1. Fifth Republican debate — The candidates debate in The Venetian Theater during the CNN Republican presidential debate at the Venetian Hotel & Casino on Tuesday in Las Vegas. Candidate Donald Trump brought a quieter approach to the fifth GOP debate, which took on some serious political issues like how to fight ISIS and promote international security. Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio faced off a few times, including an exchange on government access to private data during which some alleged Cruz may have slipped and given out classified information. (AP Photo/John Locher)
2. Trump and Bush tussle — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump points at Jeb Bush after the CNN Republican presidential debate on Tuesday. The two tussled a few times during the debate, with Bush calling Trump a "chaos candidate who would be a chaos president." Trump hit back, citing Bush's low poll numbers and his "low energy." (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
3. "Star Wars" frenzy — Fans attend the opening night of Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" at TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX on Thursday in Hollywood, California. The film blew apart records, raking in
$57 million on opening night, USA Today reported. The previous Thursday opening record holder was "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," which drew in $43.5 million. Online excitement manifested in memes threatening anyone who revealed the plot and hundreds of thousands of posts about the much-anticipated movie. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
4. Threat shuts down Los Angeles schools — A police officer puts up yellow tape to close the area outside of Edward Roybal High School in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning after officials received a threat. The email threat, which gave some 640,000 students the day off, reportedly contained some glaring errors — for example, Allah was spelled with a lowercase "a" at one point — and was later found not to be credible. New York officials received a similar communication, but kept schools in session. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
5. Government shutdown avoided — House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin smiles during an end-of-the-year news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. A day later, Congress approved an omnibus tax bill that narrowly avoided a government shutdown and extended funding for government offices through the fall. The $1.1 trillion spending package allayed some questions about tax programs, but raised many concerns from Republicans about meeting too many Democratic demands. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
6. Federal Reserve raises interest rates — A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as a television screen displays coverage of U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen on Wednesday. Citing market stability, improved labor market conditions, and reasonable expectations that inflation will rise to a 2-percent objective, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates this week from 0 percent to a range of 0.25 to 0.50 percent. It's the first increase in nearly 10 years. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)
7. Martin Shkreli in custody — Martin Shkreli, the former hedge fund manager under fire for buying a pharmaceutical company and ratcheting up the price of a life-saving drug, is escorted by law enforcement agents in New York on Thursday after being taken into custody following a securities probe. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
8. Neighbor of San Bernardino suspects charged — Enrique Marquez, neighbor to the married couple who shot up a Christmas party in San Bernardino and killed 14 people earlier this month, was arrested and charged with various crimes, including conspiring to help a terrorist. Authorities say Marquez supplied guns to Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, along with a smokeless powder Farook used for pipe bombs. He also in the past may have planned other attacks with Farook, authorities said. (Enrique Marquez/Facebook)
9. Putin calls Trump an "absolute leader" — Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual end of year news conference in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday. Putin called Donald Trump an "absolute leader" in the presidential race, and also said he is a "lively man, talented without doubt." Trump has said he and Putin would get along well and has praised him for his actions against ISIS in Syria. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
10. US, Cuba to resume commercial flight service — A charger jet, operated by American Airlines, is parked on the tarmac at Jose Marti International Airport after flying directly from Miami to Havana, Cuba, in January 2015. Commercial airline service between the United States and Cuba will begin again after the two countries reached a new deal this week. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)