AP photos of the year

Every year, The Associated Press chooses a selection of photos that best documents the year’s top news, sports and entertainment stories as chronicled by photojournalists around the world. Today, this collection was distributed by the AP to its members and subscribers worldwide. This year's set of 150 compelling and newsworthy images was selected by AP Director of Photography Santiago Lyon and Deputy Director of Photography Denis Paquin. Below is a gallery featuring a selection of this year's images. 

YE Jeter

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - New York Yankee Derek Jeter jumps after hitting the game-winning single against the Baltimore Orioles in the ninth inning of a baseball game, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014, in New York. The Yankees won 6-5. It was Jeter's last home game of his career at Yankee Stadium. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)

YE Mideast Iraq Islamic State

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - In this photo taken Monday, June 23, 2014, fighters from the Islamic State group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul, Iraq. (AP Photo/File)

YE Obama

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - A time exposure shows the path of Marine One as it lands on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington with President Barack Obama aboard, Thursday, July 24, 2014. (AP Photo/J. David Ake, File)

YE Obama Easter Egg Roll

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - 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 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. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

YE Britain Wimbledon Tennis

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Novak Djokovic of Serbia holds up the trophy after defeating Roger Federer of Switzerland in the men's singles final at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Sunday, July 6, 2014. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

YE Sochi Olympics Opening Ceremony

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Fireworks are seen over the Olympic Park during the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Friday, Feb. 7, 2014. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

YE Crimea Victory Day

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a parade marking the Victory Day in Sevastopol, Crimea, Friday, May 9, 2014. Putin extolled the return of Crimea to Russia before tens of thousands during his first trip to Black Sea peninsula since its annexation. The triumphant visit was quickly condemned by Ukraine and NATO. (AP Photo / Ivan Sekretarev, File)

Ye Veterans Day Cosby

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Entertainer and Navy veteran Bill Cosby speaks during a Veterans Day ceremony, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014, at the The All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

YE Sochi Olympics Ski Cross Women

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Switzerland's Fanny Smith, from left, Sweden's Anna Holmlund, Austria's Katrin Ofner and Canada's Kelsey Serwa compete during their ski cross race at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 21, 2014, in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

YE Russia Space Station

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - An employee of the Russian Space Training Center hangs out space suits to dry of Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, NASA's U.S. flight engineer Kathleen Rubins and Japanese space agency's flight engineer Takuya Onishi after their undergoing training near in Noginsk, 60 km (38 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, July 2, 2014. The training was intended to simulate the capsule landing on water. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

YE Puerto Rico Standing Wake

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - The body of boxer Christopher Rivera, who was shot to death on Sunday, is propped up in a fake boxing ring during his wake at the community recreation center within the public housing project where he lived in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Friday, Jan. 31, 2014. Elsie Rodriguez, vice president of the Marin funeral home, explained that Rivera had asked his family that if he died, he wanted his funeral to make reference to his boxing career. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo, File)

YE Police Shooting Missouri Funeral

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Michael Brown Sr. yells out as the casket is lowered during the funeral service for his son Michael Brown in Normandy, Mo., Monday, Aug. 25, 2014. Hundreds of people gathered to say goodbye to Michael Brown, the 18-year-old shot and killed Aug. 9 in a confrontation with a police officer that fueled almost two weeks of street protests. (AP Photo/New York Times, Richard Perry, File Pool)

YE Robin Williams

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - This Aug. 14, 2009 file photo shows actor Robin Williams in Los Angeles. Williams, whose free-form comedy and adept impressions dazzled audiences for decades, died Monday, Aug. 11, 2014, in an apparent suicide. Williams was 63. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

YE Turkey Syria

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - An elderly Syrian Kurdish refugee woman from the Kobani area, warms up by a fire at a camp in Suruc, on the Turkey-Syria border Monday, Nov. 10, 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. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)

YE Medal of Honor

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry stands with his prosthetic hand over his heart, wearing his Medal of Honor during the "Pledge of Allegiance" at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. on Wednesday, April 2, 2014, during a ceremony to honor him and other recipients of the Medal of Honor from Washington state. Petry lost his hand in 2008 when an enemy grenade he was throwing away from fellow soldiers detonated while in combat in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

YE Venezuela Protests

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - A man carries a woman affected by tear gas launched by riot police at anti-government protesters in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)

YE Mideast Lebanon

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Fatima, 13, weeps as she kisses her injured father, Ahmad al-Messmar, 40, who was wounded when a deadly car bomb blew up 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 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. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

YE Hong Kong

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Protesters are taken away by police officers after hundreds of protesters staged a peaceful sit-ins overnight on a street in the financial district in Hong Kong Wednesday, July 2, 2014, following a huge rally to show their support for democratic reform and oppose Beijing's desire to have the final say on candidates for the chief executive's job. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

