A portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin is on display at a cafe in the town of Dombai on Mount Mussa-Achitara in southern Russia, on January 2, 2015. (Reuters/Eduard Korniyenko)
People leave the scene of a suicide bomb attack that targeted a vehicle of the European Union Police Mission in Afghanistan in Kabul, January 5, 2015. (epa/Jawad Jalali).
A Syrian refugee girl stands behind a door at a makeshift settlement in the village of Ketermaya, south of Beirut, Lebanon, January 8, 2015. Snowfall and gales in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley destroyed some refugee tents. (Reuters/Ali Hashisho)
People gather in Paris for a march against terrorism on January 11, 2015. Hundreds of thousands of people and more than 40 world leaders attended the march honoring the 17 victims killed in three days of terror which started when gunmen invaded the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. (epa/Frederic Von Erichsen)
Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community wait for bread to bake at Dawodiya camp for internally displaced people in the Kurdish city of Dohuk on January 14, 2015. The Yazidis fled violence between Islamic State jihadists and Peshmerga fighters in the northern town of Sinjar in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdistan region. Tens of thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority were trapped by IS on Mount Sinjar for days in the searing August heat in a first siege by IS that sparked fears of genocide. (AFP/Safin Hamed)
Kindergarten Number 9, after it was shelled in Debaltsevo, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, on January 22, 2015. (epa/Anastasia Vlasova)
Young Iranian Zoroastrians dance in traditional dresses during a ceremony called 'Sade' which comes 50 days before the Iranian New Year. The picture was taken in the Markar garden east of the capital Tehran, Iran, on January 30, 2015. (epa/Abedin Taherkenareh)
A serviceman from the volunteer battalion 'Aydar' throws a signboard over the gates, as burning tires are extinguished during a protest rally in front of Ukrainian Ministry of Defense in Kyiv, on February 2, 2015. (epa/Roman Pilipey)
Afghan refugees watch a live broadcast of the Cricket World Cup match between Afghanistan and Bangladesh at a market in Peshawar, Pakistan on February 18, 2015. (AFP/A Majeed)
People march in a funeral procession in memory of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, March 1, 2015. Nemtsov was shot dead near the Kremlin in February. He was 55 years old. (RFE/RL, Mikhail Sokolov)
Shi'ite fighters launch a rocket during clashes with Islamic State militants on the outskirts of al-Alam, Iraq, on March 8, 2015. (Reuters/Thaier Al-Sudani)
Kazakhs herd their sheep in heavy snowfall in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China, on March 15, 2015. (Reuters/China Daily)
Afghan women's rights activists carry the coffin of Farkhunda, an Afghan woman beaten to death and set alight, during her burial ceremony in Kabul, on March 22, 2015. (Reuters/Mohammad Ismail)
A Kurdish Syrian woman walks with her child past the ruins of the town of Kobani, Syria, March 25, 2015. A six-month siege of the town by the Islamic State militant group was ended in March by Kurdish and allied forces. (AFP/Yasin Asgul)
People live in squalid conditions in the town of Debaltseve, in eastern Ukraine, on April 9, 2015. The town fell to a Russian-backed separatist assault shortly after the Minsk cease-fire agreements were signed in February. (RFE/RL, Petr Shelomovskiy)
Red Star Belgrade fans cheer amid smoke bombs during their Serbian Superliga soccer match against Partizan Belgrade in Belgrade, April 25, 2015. The two clubs are traditionally fierce rivals. (Reuters/Mark Djurica)
Ropes weighed down with water bottles are used to keep the legs of a girl in traction after she was injured in an earthquake. The picture was taken at a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, on April 29, 2015. (Reuters/Danish Siddiqui)
A boy sits close to TV sets at a shop during a broadcast of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's annual state of the nation address, in Minsk, on April 29, 2015 (AFP/Sergei Gapon)
Four-year-old Ghazal (L) runs away with seven-year-old Judy, who is carrying 8-month-old Suhair, after the shelling of a Red Crescent convoy in Damascus, Syria, on May 6, 2015. (Reuters//Bassam Khabieh)
Fans of Iran's Persepolis soccer club cheer on their team during their AFC Champions League match against Saudi's Al-Hilal club at the Azadi stadium in Tehran, on May 19, 2015. (AFP/Atta Kenare)
A saiga antelope with a baby grazes next to the carcasses of dead antelope in a field in the Kostanay region, of Kazakhstan on May 20, 2015. (Reuters)
People gather for the inauguration of a monument to Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, on May 25, 2015. (Reuters/Marat Gurt)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks with U.S. President Barack Obama during the G7 Summit outside Elmau Castle in Germany, on June 8, 2015. (Reuters/Michael Kappeler)
Female Peshmerga fighters take a selfie in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous region, on June 9, 2015. Many Kurdish women joined in the fight against Islamic State militants in Kurdistan. (AFP/Safin Hamed)
A woman and child are pictured on June 10, 2015 at the Potocari memorial for victims of the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina. During the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, the United Nations set aside Srebrenica as a safe haven for civilians. But on July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serb troops overran the town and killed about 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the ensuing days. (RFE/RL, Midhat Poturovic)
