See what these images tell about 2014

New Delhi : The year 2014 has entered into its final month and it's time to look back all the major events that have taken place this year.While there were some fine events like Sochi Winter Olympics and Asian games which brought various people from different parts of the world under a single roof and provided a healthy competition among the participants but on the flip side 2014 has been also one of the years in which mankind was put to utter disgrace by the blood bath and killing of innocent people in various regions of the World .The rise of ISIS is the biggest example of such tragedies. It was a year in which a natural epidemic ‘Ebola' has taken lives of many people.Let's have a look at the most eye-catching images of 2014.Thick smoke and flames from an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition rise in Kobani, Syria, as seen from a hilltop on the outskirts of Suruc, at the Turkey-Syria border, Monday, Oct. 20, 2014. Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, and its surrounding areas, has been under assault by extremists of the Islamic State group since mid-September and is being defended by Kurdish fighters.Thick smoke and flames from an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition rise in Kobani, Syria, as seen from a hilltop on the outskirts of Suruc, at the Turkey-Syria border, Monday, Oct. 20, 2014. Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, and its surrounding areas, has been under assault by extremists of the Islamic State group since mid-September and is being defended by Kurdish fighters.U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Syria have killed more than 500 people since they began last month, mainly Islamic militants, activists said Thursday, as fighting flared yet again in the northern Syrian border town of Kobani.Despite the large death toll and international intervention to aid Kurdish forces fighting to defend Kobani, Islamic State forces on Thursday seized a hilltop overlooking the town along the Syria-Turkey border, activist said. To aid their brethren, Iraqi Kurds pledged to send dozens of fighters over the coming days to battle alongside Syrian Kurdish forces in Kobani. Fatima, 13, weeps as she kisses her injured father, Ahmad al-Messmar, 40, who was wounded when a deadly car bomb blew up Saturday evening near a gas station, in the predominately Shiite town of Hermel, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Syrian border in northeast Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014.A shadowy Lebanese Sunni extremist group late Saturday claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing in Hermel, a stronghold of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group, that killed several people in the latest attack linked to the war in neighboring Syria.Sochi, Russia: Flushed with pride after its athletes' spectacular showing at the costliest Olympics ever, Russia celebrated with a visually stunning finale that handed off a smooth but politically charged Winter Games to their next host, Pyeongchang in South Korea.Russian President Vladimir Putin, these Olympics' political architect and booster-in-chief, watched and smiled as Sochi gave itself a giant pat on the back for a Winter Games that IOC President Thomas Bach declared an "extraordinary success."The crowd that partied in Fisht Olympic Stadium, in high spirits after the high-security games passed safely without feared terror attacks, hooted with delight when Bach said Russia delivered on promises of "excellent" venues, "outstanding" accommodation for the 2,856 athletes and "impeccable organization." The spectators let out an audibly sad moan when Bach declared the 17-day Winter Games closed.The nation's $51 billion investment — topping even Beijing's estimated $40 billion layout for the 2008 Summer Games — transformed a decaying resort town on the Black Sea into a household name. All-new facilities, unthinkable in the Soviet era of drab shoddiness, showcased how far Russia has come in the two decades since it turned its back on communism. But the Olympic show didn't win over critics of Russia's backsliding on democracy and human rights under Putin and its institutionalized intolerance of gays.Despite the bumps along the way, Bach was unrelentingly upbeat about his first games as IOC president and the nation that hosted it. One of Sochi's big successes was security. Feared attacks by Islamic militants who threatened to target the games didn't materialize."It's amazing what has happened here," Bach said a few hours before the ceremony. He recalled that Sochi was an "old, Stalinist-style sanatorium city" when he visited for the IOC in the 1990s.Dmitry Chernyshenko, head of the Sochi organizing committee, called the games "a moment to cherish and pass on to the next generations.""This," he said, "is the new face of Russia — our Russia."Not every headline out of Sochi was about sport. Going in, organizers faced criticism about Russia's strict policies toward gays, though once they started sliding and skiing and skating, most every athlete chose not to use the Olympic spotlight to campaign for the cause.And during the last days of competition, Sochi competed for attention with violence in Ukraine, Russia's neighbor and considered a vital sphere of influence by the Kremlin. The Ebola outbreak, which is stabilizing in Liberia and Guinea, is spreading fastest in Sierra Leone. In a recent 21-day period, Guinea had 306 new Ebola cases. Liberia had 278. Sierra Leone had 1,455, according to the World Health Organization. Mawanda believes that clinging to dangerous practices is the reason why. So does Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma, who on Tuesday urged Sierra Leoneans to desist from washing of corpses, from secretly burying the dead at night instead of calling for Ebola burial teams and any from other practices that could accelerate infections. "Naturally what happens is that as more and more people get infected, people learn lessons. Unfortunately, that takes a long time," Mawanda, a 38-year-old Ugandan physician, said in an interview with The Associated Press. Unsafe burials are believed responsible for 70 percent of new infections in Sierra Leone, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brima Kargbo told reporters Wednesday.The bodies of people who have died from Ebola are particularly contagious and must be handled carefully, but throughout the region, many people continue to bury their dead using traditional methods, including washing and touching the body. Ebola is spread through contact with bodily fluids of an infected person or corpse. Mawanda said sensitization campaigns have not been widely successful in West Africa largely because many locals seem unwilling to break with age-old customs such as communal dining. He saw people eating from the same plate even as Ebola was claiming victims in the capital.The WHO says saliva may carry some risk but that "the science is inconclusive." According to the WHO, the most infectious bodily fluids for spreading Ebola are blood, feces and vomit. "Tracing contacts and isolating them as early as possible is not happening in Sierra Leone," Mawanda said. "What that means is people are getting infected and they are infecting others and there is this great multiplication factor. It is all about capacity and Sierra Leone needs help to effectively do contact tracing." President Barack Obama makes a face as he reads "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak, during the White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House is Washington, Monday, April 21, 2014. Thousands of children are gathered at the White House for the annual Easter Egg Roll. This year's event features live music, cooking stations, storytelling, and of course, some Easter egg rolling. Obama reprised what has become an annual reading of Maurice Sendak's children's book, "Where the Wild Things Are." With a group of children arrayed before him, Obama mimicked the book's monsters, gnashing his teeth and growling and challenging the youngsters to a staring contest.But if there was a feat he did not want to repeat, it was his 1-for-15 hoops shooting from last year. This time, the president, an avid basketball fan and pick-up game player, missed his first two shots from the foul line of the White House's outdoor court, and then sank his third.Wearing khakis and with his sleeves rolled up, the president also hit tennis balls, posed for photographs and joined his wife in encouraging children in an Easter egg roll race.