2009 Pictures of the Year: Editors' Choice

• The Sydney Harbour Bridge is enshrouded in a fog of dust Sept. 23 in Sydney, Australia. Severe wind storms in the west of New South Wales blew a dust cloud that engulfed Sydney and surrounding areas.
  
  
  

  Matt Blyth, Getty Images

• A drover cracks his whip during the Great Australian Cattle Drive preview on May 7 in Oodnadatta, Australia. The Great Australian Cattle Drive will take place in 2010 and offers the general public the chance to experience an Australian adventure.
  
  
  

  Quinn Rooney, Getty Images

• A destroyed home continues to burn in the early morning hours on May 7 in Santa Barbara, Calif. After the Jesusito fire was fueled by strong sundowner winds and record 100-degree heat, at least 20 houses were destroyed. Santa Barbara suffered its third major wildfire to burn homes in less than a year. Three Ventura County firefighters received burns and respiratory injuries when their fire truck was overtaken by the fire while another firefighter was treated for a head injury. Some 2,000 homes in about seven square miles were under mandatory evacuation orders.
  
  
  

  David McNew, Getty Images

• Tracy Munch watches as an eviction team removes furniture from her foreclosed house Feb. 2 in Adams County, Colo. She said she and her husband had been renting from an owner, who collected the monthly payments but had stopped paying his mortgage. The bank foreclosed on the property and called the Adams County sheriff's department to supervise the eviction. They managed to borrow enough money to rent another house for themselves and their four children, she said, but not in time to avoid eviction.
  
  
  

  John Moore/Getty Images

• Events around Afghanistan, neighboring Pakistan and Iraq have made for poignant and compelling photography.
  In this photo, a displaced Pakistani girl looks out from her tent in Shah Mansour refugee camp, in northwest Pakistan, June 9. These internally displaced people (IDP) were largely from the Swat valley in Pakistan. Approximately 3 million IDPs were created as a result of fighting ongoing military operations against the Taliban. Pakistani forces battled militants in the Swat valley, Lower Dir and Buner.
  
  
  

  Emilio Morenatti, AP

• A young boy poses for a photo Sept. 25 in an Afghan refugee camp on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan.
  
  
  

  Alexandre Meneghini, AP

• A Pakistani displaced boy from Swat valley sleeps under a mosquito net outside his tent at the Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, May 26.
  
  
  

  Emilio Morenatti, AP

• Lance Cpl. Sean McMullen of Colorado Springs, Colo., Golf Company, 2nd MEB, talks to his girlfriend on a satellite phone Aug. 9 under the moonlight from combat outpost ANP Hill, near the city of Now Zad in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan.
  
  
  

  Julie Jacobson, AP

• Soldiers from the U.S. Army First Battalion, 26th Infantry take defensive positions at firebase Restrepo after receiving fire from Taliban positions in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar Province, May 11. Spc. Zachery Boyd of Fort Worth, Texas was wearing "I love NY" boxer shorts after rushing from his sleeping quarters to join his fellow platoon members. From far right is Spc. Cecil Montgomery of Many, LA and Jordan Custer of Spokan, WA, center.
  
  
  

  David Guttenfelder, AP

• An elderly Afghan roadside banana vendor waits for customers in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 30.
  
  
  

  Altaf Qadri, AP