Our selection of some of the best news photographs taken around the world during the past 24 hours.
Philippine Catholics attend the traditional Misa de Gallo (Dawn Mass) in front of a church in Las Pinas city, south of Manila.
Property managers work to clear drains to minimise flooding at a client's home in Pebble Beach, California, following heavy rains and high winds.
French President Francois Hollande (centre) arrives to visit a school during a trip to the Pas-de-Calais, in Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Construction continues at the White House, a $20m (£13m) villa being built inside Dream City, a new exclusive residential suburb being developed in Erbil, Iraq.
Recording artist Carrie Underwood performs at the American Country Countdown Awards at Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
A child looks at a statue of Paddington bear, outside British Prime Minister David Cameron's official residence at 10 Downing Street, in central London, as children and their families arrive for the charity Christmas party.
A man adds a bunch of flowers to a growing floral memorial outside the Lindt cafe in Sydney's Central Business District, where a gunman held customers hostage for 16 hours. The siege ended as the police moved in, resulting in the deaths of three people, including the hostage-taker.
A miner pushes a bathtub loaded with coal out of an illegal mine near the Bosnian town of Vitez.
A plainclothes security officer escorts pupils rescued from an army-run school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, where at least 126 people, mostly children, have been killed in a Taliban assault.
