EXCLUSIVE: A selection of iconic stories of 2015 in pictures

Here is a selection of photos about the most-read news stories of the year 2015 from all around the globe. 

More than 500 children have been killed since Saudi Arabia launched an offensive against its southern neighbor Yemen in March. The United Nations says some 1.7 million youths are at risk of malnutrition.

On April 25, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, killing more than 8,000 people, and leaving many thousands more injured and homeless. (Getty images)

On April 22, a huge column of lava and ash was sent several kilometers into the air by the Calbuco volcano in southern Chile, prompting the government to order the evacuation of 2,500 people in the area.(Reuters)

FIFA President Sepp Blatter resigned from his post in June, just days after being re-elected for a fifth term. Football’s world governing body has been embroiled in a corruption scandal that included several high-profile arrests and allegations of bribery. (AFP)

The picturesque Schloss Elmau hotel in the Bavarian Alps was the setting for a meeting of the G7 nations in June. Here German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seen with US President Barack Obama.

Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar collect rainwater during a heavy rainfall at a temporary refugee camp near Kanyin Chaung jetty, outside Maungdaw township, northern Rakhine state on June 4. (Reuters)

Lightning strikes the Alpine mountains over Garmisch-Partenkirchen, as balloons, made by the “ONE” campaigning organization, depicting leaders of the G7 countries inflated in Garmisch-Partenkirchen June 7. (Reuters)

A high-resolution image of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, taken by the Cassini spacecraft (NASA)

A large number of animals, including this hippopotamus, escaped from flooded zoo enclosures in the Georgian capital Tbilisi in mid-June. (AFP)

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif gestures from a balcony of the Palais Coburg Hotel where the Iran nuclear talks with the P5+1 group of countries were being held in Vienna, Austria, on July 13. (AFP)

A massive explosion rocked the northern Chinese metropolis of Tianjin on August 12, causing a huge crater and vast destruction. (Reuters)

Children cry as refugees waiting on the Greek side of the border break through a cordon of Macedonian special police forces to cross into Macedonia, near the southern city of Gevgelija in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on August 21. (EPA)

A coastguard is holding the body of a drowned Syrian toddler, who washed up on a beach near Turkish resort of Bodrum on September 2.

On September 24, a crowd collapse during Hajj pilgrimage rituals in Mina, outside the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, killed about 2,500 pilgrims less than a month after another deadly incident in the city. Earlier in September, a crane collapsed at the Grand Mosque of Mecca and killed over 100 people.

In early November, Russia’s Emergency Ministry released this photo that shows the wreckage of an A321 Russian airliner in Wadi al-Zolomat, a mountainous area in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula where the plane crashed. (AFP)

A victim lies dead outside the Bataclan theater in Paris following a series a terrorist attacks carried out by Daesh on November 13. (AP)

Members of Iraq’s elite counter-terrorism celebrate after they recaptured the city of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s Anbar province, from Daesh Takfiri terrorists on December 28. Iraq declared the city of Ramadi liberated from Daesh and raised the national flag over its government complex after clinching a landmark victory against the Takfiris. (AFP)