborhood at risk for mudslides in La Canada, California Dec. 21, 2010. Southern California residents braced on Monday for several more days of heavy showers, and the threat of mudslides, from an unusual burst of wet weather that has dumped up to a foot of rain in parts of the region since last week.
What a predicament. More on the storm headed to California HERE.
From msnbc.com staff and news service reports:
Officials on Tuesday ordered evacuation of 232 homes in La Canada Flintridge and La Crescenta, foothill suburbs of Los Angeles below steep hillsides that burned in 2009 and where mudslides inundated homes and backyards in February.
Walt Kalepsch said his backyard filled up with mud and debris last winter, but he planned to stay the night with his wife and daughter.
"If it gets really terrible, we'll leave. But we've been evacuated so many times, it's like the city's crying wolf," he said.
Fabrice Coffrini / AFP - Getty Images
Switzerland's Roger Federer serves to Spain's Rafael Nadal during a charity tennis game on Dec. 21, 2010 in Zurich. "The Match for Africa" is organized to raise money for the Roger Federer Foundation which supports sporting activities for underprivileged children in Africa and in Switzerland.
I thought of the lunar eclipse when I saw this.
John Locher / AP
A house in the Beaver Dam Resort area falls into the Beaver Dam Wash in Beaver Dam, Ariz. Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010. Heavy rains caused the wash to swell over its banks destroying roads and homes along it's path.
I don't think the sandbags are going to help here. Full story.
What a great range of emotions as these Haitian children leave for their new homes in France. The first of two planes left Tuesday. Given the recent sensitivity about foreign adoptions in Haiti, this effort seems to be proceeding very smoothly so far.
Hector Retamal / AFP - Getty Images
An adopted Haitian child looks out the window on the return flight to France on Dec. 22, 2010 in Port-au-Prince. French families arrived in Haiti to fetch a group of Haitian children they adopted in the wake of a devastating earthquake that ravaged the impoverished country nearly a year ago. The group of 105 parents is due to return to Paris with a first group of 113 children in time for Christmas. A total of 318 adopted Haitian children are included in a special program to bring them to France after disruptions caused by the earthquake.
Hector Retamal / AFP - Getty Images
Adopted Haitian children board the return flight to France on Dec. 22, 2010 in Port-au-Prince. French families arrived in Haiti to fetch a group of Haitian children they adopted in the wake of a devastating earthquake that ravaged the impoverished country nearly a year ago. The group of 105 parents is due to return to Paris with a first group of 113 children in time for Christmas.
Ramon Espinosa / AP
French citizen Pascal Blondeau, 38, holds his Haitian adopted daughter Daudeline Desir in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday Dec. 21, 2010. French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Saturday that 318 children had been cleared for adoption and were being allowed to leave the Caribbean country, which is still reeling from a January earthquake and now experiencing a deadly cholera epidemic.
Hector Retamal / AFP - Getty Images
A French woman and her adopted Haitian son weep on Dec. 22, 2010 in Port-au-Prince. French families arrived in Haiti to fetch a group of Haitian children they adopted in the wake of a devastating earthquake that ravaged the impoverished country nearly a year ago. The group of 105 parents is due to return to Paris with a first group of 113 children in time for Christmas.
Hector Retamal / AFP - Getty Images
Young children wait for adoption with parents that will return with them to France in Port-au-Prince on Dec. 21, 2010.
Ali Al-saadi / AFP - Getty Images
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki waits for the members of his new cabinet to arrive during a parliamentary session in Baghdad on Dec. 21, 2010 in which lawmakers unanimously approved the new government which will be headed by the incumbent Shiite premier.
This unguarded moment shows a strangely isolated Iraqi prime minister. You can be sure political advisers would never allow an American president to be photographed this way. Full story.
Not a good day to be a dog walker or a sports car lover in San Diego, and more rain is on the way. Read the full story here.
Sandy Huffaker / Getty Images
Dog Walker Dorothy Agius-Bennett takes her pets for a stroll during a powerful rainstorm on Dec. 21 in San Diego, Calif.
