The World in Photos This Week

A man rides a horse through a bonfire in honor of San Anton, the patron saint of animals, on Jan. 16 in the small village of San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain.

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Nadine Wolf wears tape over her mouth as she joins a protest by the technology organization New York Tech Meetup against proposed laws to curb Internet piracy outside the offices of U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on Jan. 18. Wikipedia shut down the English version of its online encyclopedia for 24 hours to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate version, the Protect IP Act (PIPA). Google placed a black redaction box over its logo on its much-visited U.S. home page to draw attention to the bills.

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The cruise ship Costa Concordia lies stricken off the shore of the island of Giglio, Italy, on Jan. 18. The official death toll is now 11, with 24 people still missing. The rescue operation was temporarily suspended earlier due to the ship settling as it slowly sinks further into the sea.

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A striking Unilever worker dressed as the Grim Reaper pickets outside the company's plant on Jan. 18 in Port Sunlight, England. The workers have started an 11-day strike in protest of the company's plan to axe their pension scheme.

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U.S. President Barack Obama speaks as King Abdullah II of Jordan looks on during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan.17. Obama on Tuesday decried continued and "unacceptable" levels of violence in Syria and pledged to redouble international efforts to force President Bashar al-Assad to step down. Obama also thanked King Abdullah for being the first Arab leader to call for Assad to go, after talks which also focused on Jordanian efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

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Christian pilgrims bathe in the Jordan River on Jan. 17 at the Qasir al-Yahud baptismal site near Jericho, West Bank. Qasir al-Yahud is said to be the spot where Jesus was baptized.

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The peloton during stage one of the 2012 Tour Down Under on Jan. 17, in Adelaide, Australia.

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People gathered early on the morning of Jan. 17 to pay their respects and light bamboo lanterns in a ceremony commemorating the 17th anniversary of the 7.3 magnitude 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in Kobe, Japan, that killled more 6,000 people.

BUDDHIKA WEERASINGHE/Getty Images

A bird flies from the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on the National Mall on Jan. 15 in Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King III and others joined to lay a wreath at the memorial of the American civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1968.

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Participants sit on a cable chair as they take part in the 30th edition of the Belalp Witches Ski Race on Jan. 14 in Belalp, Switzerland. The race is inspired by a legend dating back to the Middle Ages, of a witch who tormented villagers in the area until she was burned to death.

HAROLD CUNNINGHAM/Getty Images

A soldier launches a Skylark drone during a drill on Jan. 16 near Bat Shlomo, Israel. The Skylark can carry a camera payload of up to 1 kilogram, has an operational ceiling of 15,000 feet, and allows users to monitor any designated point within a 15 kilometer radius.

URIEL SINAI/Getty Images

A demonstrator wears a Guy Fawkes mask during an Occupy Congress rally in front of the Capitol building on Jan. 17, in Washington, D.C.

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Visitors stand outside a church made entirely of snow and ice in southern Bavaria on Jan. 14 in Mitterfirmiansreut, Germany.

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Motorcycles queue for gasoline on Jan. 12 in Cotonou, Benin. A removal of fuel subidies by the neighbouring Nigerian government has spiked prices in Benin, causing large lines at gas staions across the country.

DAN KITWOOD/Getty Images

The Russian tanker Renda powers toward Nome, Alaska, with the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy's assistance on Jan. 10, in the Bering Sea. The tanker, carrying 1.3 million gallons of fuel for Nome, had been stuck in unusually thick sea ice.