The Pictures of the Year International (POYi) awards have been announced. Established in 1944, it is one of the most highly regarded annual international competitions for press photography. Reuters extensive coverage of events in 2012 was recognized with a total of 19 awards.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Photographer Navesh Chitrakar spent three months travelling on India’s railways, documenting the world’s fourth largest rail system, ahead of the Indian Railway Budget announcement. Almost all rail operations in India are handled by state-owned organisation Indian Railways which operates 9,000 passenger trains and transports up to 20 million passengers every day. Read Navesh’s personal account here.

Red carpet highlights and memorable moments from the 85th Academy Awards in Hollywood.

Our top photos from the past week.

Photographer Brian Blanco gained rare access to a group of survivalists in Florida led by Jim Foster, 57, a retired police officer. The North Florida Survival Group trains children and adults alike to handle weapons and survive in the wild. The group passionately supports the right of U.S. citizens to bear arms and its website states that it aims to teach “patriots to survive in order to protect and defend our Constitution against all enemy threats”. Since the shooting at Sandy Hook, the group are getting increased interest from people looking to sign up. Foster says he now gets about one person signing up per day. Read Brian’s personal account here.

Photographer Maxim Shemetov spent two weeks in the extreme environment of the Oymyakon valley in the Republic of Sakha, in northeast Russia. Here in the ‘Pole of Cold’, as it is known, the coldest temperatures in the northern hemisphere have been recorded. According to the United Kingdom Met Office in 1933 a record-breaking temperature of -67.8 degrees Celsius (-90 degrees Fahrenheit) was registered. Despite the harsh climate, people live in the valley, and the area is equipped with schools, a post office, a bank, and even an airport runway (albeit open only in the summer).

Our top photos from the past week.

President Obama was sworn in for a second term, fighting flared in the Syrian capital of Damascus and the debate over gun control raged in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting.