South African mourner, Charlotte Nthetea, 35, poses for a picture, while waiting with other mourners for hours to catch a bus to see the body of former President Nelson Mandela, in Pretoria, South Africa. Nelson Mandela is gone, but many mourners waiting patiently for a chance to see Mandela for a last time on Thursday said they retain high hopes about South Africa’s future. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A jack-o-lantern sits on the first block of East Elm Street in Alton, Ill. Winter officially starts on Dec. 21. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

An orca eats fish at the Marineland animal exhibition park in Antibes, southeastern France. Marineland Antibes was founded in 1970. First it was a small oceanarium with a few pools and animals but now it is one of the biggest in the world and receives more than 1,200,000 visitors per year. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Yuan Ye photographs the sunrise over Washington, looking toward the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and the Capitol, on a chilly winter day in the nation’s capital. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

An Indian dhobi washes clothes in the River Brahmaputra in Gauhati, India. Dhobis are traditional laundry workers who wash clothes by hand and dry them in the sun, an occupation which has been in existence for generations with a current earning of 65- 81 US cents per cloth. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Palestinian children look at a rainbow shining over buildings after heavy rain poured in Gaza City. The weather in Gaza dropped to 6 degrees Celsius (43 degrees Fahrenheit) with heavy rain showers and cloudy skies. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A South African army helicopter passes the statue of Louis Botha, the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa. The body of Nelson Mandela lies in state at the Union Buildings for the second day of three days of public viewing. Each morning his remains will be transported from the mortuary to the government buildings. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

In the early morning, Syrian refugee children warm their hands up with a fire made out of wood in a steel canister in a deserted building where they live with their families during a snowstorm in Amman, Jordan. Snow blanketed most regions of Jordan, blocking highways in the south, causing power cuts across the capital and closing down schools and government offices. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Susana Dorado, top, and her 6-year-old daughter, Evelin De La Luz, stand behind a image of Virgin of Guadalupe while visiting a makeshift memorial where believers say an image of the virgin appeared on a tree stump in 2003 in Passaic, N.J. Catholic Mexicans living in New Jersey pay homage to the Virgin on Dec. 12, to observe what they believe was an apparition of the Virgin seen by Juan Diego, an indigenous man, on the hill of Tepeyac in Mexico City on Dec. 12, 1531. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS