From Mo's magic Olympic moment to Obama's White House win: Here are the best pictures of the year (let's just hope nothing happens in December!)


Global press agency AFP have already released their selection of 2012's best pictures — even though there is still a full month to go. The incredible images capture every major news story of the year so far, from triumph at the Olympics to the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy in the US and ongoing violence in Syria.



The list has been released surprisingly early this year — usually, it doesn't arrive until December.



Maybe the press agency thought the year was already too packed with memorable moments: from the sight of the Queen (or a performer dressed like her) parachuting into Olympic Park, to Mo Farah's Olympic gold medal victory, to an overly enthusiastic supporter hoisting up President Barack Obama during his successful election campaign in the US.



These are our top picks from AFP's selection for best pictures of the year.





An ecstatic Mohamed Farah celebrates winning his second gold as the Olympic Park roars to life at the men's 5000m final on August 11. The British runner became only the seventh man to complete a double victory in the 5,000m and 10,000m races at the same Games, earning his place among the finest runners of his generation



U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps competes in the men's 200m individual medley heats at the London Games on August 1. Phelps became the greatest Olympian of all time this year when he secured his 19th medal with victory in the men's 4x200mn relay, smashing the 48-year record of Russian gymnast Larissa Latyina



Usain Bolt celebrates after Jamaica won and set a new world record in the men's 4x100m relay final at the Olympics. The double Olympic sprint champion, who won gold in the 100m and 200m races, helped his team end their Olympics on a high as they smashed their own record to finish the race in just 36.84secs



Fireworks explode above Tower Bridge in London to celebrate the opening of the Olympic Games. The opening ceremony, devised by film director Danny Boyle, cost £27 million and featured James Bond escorting the Queen to the Olympic Park, and Rowan Atkinson reprising his role as Mr Bean during a performance of Chariots of Fire



China's Zheng Tao celebrates breaking the world record after winning the men's 100m backstroke S6 swimming event during the Paralympic Games. The 21-year-old swims using only the power of his legs, and he took gold in a record time of 1:13.56



An actor dressed to resemble the Queen parachutes into the stadium during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the culmination of a short film that featured Daniel Craig, in his role as James Bond, escorting the Queen to the venue in time for the opening of the Games - and even the royal corgis made a cameo appearance



The Olympic flame burning in the stadium at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Games, which featured a performance by the reunited Spice Girls. The cauldron, designed by artist Thomas Heatherwick, featured 204 copper petals, each one representing one of the competing nations at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.



Bradley Wiggins, the first Brit to win the Tour de France, celebrates at the end of the nineteenth stage of the 2012 race. Wiggins, a favourite for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, topped off a great summer with an Olympic gold in the time trial - his seventh medal overall after competing in four Olympic Games



Jumping for joy: Serena Williams celebrates her win after the women's singles final on day 12 of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships tennis tournament. The victory over Agnieszka Radwanska was her fifth overall Wimbledon title, the same number as sister Venus. The pair later partnered up to take the women's doubles title



Singer Adele poses with her six trophies at the 54th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in February. The singer bagged wins in of the most prestigious categories, including record, album and song of the year, and later topped off 2012 by singing the theme to new Bond movie Skyfall South Korean popstar Psy performs for fans in central Sydney in October. The video for his song Gangnam Style went viral this year, and overtook Justin Bieber's Baby to become the most-watched in YouTube history with over 820 million views since it was released in July. By the end of October, the song had hit the top spot in 30 countries



Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi addresses supporters during an electoral campaign rally in March. The Nobel laureate was standing for a seat in for the first time, after being detained under house arrest for almost 15 of the last 21 years. Her party went on to win 43 of the 45 vacant seats in the lower house of parliament



Princes William and Harry and the Duchess of Cambridge wave as they pass the Houses of Parliament aboard the Royal barge, the 'Spirit of Chartwell', in central London during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant in early June. Over 1,000 ships and boats took part in celebrations to mark the Queen's 60th year on the throne



The Duchess of Cambridge adjusts her scarf outside a mosque in Kuala Lumpur in September, on the second leg of a nine-day tour with the Duke of Cambridge in Southeast Asia and the Pacific marking the Diamond Jubilee.

First Lady Michelle Obama and US President Barack Obama hug after delivering remarks during a campaign event in Iowa last August. The photo later made social media history when it was posted on the presidential Twitter account after he won the election - it quickly became the most-shared image since the site began



US President Barack Obama is picked up in a bear-hug by overly enthusiastic supporter Scott Van Duzer, owner of Big Apple Pizza and Pasta Italian Restaurant, during a visit to the restaurant in Fort Pierce, Florida, last September on the second day of a two-day bus tour across the state.



