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STUNNING: Award winning pictures of 2011

To say that 2010 was an eventful year would be an understatement. Last year, we witnessed events as widespread as polling in Afghanistan, to floods in Pakistan, to the anti-government protests in Thailand, just to name a few. We at rediff.com bring you 25 award-winning pictures from last year, from around the world.

Image: Ultra Orthodox students gesture as they pray during a reading class at the Kehilot Yaacov Torah School for boys in Ramot, Jerusalem.

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Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

A family smokes together during a quiet moment at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

Residents being evacuated through flood waters dodge an army truck carrying relief supplies for flood victims in Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district in Punjab province.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

Thai soldiers take cover by Lumphini park during clashes with anti-government protesters at Bangkok's financial district.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

A dog walker strolls through an earthquake-damaged district of Padang, Indonesia's West Sumatra province in the early hours.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

Reflected in his teleprompter, U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about jobs and the economy during a visit to Celgard Inc in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

Gurzada, a 76 year-old Pashtun man, raises his hands in prayer at a mosque left destroyed by heavy floods in Charsadda, located in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

Andre Coetzee, 57, drinks a mug of coffee at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

A statue and a torn Thai national flag remain in front of Bangkok's Central World shopping mall, which was gutted by fire after army soldiers advanced towards an encampment of thousands of anti-government "red shirt" protesters.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

US President Barack Obama returns from a weekend at Camp David to the White House in Washington. This photo won a second place award in Presidential category of the White House News Photographer's Association "Eyes of History 2011" contest.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

The Northern Lights are seen above the ash plume of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano in the evening.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy (R) stands on his own as leaders talk with United States President Barack Obama during the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Summit in Lisbon.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

Children of foreign workers dressed in costume play together during a party celebrating the upcoming Jewish holiday of Purim at a school in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. Purim is a celebration of the Jews' salvation from genocide in ancient Persia, as recounted in the Book of Esther.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

Omar Feisal, a Reuters photographer based in Somalia, has won the 1st Prize Daily Life Single category with this picture of a man carrying a shark through the streets of Mogadishu in Somalia.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

A donkey transports ballot boxes to villages unreachable by vehicles in Panjshir province, north of Kabul.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

A duck, pheasants and rabbits hang from a clothes line before being plucked, skinned and frozen at Garron Point near the village of Carnlough in Northern Ireland.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

Left-wing activists wearing masks of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak take part in a protest in Tel Aviv against the government's policies in the occupied territories.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

A protestor jumps on a burned out police car as another police car burns during a demonstration against the G20 summit in downtown Toronto.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

A woman looks out the window of her one-room hut at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

Volcanic ash from an erupting volcano mixes with water and slides down a barn roof which farmers are working to clear, near Eyjafjallajokull.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

An Afghan news reporter stands next to TV screens at Tolo television, owned by Saad Mohseni, the country's biggest media mogul, in Kabul.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

Protesters, one holding farm produce symbolising crops from villages, bow during a protest march outside Hong Kong's Legislative Council.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

Marooned flood victims looking to escape grab the side bars of a hovering Army helicopter which arrived to distribute food supplies in the Muzaffargarh district of Pakistan's Punjab province.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

An Afghan man looks at a ballot paper as he casts his vote at a polling station during parliamentary elections in Kabul.

Stunning! Award winning pictures of 2011

Palestinians stand on the balcony of their damaged house in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.