Top 10 pictures of 2009

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Barack Obama waiting to take the oath for the office of president in January

A U.S. Army soldier from the 10th Mountain Division surveys a road in the Tangi Valley, Afghanistan, on Sept. 4.

Family members gather at the coffin of Senator Edward Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery on Aug. 29.

A mourner awaits the start of a tribute to Michael Jackson at the Apollo Theater in the neighborhood of Harlem in New York City on June 30.

Airline passengers stand on the wings of a US Airways Airbus 320 jetliner that safely ditched in the frigid waters of the Hudson River in New York City after a flock of birds knocked out both its engines on Jan. 15.

Local drug dealers settle a score in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. In the past few years, the small West African nation has become a key transit point for drug cartels from South America

Supporters of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi run in the streets during protests in Tehran on June 16.

A Palestinian family rests in the rubble of its home in east Jebaliya after the Israeli incursion into Gaza on Jan. 16.

A giraffe felled by drought lies dead on a road in Wajir, Kenya, on Oct. 9. The country has had virtually no rain in several years and is facing a severe water crisis.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin enjoys a horseback ride during a vacation in Tyva, Russia, on Aug. 3.

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