Sandy Huffaker / Getty Images
A vehicle sits partially submerged underwater after flood waters rose in the San Diego River during a powerful rainstorm on Dec. 21 in San Diego, Calif. A series of strong storms have battered much of Southern California and the West for the past six days causing major flooding and wreaked havoc on roadways.
Kyodo / Reuters
The eclipse of the moon is seen behind a carving of a salmon at a souvenir shop in Shiraoi, on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido Dec. 21.
While we published a wide variety of the dozens of images we received of last night's total eclipse here, this image from Japan is by far the strangest.
Reuters
Inmates gather on a roof of the Antofagasta city prison during clashes with police officers some 849 miles north of Santiago on Dec. 21. Over a dozen inmates were injured during riots in support of the 81 inmates who died on Dec. 8 after a fire engulfed the San Miguel prison, in the Chilean capital of Santiago, according to local media.
We posted images and video from the riot and fire that killed dozens of inmates at this prison in Chile two weeks ago.
It seems that things are out of control for this facility.
Claudia Daut / Reuters
Activists from the animal rights group AnimaNaturalis act in a nativity scene dressed as animals to promote vegetarianism in Mexico City on Dec. 21.
Maybe I'm missing something, but as eye-catching as this nativity scene is, I'm not quite sure that it will convince many people to become vegetarians.
Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
A woman waits in line for holiday food distribution at the Food Bank For New York City Community Kitchen & Food Pantry of West Harlem in New York on Dec. 21. The Food Bank For New York City has seen a major increase in the number of first-time visitors who now depend on free food to prepare their holiday dinner.
Though this lady looks cozy in her hat and sweater, her eyes so clearly seem to say that she is in need. I found this image a quiet reminder today of how fortunate many of us are, and many are not, this holiday season.
Susana Vera / Reuters
Spanish Economy Minister Elena Salgado (C) blows a kiss after voting to pass the 2011 budget in Madrid, Dec. 21, 2010. Spain's Parliament on Tuesday formally approved the government budget for 2011, which is designed to cut the deficit by more than three percentage points and convince debt markets its public finances are sustainable.
I don't think you'll ever catch U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner doing this. Of course, you probably won't catch Congress passing an austerity budget, as Spain did today.
Alex Domanski / Reuters
TSG Hoffenheim's goalkeeper Daniel Haas (L) challenges Borussia Monchengladbach's Marco Reus during their German soccer cup (DFB-Pokal) match in Sinsheim, Germay, December 21.
This looks like it's going to hurt.
Marc Lester / Anchorage Daily News via AP
Sky-gazers takin in the view from Chugach State Park during the lunar eclipse on Monday, Dec. 20. The Glen Alps trail head area of Chugach State Park was busy with sky-gazers late Monday taking in the view of the full lunar eclipse which coincided with the winter solstice.
Photographer Marc Lester did a great job capturing the feeling of what it must have been like to be out there in the cold, waiting for the eclipse. To see more images from the eclipse, go here.
Nathan Bilow / AP
Jake Mercabante, left, stands in front of his fathers car that he drove from Long Beach, Calif. to Crested Butte, Colo. for his winter holiday and found a tree branch full of wet heavy snow on top of it in the early morning of the first day of winter on Tuesday, Dec. 21. The National Weather Service has posted a Winter Storm Warning Hazardous Weather Outlook for Areas in Utah and Western mountains of Colorado. Flood warnings are also posted in Southern California form the same storm that reached from Hawaii to Colorado.
Dad's not going to be very happy to hear about this one. Check out more Winter Wonderland images here.
Stoyan Nenov / Reuters
An inmate dressed as Santa Claus participates in a Christmas party at Sofia Central Prison December 21. The management of the prison organised a party for a dozen prisoners and their families on Tuesday.
Hmmm...Santa with a tat? Is that a real beard? I'm not convinced. See more Faces of of Santa.
NASA
On the day of the winter solstice, we share this iconic image of Earth's city lights at night. From now until the summer solstice, the days will get longer and longer.
For those of us who feel as if there's never enough daylight to get all the stuff done that we need to get done leading up to the holidays, here's a ray of hope: Winter officially begins today in the Northern Hemisphere. That means each day from tomorrow on will get a little bit longer.
