London — A flight information board shows canceled flights in Terminal 5 at London's Heathrow Airport. Snow and freezing temperatures delayed flights across northern Europe on Monday, frustrating travelers trying to get away for Christmas and putting pressure on airline shares.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: LUKE MACGREGOR / REUTERS

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London — Snow covers the rooftops of buildings in the British capital as snow and ice cause chaos at European airports.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: CARL DE SOUZA / AFP/Getty Images

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London — A sign warns of ice as a passenger aircraft takes off at Heathrow Airport.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images

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London — Stranded passengers wait for Eurostar trains bound for Europe at London's St Pancras International station. Speed restrictions because of heavy snow caused major delays in rail travel in England and northern France.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: ANDY RAIN / EPA

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Duesseldorf, Germany — Aircraft are de-iced at the city's airport. The pre-Christmas cold snap and heavy snowfalls across Europe continued to disrupt air and rail travel and made for treacherous driving.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: JULIANA STRATENSCHULTE / EPA

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Weston-Super-Mare, England — A blanket of snow covers the beach at the British seaside resort.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Matt Cardy / Getty Images

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Fechain, France — A car trapped in a ditch is abandoned along a snow-covered road in Northern France.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: PASCAL ROSSIGNOL / REUTERS

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Mount Hotham, Victoria — Snow and ice cover buildings at the Australian resort of Mount Hotham. Normally hot summer weather was replaced by icy gusts sweeping up from the Southern Ocean, making for an unusual white Christmas in parts of the country.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: GINA WOODWARD / AFP/Getty Images

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Paris — A lone cyclist braves the snow-covered gardens of the Louvre.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP/Getty Images

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New York — Hedwig, the Bronx Zoo's snowy owl, is in his element in the winter cold. Snowy owls are typically found in the Arctic and are most active at night. (Hedwig was the name of Harry's snowy owl in J.K Rowling's "Harry Potter" books.)

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Julie Larsen Maher / WCS

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Riosucio, Colombia — A woman peers out of her house in flooded Choco province. Colombia is facing what the government calls its worst natural disaster with heavy rains and flooding taking the lives of more than 280 people, driving nearly 2 million more from their homes, and damaging roadways, crops and livestock.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: JOSE MIGUEL GOMEZ / REUTERS

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Bethlehem — A member of the clergy walks between the columns of the Church of the Nativity, the site revered as the birthplace of Jesus.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: AMMAR AWAD / REUTERS

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Wanneperveen, Netherlands — Skaters move along the Belterwiede, a lake in the northern part of the Netherlands, where the Dutch Marathon Championship will be held later in the week.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: VINCENT JANNINK / EPA

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Brussels, Belgium — Christmas lights illuminate the town hall at La Grande Place in the Belgian capital.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Mark Renders / Getty Images

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Ventura County — Fallen rocks along several miles of Pacific Coast Highway on Monday have prompted officials to close the road from 1.1 miles north of the Los Angeles-Ventura county line to 4.4 miles south of Oxnard.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times

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Bethlehem, West Bank — A Christian pilgrim leans into the niche in the Grotto of the Church of the Nativity and lights a candle from an oil lamp next to the silver star in the floor that marks the spot where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born. Behind are a priest and other pilgrims and tourists. The site in the West Bank town of Bethlehem is particularly popular among tourists in the days before Christmas.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: JIM HOLLANDER / EPA

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Lofer, Austria — Icicles hang on a roof in Lofer. The forecast calls for low temperatures, with rain in Austria's lowlands and snow in the mountains.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Kerstin Joensson / Associated Press

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Wells, England — A message is written in the snow on the back window of a car in Wells. Large portions of Europe were paralyzed by blizzards over the weekend, with more severe weather in the forecast.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Matt Cardy / Getty Images

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Shenyang, China — A group of Chinese residents wearing Santa hats, and not much else, cavort on a frozen river where they've gathered for a winter swim. Winter swimming is popular in China, particularly among the elderly. It's believed to improve circulation and have other health benefits.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: AFP / Getty Images

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Paris — A father and son slide over snow at the Trocadero Square near the Eiffel Tower.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: FRED DUFOUR / AFP / Getty Images

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Singapore — Foam takes the place of snow at the Orchard Row shopping mall in Singapore.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: STEPHEN MORRISON / EPA

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Newark, N.J. — Passengers wait in line for ticketing inside Terminal A at Newark Liberty International Airport. Security forces began allowing passengers back into the terminal after it was closed for more than half an hour early Monday because of a suspicious package, a Reuters witness said. Officials determined the suspicious package contained a computer monitor.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: JESSICA RINALDI / Reuters

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Macau, China — Protesters toting banners hold a pro-democracy demonstration on the 11th anniversary of Macau's handover to China.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: YM YIK / EPA

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Minsk, Belarus — An opposition supporter, arrested after a protest, flashes a victory sign from a police bus near a detention center in Minsk. At least seven election candidates and hundreds of opposition demonstrators were being held on Monday after police cracked down on a protest against the reelection of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: VASILY FEDOSENKO / Reuters

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Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea — South Korean marines patrol Yeonpyeong Island. South Korea held artillery drills on the island, which was shelled last month by North Korea. But North Korea has stated that it will not retaliate to Monday's drills.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Pool / Getty Images

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Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea — South Korean residents check their gas masks at a shelter during a military drill on Yeonpyeong Island.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Pool / Getty Images

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Seoul — North Korean defectors, wearing masks to obscure their identity, take part in a rally for victims of the recent attack on Yeonpyeong Island.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: PARK JI-HWAN / AFP / Getty Images

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