


Nadine Wolf wears tape over her mouth as she joins a protest by the technology organization New York Tech Meetup against proposed laws to curb Internet piracy outside the offices of U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on Jan. 18. Wikipedia shut down the English version of its online encyclopedia for 24 hours to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate version, the Protect IP Act (PIPA). Google placed a black redaction box over its logo on its much-visited U.S. home page to draw attention to the bills.


A striking Unilever worker dressed as the Grim Reaper pickets outside the company's plant on Jan. 18 in Port Sunlight, England. The workers have started an 11-day strike in protest of the company's plan to axe their pension scheme.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks as King Abdullah II of Jordan looks on during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan.17. Obama on Tuesday decried continued and "unacceptable" levels of violence in Syria and pledged to redouble international efforts to force President Bashar al-Assad to step down. Obama also thanked King Abdullah for being the first Arab leader to call for Assad to go, after talks which also focused on Jordanian efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.


The peloton during stage one of the 2012 Tour Down Under on Jan. 17, in Adelaide, Australia.

People gathered early on the morning of Jan. 17 to pay their respects and light bamboo lanterns in a ceremony commemorating the 17th anniversary of the 7.3 magnitude 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in Kobe, Japan, that killled more 6,000 people.




A demonstrator wears a Guy Fawkes mask during an Occupy Congress rally in front of the Capitol building on Jan. 17, in Washington, D.C.