The longest night of the year is a good time to marvel at how we light up the night. This iconic image, called "Earth at Night," was stitched together from data gathered by a swarm of Defense Department satellites. The "cloudless" view maps the locations of permanent lights on the Earth's surface. It serves as a handy guide for where we live and the state of development around the world.
The lights, overlaid on a map for reference, make clear our preference to settle along coastlines and transportation networks. The interstate system in the U.S., for example, appears as a lattice connecting brighter dots. In northern Africa, the Nile River looks like a bright thread through a sea of darkness.
The brightest areas correspond with the most urbanized areas, but not necessarily the most populated. Note the difference, for instance, between Western Europe and China. More than 100 years since the invention of electric light, some regions of the planet remain thinly populated and unlit. Antarctica looks completely dark, as do vast swaths of jungle in Africa and South America.
For more views of Earth from space, check out these past offerings from the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar. We've also included links to other online Advent calendars that have been serving up space images daily since the beginning of the month:
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).
Denis Balibouse / Reuters
Spectators ski down next to the race track for the women's Alpine Skiing World Cup slalom race in Courchevel, France, December 21.
Baz Ratner / Reuters
An employee returns a box containing tapes to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum's archive in Jerusalem, in this August 10, 2010 file photo. A list of confirmed names of Jews killed by the Nazis in World War Two has reached the four million mark, Israel's Holocaust museum announced on December 21, 2010, saying the identity of all six million dead may never be known.
AP says:
Yad Vashem has made the recovery of the names a main mission in order to keep the memory of the murdered Jews alive.
Yad Vashem says names are recovered through people who remembered the murdered Jews and by combing archival lists and other documentation.
The task is especially difficult because entire families were wiped out and documents were destroyed during the Nazi genocide.
Baz Ratner / Reuters
A visitor looks at a video installation at the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem.
Yannis Behrakis / Reuters
A man stands under pictures of Jews killed in the Holocaust in the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem.
Menahem Kahana / AFP - Getty Images
Tourists visit the Hall of Names where names and photos of Jews who perished under the Nazi regime are stored at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
A girl stands next to two men who passed out as villagers dance during celebrations commemorating Chichicastenango's Festival of Saint Thomas in Guatemala, on Monday, Dec. 20. For three days, villagers celebrate in this highland town, with a fair, processions, fireworks and folk dances.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
A musician performs during a procession carrying the image of Saint Thomas in Chichicastenango, Guatemala on Monday.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
Dancers test their skills on the "Palo Volador" during the celebrations of their patron saint in Chichicastenango, Guatemala, on Monday, Dec. 20. The pole dancers climb to the top of the pine pole and then swoop down on the end of a rope, spinning in circles.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
A street photographer named Bernabe waits for customers during Chichicastenango's Festival of Saint Thomas in Guatemala, on Monday.
According to WhatsOnWhen.com, this yearly festival brings Guatemalan Indians in colorful garb from the highlands, west of Guatemala City, to enjoy folk music, dance and outlandish spectacles at Chichicastenango's Festival of Saint Thomas.
Images of the patron saint are paraded through the streets, strong incense pours from the church and there are firecrackers, rockets, drums and brass bands that assault the senses. Women wear brightly-colored traditional blouses and a skirt known as a corte. Participants wrapped in rope unravel themselves bit by bit as they spin around a pole.
The church of Santo Tomás is the focal point of the festival. A glimpse of the church interior reveals a mix of Catholic and Amerindian culture, especially evident in the religious celebrations of the festival.
Amit Dave / Reuters
School children attend a yoga exercise session during a camp in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, Dec. 21, 2010. At least 6,000 children participated, organizers said.
That's a lot of yoga!
Wong Maye-E / AP
A mannequin, seen with multiple reflections, models a classic red dress by Valentino during a preview of the 'Valentino, Retrospective: Past/Present/Future' exhibition which features the work of celebrated Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani at Resorts World Sentosa, one of Singapore's main tourist attractions on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010.
I like all the reflecitons.
Channi Anand / AP
An Indian milk vendor rides his bicycle in the morning cold in Jammu, India, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010.
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