Top 10 international stories of 2010
More than 200,000 people died and 1.3 million were left homeless after a quake leveled buildings and dumped entire shantytowns down hillsides. Rebuilding was tortuously slow and the largely impoverished population remained vulnerable to new indignities, as hurricanes hit and cholera erupted. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
In one horrifying stroke, a nation’s political, military, cultural and religious elite -- including the president, his wife, legislators, top clerics and military leaders -- was wiped out by the crash of the Russian Tupolev airplane that was flying them to a historic commemoration for Polish victims of the World War II Katyn massacre. (Czarek Sokolowski / Associated Press)
Unnerved by high debt levels, financial markets tested the resolve of the euro zone to hang together. Greece became the first country to seek billions in bailout aid from its partners;
Israel’s decision to drop commandos onto the deck of ships attempting to break its blockade of Gaza spawned a deadly brawl that left nine activists dead, Israel deeply embarrassed if unrepentant, and its relations with onetime ally Turkey on the rocks. Above, Israeli navy soldiers intercept one of several boats headed towards the Gaza Strip. (Uriel Sinai / Associated Press)
Combat deaths soar to a record rate as the United States raised troop levels and the stakes in what is now the longest war in its history, with no end in sight. (Martin Bureau / AFP / Getty Images)