The Asterik: 2008

Some very graphic photographs below, not for the weak-heart. Also I wanted to mention that none of these photographs are photoshopped or edited.

A suicide bomber's foot is seen at the site of a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan on July 22, 2008.

Drummers perform during the Opening Ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics at the National Stadium on August 8, 2008 in Beijing.

In this photo released by the official Xinhua news agency, members of China's armed police demonstrate a rapid deployment during an anti-terrorist drill held in Jinan, east China, on Wednesday July 2, 2008,

Photographers take pictures of an injured man during clashes believed to be linked to recent anti-foreigner violence in Reiger Park informal settlement in South Africa on May 20, 2008. South African police fired rubber bullets at hundreds of shantytown residents on Tuesday in a crackdown on violence against foreigners which ended up killing over 60 people and injuring hundreds more.

Police work to help their fallen colleagues, victims of a suicide bombing, as others watch outside a court in the centre of Lahore January 10, 2008. A suicide bomber walked up to a group of policemen stationed outside the High Court in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Thursday and set off his explosives, killing 21 people, most of them police, officials said.

An Indian policeman holds a shield against stone-throwing Kashmiri Muslim protesters in Srinagar September 9, 2008

Comoran and Tanzanian African Union soldiers (not seen) arrest an injured Anjouanese man after shooting three rockets at his house in Mutsamudu on 25 March 2008. The Comoran army said it had located the renegade leader of the isle of Anjouan, Mohamed Bacar, during the operation it launched earlier March 25, 2008 with the African Union to oust him.

Thousands of black clad Israeli Orthodox Jews attend the funeral of Arieh Levish Teitelbaum, one of the Israeli victims of the Mumbai attacks, on December 2, 2008 in Jerusalem. Wailing and chanting psalms, thousands of people bid a final farewell today to the six Jews killed in last week's bloody Mumbai attacks and whose bodies were flown to Israel for burial.

The Guizer Jarl is silhouetted as members of his Viking Squad walk around a long boat with burning torches during the annual Up Helly Aa Festival, in Lerwick, Shetland Islands on January 29th, 2008. Up Helly Aa celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian vikings in the Shetland Islands.

An indigenous woman holds her child while trying to resist the advance of Amazonas state policemen who were expelling the woman and some 200 other members of the Landless Movement from a privately-owned tract of land on the outskirts of Manaus, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon March 11, 2008. The landless peasants tried in vain to resist the eviction with bows and arrows against police using tear gas and trained dogs, and were evicted from the land.

Wounded Palestinians lay near Reuters news agency reporter Fadel Shaana's car after it was hit by an Israeli missile on April 16, 2008 in the central Gaza Strip.

Maasai warriors cover a battle field as they clash with bows and arrows with members of the Kalenjin tribe in the Kapune hill overlooking the Olmelil valley located in the Transmara District in Western Kenya on March 01, 2008.

A man's hand drips blood as he stands in front of riot policemen during a demonstration in Athens, part of a days-long series of demonstrations throughout Greece on December 9, 2008.

A young man with an arrow in his head arrives at hospital following ethnic clashes in the town of Nakuru in the Rift Valley area January 26, 2008

Swiss pilot Yves Rossy, the world's first man to fly with a jet-powered fixed-wing apparatus strapped to his back, flies during his first official demonstration, on May 14, 2008 above Bex, Switzerland.

Locals and tourists walk around the Dutch ship Artemis which ran aground on the beach of les Sables d'Olonne, southern French Britanny, western France, March 10, 2008. The boat had been driven onto the coast by the wind blowing more than 130 km per hour.

A competitor dives from the 14 meter-high bridge over Drina river during annual high diving competition in Bosnian town of Visegrad July 12, 2008.

21-year-old Ajmal Kasab, one of ten terrorists who attacked Mumbai, India on November 26th, 2008 walks through the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station, carrying weapons and duffel bags of ammunition. Kasab and his cohorts - all from Pakistan - killed over 170 people over the course of three days, until all except Kasab were killed by Indian forces.

Department of Water and Power workers are emptying out bales of plastic balls in the Ivanhoe reservoir in Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2008. Department of Water and Power released about 400,000 black plastic 4-inch balls as the first installment of approximately 3 million to form a floating cover over 7 acres of the reservoir to protect the water from sunlight. When sunlight mixes with the bromide and chlorine in Ivanhoe's water, the carcinogen bromate can form.

Time exposure of the Swiss mountain resort of Grindelwald next to the north face of the Eiger mountain, seen on January 10, 2008.

The right hand of a young visitor is silhouetted against a jellyfish exhibition hall at the Ocean Park aquarium-amusement complex in Hong Kong on January 20, 2008.

A U.S. Marine with a ground combat element assigned to Delta Company, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, Task Force Mechanized, Multi-National Force - West walks through the Hatra Ruins in the Jazeerah Desert in Iraq on July 20, 2008.

Italian soccer club AC Milan's newly signed player Ronaldinho of Brazil attends his presentation at San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy on July 17, 2008.

Staff stand in a meeting room at the Lehman Brothers offices in the financial district of Canary Wharf in London September 11, 2008. Lehman Brothers eventually filed for bankruptcy - the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history - and was delisted from the NYSE, and later liquidated.

A U.S. Marine, from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, has a close call after Taliban fighters opened fire near Garmser in Helmand Province of Afghanistan May 18, 2008.

Lightning bolts appear above and around the Chaiten volcano as seen from Chana, some 30 kms (19 miles) north of the volcano, as it began its first eruption in thousands of years, in southern Chile May 2, 2008.

U.S. President George W. Bush walks back to the Oval Office after making remarks at the White House in Washington March 13, 2008

A spectator raises her fist in celebration seconds after it was announced that Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama waves to the crowd at a rally in the rain at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va. Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008. Amen.