YE South Korea Ship Sinking

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - A Buddhist monk and relatives of passengers aboard a sunken ferry spray alcohols during a Buddhist ceremony to pray for speedy rescue and their safety at a port in Jindo, south of Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 18, 2014. The ferry flipped onto its side and filled with water off the southern coast of South Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

YE Malala Liberty Medal

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Malala Yousafzai holds up her Liberty Medal during a ceremony at the National Constitution Center, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2014, in Philadelphia. The honor is given annually to an individual who displays courage and conviction while striving to secure liberty for people worldwide. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

YE Mideast Israel Palestinians

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - A Palestinian man shouts for help moments after Palestinian teen, Mohammad Abu Daher, on the ground, was shot to death by Israeli troops near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, May 15, 2014. Medical officials say Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian teens in a West Bank clash that erupted after Palestinians marked the anniversary of their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File)

YE Turkey Syria

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - 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. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)

YE Hoffman

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - In this Jan. 19, 2014 photo, Philip Seymour Hoffman poses for a portrait at The Collective and Gibson Lounge Powered by CEG, during the Sundance Film Festival, in Park City, Utah. Hoffman, who won the Oscar for best actor in 2006 for his portrayal of writer Truman Capote in "Capote," was found dead Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014, in his New York apartment. He was 46. (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP, File)

YE Mideast Israel Palestinians

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Israeli soldiers, family and friends morn over the grave of Sergeant Sagi Erez, an infantry soldier training to be a squad commander, during his funeral at the military cemetery in Haifa, northern Israel, Tuesday, July 29, 2014. Erez, 19, was killed in combat after Gaza militants used a tunnel to sneak into Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

YE Mideast Pope

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Pope Francis prays in front of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, in Jerusalem's Old City, Monday, May 26, 2014. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

YE Spain Migrants

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Sub-Saharan migrants scale a metallic fence that divides Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla, early in the morning on Wednesday, May 28, 2014. Several hundred African migrants charged the barbed-wire border fence in SpainÃs North African enclave of Melilla with many managing to get across while dozens of others were beaten back by Moroccan and Spanish police. During the pre-dawn border storming, cries of pain and noises of people being hit could be heard as police from both sides tried to prevent dozens of the sub-Saharan migrants from entering the city from Morocco. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios, File)

YE Spain Holi Festival

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Visitors of the Holi Festival of Colours throw special colored powders in the air in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, April 6, 2014. The festival is fashioned after the Hindu spring festival Holi, which is mainly celebrated in the north and east of India. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)

YE Liberia Ebola

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Nine-year-old Nowa Paye is taken to an ambulance after showing signs of the Ebola infection in the village of Freeman Reserve, about 30 miles north of Monrovia, Liberia,Tuesday Sept. 30, 2014. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

YE Peru Illegal Gold

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - A woman throws a rock and a bag at riot policemen who block her way home in Huepetuhe district in Peru's Madre de Dios region in Peru, Monday, April 28, 2014. Soldiers, police and marines have begun destroying illegal gold mining machinery in Peruís southeastern jungle region of Madre de Dios. Authorities began enforcing a ban on illegal mining in the Huepetuhe district. Before the deadline, miners clashed with police while intermittently blocking traffic on the Interoceanic Highway that links the Pacific with Brazil. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)

YE Mideast Israel Palestinians

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Palestinian medics treat a wounded girl at the emergency room of the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, Friday, July 18, 2014. Thousands of Israeli soldiers launched a ground invasion in the Gaza Strip, escalating a 10-day campaign of heavy air bombardments to try to destroy Hamas' rocket-firing abilities and the tunnels militants use to infiltrate Israel. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

YE Spain Human Tower

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Members of the Castellers Joves Xiquets de Valls try to complete their human tower during the 25th Human Tower Competition in Tarragona, Spain, on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014. The tradition of building human towers, or castells, dates back to the 18th century and takes place during festivals in Catalonia, where colles, or teams, compete to build the tallest and most complicated towers. The structure of the castells varies depending on their complexity. A castell is considered completely successful when it is loaded and unloaded without falling apart. The highest castell in history was a 10 floor structure with 3 people in each floor. In 2010 castells were declared by UNESCO one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)

YE Central African Republic

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - GRAPHIC CONTENT - Newly enlisted FACA (Central African Armed Forces) soldiers drag the lifeless body of a suspected Muslim Seleka militiaman moments after Central African Republic Interim President Catherine Samba-Panza addressed the troops in Bangui, Wednesday Feb. 5, 2014. The victim was lynched by hundreds of recruits, pelting him with bricks and mutilating his body with knives. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

YE Police Shooting Missouri

FOR USE AS DESIRED, YEAR END PHOTOS - FILE - Protesters march in the street as lightning flashes in the distance in Ferguson, Mo. on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014. On Aug. 9, 2014, a white police officer fatally shot Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year old, in the St. Louis suburb. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

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