Obama munches on a french fry while meeting with supporters about voter registration at OMG Burgers in Miami, during the same visit to Florida. The president used his two-day post-convention trip through the swing state to draw fresh attention to Medicare, an election-year issue that ended up being more favorable to Democrats



A Presidential wink after Obama shares a joke during the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in April. The annual event, which brings together US presidents, Hollywood celebrities, news media personalities and Washington correspondents, featured comedian Jimmy Kimmel as the host

Supporters listen to US Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney during a rally at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Marion, Ohio, last October. The all-important swing state was eventually eventually called for the Democrats and Obama, essentially winning the President the election

President Obama, right, and Mitt Romney, left, during the second presidential debate in October. After losing the first debate, the president had to come out swinging in the second townhall debate in New York. Over the 90-minute contest, the new-and-improved president just about edged victory over the Republican candidate



New taxi cabs in a flooded car park in New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy made landfall in October. The superstorm devastated the Northwestern United States, costing an estimated $65 billion of damage. At least 250 people were killed in seven countries along the storm's path

People board the NY Waterways ferry to Manhattan after the storm. On October 26, three days before the storm made landfall, Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for every county in the state of New York. The storm left parts of the state without power, including much of lower Manhattan south of 34th Street



In July, visitors to central China's Henan province gathered to watch giant gushes of water get released from the Xiaolangdi dam to clear up the Yellow river and prevent localized flooding. China is hit by downpours every summer, often causing fatalities - in 2010 the nation's worst flooding in a decade left more than 4,300 dead or missing

A boy swims amongst the debris as he tries to salvage belongings from destroyed homes in Manila. The informal settler area was hit by two barges in July, when the strong winds and rains of Tropical Storm Saola hit the capital. At least one person was killed and millions were left without power when the storm struck the country



In January, the cruise ship Costa Concordia grounded in front of the harbour of Isola del Giglio in Italy after hitting underwater rocks and tearing a 50m gash in her hull. It took six hours to evacuate the ship and more than 30 people lost their lives on board. Italian captain Francesco Schettino was fired by the Costa Cruises line



A man walks past an ice covered car on the frozen waterside promenade at Lake Geneva in the city of Versoix, near Geneva in Switzerland, in early February. A vicious cold snap swept across Europe in the late winter, and the associated death toll soon rose to more than 260



A fire ball rises over the city of Gaza as the Israeli air force carries out a raid for the fourth consecutive day in November. Medics said 40 Gazans have been killed and more than 350 wounded since Israel launched the aerial campaign on the enclave on November 14 Tibetan exile Jamphel Yeshi, 27, runs as he is engulfed in flames after he set himself on fire during a protest in New Delhi last march. Tibetans at the rally were protesting against an upcoming visit to India by Chinese President Hu Jintao, according to police. Self- immolation is common among Tibetans protesting against Chinese rule



The mother of a 10-month-old Palestinian girl, Hanen Tafesh, killed the day before in an Israeli air strike, is comforted by her husband and relatives as she mourns before her funeral in Gaza City in November. The intensive air strike campaign was aimed at stamping out rocket fire on southern Israel, according to the Israeli military

The Israeli military launch a missile from the Iron Dome air defence system, designed to intercept and destroy incoming short-range rockets and artillery shells from the Gaza Strip in November. The Israeli operation against Gaza militants began on November 14 with the killing of a top Hamas chief along with ten other Palestinians

A portrait of a Free Syrian Army rebel mounted one his horse in Al-Shatouria village, near the Turkish border in northwestern Syria in March, a full year after a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's regime erupted in the country. Thousands of combatants and civilians have been killed since the uprising began



A child from the Roma community leaves a camp after being expelled by French police officers outside Lyon last August. About 15,000 ethnic Roma currently live in illegal camps across France and their presence, almost invariably the subject of hostility from local residents, has become a major political headache for the ruling Socialists

Chandra Bahadur Dangi, a 72-year-old Nepali, the world's shortest man at 56 centimetres in height, walks near his home in Reemkholi village in the Dang district, some 540 kilometres southwest of Kathmandu, last February. Dangi was on his way the capital city to meet Guinness World Records experts who awarded him the world title



A boy injured when a shell, released by regime forces, hit his house waits to be treated at a hospital in Syria's northern city of Aleppo in August. Syrian forces had attacked areas in and around the city as Western powers sought to tighten the screws on embattled President Bashar al-Assad

A Syrian man carries his wounded daughter outside a hospital in Aleppo in September. During another blood-soaked month in the country, Syrian troops shelled several districts in Aleppo and clashed with rebel groups, while Damascus ally Iran proposed a simultaneous halt to the violence and a peaceful solution to the conflict

A French soldier stands on a rooftop of an Afghan National Police (ANP) combat post in September, in a village on the road to Naghlu, the French army base in the war-torn country. The policemen stationed at the combat post sleep on beds outside because of the heat, which regularly exceeds 35 degrees in the summer



Supporters of Antonis Samaras, leader of the Greek conservative party New Democracy, wave flags during a pre-election speech in Athens last May. Mr Samaras was elected Prime Minister of Greece in June this year as the country rebelled against strict austerity policies imposed by EU and IMF leaders



Supporters of the French Socialist Party and their leader Francois Hollande celebrate his election as president of the country at the Bastille Square in Paris last May. Hollande, who dealt a humiliating defeat to incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, is France's first socialist president in nearly two decades

The carcass of the world's most well-preserved baby mammoth, named Lyuba, was displayed in Hong Kong in April. Lyuba, whose carcass is 42 thousand years old, was found by a reindeer herder encased in a layer of permafrost in Yamal Peninsula in Russia in 2007



A fully grown male wild leopard climbs a net after it fell into a water reservoir tank at a tea estate in Haskhowa, India in June. The animal was rescued by the Sukna Forest rescue team from the Mahananda wildlife sanctuary, who managed to get him out by lowering a ladder and a net into the tank

Workers in costumes carry a box to transport giant pandas back to the wild at the Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichaun province last May. The bears will be left to fend for themselves to learn crucial survival skills, and scientists plan to gradually reduce human interaction until they can live without any assistance