The Year in Pictures
VOA takes a visual tour of the events that defined the year 2011.

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President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the covert mission against al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in White House, May 1, 2011. (Pete Souza)

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Women sit in Kugulu Park where dozens of Turkish youths continue their protest, in Ankara. Daily life is partly back to normal in Istanbul and the Turkish capital, after nearly three weeks of protests that were sparked by a violent police crackdown on peaceful activists on May 31.

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Indian sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik gives finishing touches to a sand sculpture to mark the killing of Osama bin Laden, in Orissa, India, May 2, 2011. (AP)

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Lightning flashes around the ash plume at the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano chain in Chile. The volcano was dormant for decades before it erupted in June, 2011. (Reuters)