A view of the art installation 'Thinking of You' in Pristina, Kosovo, on June 12, 2015. Thousands of women's dresses and skirts hang on lines across the pitch of the capital city's main soccer stadium. The work was part of an installation by Kosovo-born British artist Alketa Xhafa-Mripa and the project's producer Anna Di Lellio. It was dedicated to the survivors of sexual violence during the 1998-99 Kosovo War. (epa/Valdrin Xhemaj)
The grounds in the Tbilisi Zoo are pictured after floods devastated the area around the Georgian capital in June 15, 2015. (RFE/RL, Mzia Saganelidze)
Migrants wait for a train to Serbia near a train station in Demi Kapija, in Macedonia, on 18 June 2015. (epa/Nake Batev)
Margarita Mamun of Russia competes during the rhythmic gymnastics all around final at the 1st European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan, on June 19 , 2015. (Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach)
Armenian riot police attempt to disperse protesters in Yerevan during a rally against a decision to raise electricity prices, on June 23, 2015. (Photolure/Vahram Baghdasaryan)
Security forces and rescue teams examine the wreckage of an Indonesian military C-130 Hercules transport plane after it crashed into a residential area in the North Sumatra city of Medan in Indonesia, on June 30, 2015. (Reuters/Roni Bintang)
Iranians celebrate in Tehran after Iran struck a deal with world powers over its nuclear program in Vienna, on July 14, 2015. (ISNA)
Protesters wearing masks sit in front of a fire during clashes with Turkish riot police in the Gazi district of Istanbul on July 26, 2015. (epa/Yunus Tosun)
The shadow of a Pakistani army helicopter is seen next to land surrounded by flood water as villagers sought higher ground in the Rajanpur district, in Punjab province, on August 6, 2015. (AFP)
A participant in the Mrs Universe 2015 contest takes a selfie as she stands close to a huge mining truck at the BelAZ plant in the town of Zhodino, near Minsk, on August 26, 2015 (AFP/Sergei Gapon)
Dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks on Mars inferred to have been formed by contemporary flowing water are seen in an image produced by NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the University of Arizona. Scientists have found the first evidence that briny water may flow on the surface of Mars during the planet's summer months, on September 28, 2015. (NASA)
Rubber flotation rings are seen in the sea after migrants made land from overloaded rubber dinghies near Lesbos island in Greece, on October 5, 2015. Over 100,000 refugees and migrants were estimated to have arrived on the Greek islands during August along, according to the Hellenic Coast Guard. (EPA/Filip Singer)
A young girl carries a doll as she and other migrants make their way after crossing the border from Macedonia, at Miratovac, Serbia, on October 15, 2015. (Reuters/Marko Djurica)
A woman walks inside a bullet-riddled house in the Sur district of the Kurdish dominated southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, on October 30, 2015. Turkish security forces have fought frequent battles with Kurdish militants in the area. (epa/Sedat Suna)
A picture of passengers of the fatal Russian MetroJet Airbus A321 accident in Egypt is left next to flowers and candles in memory of the victims of the crash. The picture was taken in Dvortsovaya Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, on November 3, 2015. (epa/Anatoly Maltsev)
Iraqi Christians, who fled violence in the northern city of Mosul after Islamic State militants took control of the area, arrive for a mass at the Syriac Catholic church at the Ashti camp in Irbil, Iraq on November 8, 2015. (AFP/Safin Hamed)
People observe a minute of silence at the Trocadero near the Eiffel Tower in tribute to the victims of the November 13 attacks in Paris, France. The picture was taken on November 16, 2015. (Reuters/Philippe Wojazer)
People carry an effigy of Russian President Putin and tanks while taking part in a march commemorating the 26th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, in Prague, Czech Republic, on 17 November 2015. Waves of peaceful protests in Czech and Slovak cities eventually brought down Czechoslovakia's Moscow-backed Communist Government in 1989. (epa/Filip Singer)
A supporter of Kosovo opposition political parties runs from tear gas during a violent protest in Pristina, Kosovo, on November 18, 2015. Kosovo Police used tear gas to disperse opposition supporters gathered to protest the arrest of an opposition lawmaker. (epa/Valdrin Xhemaj)
Truck drivers watch Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual state of the nation address, in Ivanovo, on December 3, 2015. The Russian government angered truck drivers when it imposed a levy of 1.5 rubles ($0.02) for each kilometer of heavy trucks travel, effective from November 15. (TASS/Vladimir Smirnov)
Photographers take pictures of the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft carrying the crew of Timothy Peake of Britain, Yuri Malenchenko of Russia and Timothy Kopra of the United States. The crew was en route to the International Space Station (ISS) from the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on December 15, 2015. (Reuters/Shamil Zhumatov)
Nasra Zeb is pictured in her late son's room with his belongings on December 14, 2015. Hasan Zeb was one of the 132 students of the Army Public School killed by Taliban militants in Peshawar, Pakistan, on December 16, 2014. (epa/Arshad Arbab)
This was the year that terrorism and refugees dominated global headlines more than ever. Militants escalated their attacks from Syria to the streets of Paris, while over a million people fleeing conflicts poured into Europe. Here are some of the images which captured the top stories of 2015.