View the entire collection of winning images from the 55th World Press Photo Contest. The winners were selected from over 100,000 images submitted to the contest.
After security forces fired live rounds on demonstrators in Libya’s second city of Benghazi, in mid-February, anti-government protests escalated. Over the next few months, opposition to the rule of long-time dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi became a full-scale national revolt.
Tsunami waves created by a massive earthquake off the northeastern shores of Japan caused wide-ranging destruction along the coast. Overwhelming the three worst-hit prefectures with an estimated 22.63 million tons of debris.
The Tohoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan damaged vital cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A 20-kilometer exclusion zone was declared around the plant, and more than 80,000 people were evacuated.
Demonstrators on Tahrir Square, Cairo, react to a televised speech on 10 February, in which contrary to prior expectations, Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak said he would not give up power.
Boats rest on a pier at Ishinomaki port, in Miyagi prefecture, on 15 April, more than a month after a tsunami devastated large areas of northeastern Japan.