View of traces in the sand during the Stage 1 of the Dakar 2013 between Lima and Pisco, Peru, on January 5, 2013. The rally will take place in Peru, Argentina and Chile between January 5 to 20. — AFP Photo

People walk as they pay their respects on January, 5, 2013 during a march in memory of the victims of a shooting in the village of Daillon. A gunman with psychiatric and drug problems killed three women and wounded two men on January 3, 2013 in a shooting spree in the tiny village where he lived in the mountains of southern Switzerland. Police shot and wounded the suspect after he threatened them with a gun following the attack in Daillon that raised fresh questions about the country's liberal gun ownership laws. — AFP Photo

Indian Naga Sadhus - holy men - of Shri Panchayati Anand Akhara participate in a religious procession as the first "royal entry" for the Kumbh Mela at Sangam in Allahabad on January 6, 2013. The Kumbh Mela, which is scheduled to take place in the northern Indian city in January and February 2013, is the world's largest gathering of people for a religious purpose and millions of people gather for this auspicious occasion. — AFP Photo

A Romanian priest prepares the epiphany religious service in Constanta city (230km east from Bucharest) on January 6, 2013. Thousands of Romanian Orthodox believers attended the celebration of Epiphany in the Black Sea coastal city. — AFP Photo

A father and son return home with vegetables, as smoke from a pro-government forces artillery strike ascends in the background, in the al-Amaria neighbourhoodin the city of Aleppo, on January 6, 2013. Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad in a rare televised speech denounced the opposition as "slaves" of the West and called for a national dialogue conference to be followed by a referendum on a national charter and parliamentary elections. — AFP Photo

The Costa Concordia cruise ship lays aground near the harbour of Giglio port on January 7, 2013 on the Italian island of Giglio. Works are going ahead as almost a year ago, on January 13, 2012, the giant Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground near a Tuscan island and pitched leaving 32 people dead. — AFP Photo

Afghan children play soccer on a cold day in Kabul on January 8, 2013. Despite Afghanistan receiving billions of dollars of aid since 2001, more than 100 children died last year during the harshest winter in two decades, and the UN refugee agency UNHCR has co-ordinated efforts to reduce repeat fatalities. — AFP Photo

This handout picture taken late on January 8, 2013 and provided by New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW Rural Fire Service) on January 9, 2013 shows trees burning and smoke billowing from a fire along the Princes Highway at Deans Gap in the Shoalhaven area in New South Wales. A drop in temperatures helped firefighters battling blazes across Australia on January 9 but up to 30 wildfires were still raging out of control, destroying a handful of homes and forcing people to flee. — AFP Photo

Tourists enjoy the view from the Auerberg Mountain near Bernbeuren, southern Germany, as sun sets behind an Alps panorama on January 8, 2013. — AFP Photo

The Olympic stadium, one of the main venues proposed for the 2020 Summer Olympic games, is seen in this computer-generated file handout image provided by the Tokyo 2020 Bid Committee, and released January 8, 2013. Tokyo, which hosted Asia's first Olympics in 1964, tiptoed into the bidding race for 2020 after losing out to Rio de Janeiro for 2016. — Reuters Photo