Here are some of the best photographs clicked across the globe in the month of October.
Jiejin Qiu, who is six months pregnant with her first baby, poses underwater during a photo shoot at a local wedding photo studio in Shanghai. Reuters Photographer Carlos Barria photographed a person born in each year China's one child policy has been in existence; from a man born in 1979, to a baby born in 2014, and asked them if they would have like to have siblings. China, the world's most populous country with nearly 1.4 billion people, says the country's one-child policy has averted 400 million births since 1980, saving scarce food resources and helping to pull families out of poverty. Couples violating the policy have had to pay a fine, or in some cases have been forced to undergo abortions. But late last year, China said it would allow millions of families to have two children, part of a plan to raise fertility rates and ease the financial burden on a rapidly ageing population. Photograph: Carlos Barria / Reuters
Host Natalie Morales falls whiled dressed as the Saturday Night Live character Mary Katherine Gallaghee during NBC's "Today" show's "Halloween Boo-Nanza" in New York October 31, 2014. Photograph: Brendan McDermid / Reuters
Zheng Feng, an amateur climber takes wedding pictures with his bride on a cliff in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, China on October 26, 2014. Photograph: China Daily / Reuters
Riot police arrest an anti-government protester in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, October 30, 2014. Thousands of protesters marched on Burkina Faso's presidential palace after burning the parliament building and ransacking state television offices on Thursday, forcing President Blaise Compaore to scrap a plan to extend his 27-year rule. Photograph: Joe Penney / Reuters
A child reacts while touching a skeleton model, which is part of an art installation to celebrate the Day of the Dead, in Zocalo Square, Mexico City, October 30, 2014. Photograph: Tomas Bravo / Reuters
Muhammed Ariful Islam, 22, a Dhaka painter who was held captive on a ship before being abandoned on a remote island, cries at a government shelter in Takua Pa district of Phang Nga October 17, 2014. Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha / Reuters
Widows, who have been abandoned by their families, light sparklers after offering prayers on the banks of the river Yamuna as part of Diwali celebrations organised by non-governmental organisation Sulabh International in Vrindavan, in Uttar Pradesh October 21, 2014. Hundreds of the widows who live in various ashrams run by the Sulabh International participated in the celebrations for the first time this year, according to the organisers. Photograph: Ahmad Masood / Reuters
An Israeli woman (centre) and a Palestinian woman gesture at one another during a protest by Palestinian women against Jewish visitors to the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City October 14, 2014. The site in Jerusalem's walled Old City has seen repeated disturbances over the years over what Palestinians say are fears of an Israeli threat to the site, which Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary. Israel denies any such threat. Jews also revere the site as the location of two destroyed biblical temples. Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly / Reuters
Artist Pyotr Pavlensky sits on the wall enclosing the Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry after he cut off a part of his earlobe during his protest action titled "Segregation" in Moscow October 19, 2014. Pavlensky protested against the usage of forensic psychiatry for politically motivated purposes. He cut off his earlobe to demonstrate how authorities could "cut off" an unwanted individual from society by using psychiatric and medical diagnosis to forcefully send a person to a penitentiary hospital, according to Pavlensky. Photograph: Maxim Zmeyev / Reuters
A man fixes tarpaulin on his stall during a dust storm on the banks of the river Ganges in Allahabad on October 13, 2014. Photograph: Jitendra Prakash / Reuters
Barry Steenkamp, father of Reeva Steenkamp, is consoled by his wife June Steenkamp during the sentencing hearing of Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, South Africa October 15, 2014. The 27-year-old Pistorius, whose lower legs were amputated as a baby, was convicted of culpable homicide last month for the shooting of 29-year-old law graduate and model Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013. Photograph: Antoine de Ras/Pool/Reuters
Smoke and flames rise over Syrian town of Kobani after an airstrike, as seen from the Mursitpinar crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province, October 20, 2014. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters
Secret Service agents keep watch as US President Barack Obama visits a Pat Quinn campaign office in Chicago on October 20, 2014. Quinn is running for re-election as Governor of Illinois. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
A woman holding her baby smokes a cigarette as she waits for a washing machine, before doing laundry inside the bathroom at the Nova Tuffy slum, in an abandoned factory in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 17, 2014. Since seven months ago, 1,800 families have been living inside the factory, which they occupied in March, with poor sanitation services and the fear of eviction. The occupants of the factory say they are not included in the housing program "Minha Casa, Minha Vida" (My House, My Life), and they would like to be included by the Brazilian government. The housing programme is one of several government initiatives aimed at reducing poverty and social inequality that President Dilma Rousseff has held up as achievements of her administration. Photograph: Pilar Olivares / Reuters
Jean Matsusaka, 84, smiles as a marionette waves to her during a performance at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater in Los Angeles, California October 17, 2014. The playhouse started in 1960, has 2,000 marionettes and is the oldest continually running marionette theater in the US. It was recently bought by a developer who wants to turn the historic landmark into a 104-unit apartment complex. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson / Reuters
An orphaned baby elephant basks in a mud puddle at the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage within the Nairobi National Park, near Kenya's capital Nairobi October 15, 2014. The orphanage under the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is operated by Daphne Sheldrick, wife of late famous naturalist David William Sheldrick. The orphaned elephants raised by the trust will be returned to join the undomesticated elephant population in Tsavo National Park, where David was the founder warden from 1948 to 1976, when they mature, usually between eight to 10 years old. Photograph: Goran Tomasevic / Reuters
A rider performs motorcycle stunts during a Motor-Extreme show in the southern city of Ashkelon, Israel October 13, 2014. Photograph: Amir Cohen / Reuters
A Palestinian boy throws stones at an armored wheel loader of the Israeli Defense Forces during clashes following a protest against the near-by Jewish settlement of Qadomem, in the West Bank village of Kofr Qadom near Nablus on October 17, 2014. Photograph: Abed Omar Qusini / Reuters
A pro-democracy protester cries as he holds a placard with photos of Ken Tsang Kin-chiu, a hospitalized protester, during a rally in front of the police headquarters of Wan Chai district in Hong Kong October 15, 2014. Hong Kong authorities said on Wednesday police involved in the beating of Tsang would be removed from their positions after footage of the overnight incident went viral, sparking outrage from some lawmakers and the public. Alan Leong, leader of Hong Kong's pro-democracy Civic Party, identified the person in the video as Tsang and said he was a member of the party. Photograph: Carlos Barria / Reuters
Mount Sinabung volcano erupts, as seen from Tiga Pancur village, Karo Regency in Indonesia's North Sumatra province October 8, 2014. Photograph: YT Haryono / Reuters
A radio-controlled flying witch makes a test flight past a moon setting into clouds along the pacific ocean in Carlsbad, California October 8, 2014. Reuters was invited to photograph the testing of the life sized device by inventor Otto Dieffenbach lll. Photograph: Mike Blake / Reuters
A man carries empty water pitchers for sale in a market in Bangalore October 9, 2014. Photograph: Abhishek N Chinnappa / Reuters
The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) is seen over the Bals-Fiord near the village of Mestervik, north of the Arctic Circle, Norway early October 2, 2014. Photograph: Yannis Behrakis / Reuters
Bystanders read headlines saying "Ebola 1: USA 0" at the Daily Talk, a street side chalkboard newspaper, in Monrovia October 16, 2014. Photograph: James Giahyue / Reuters
A woman looks up from her voting booth as US President Barack Obama takes part in early voting at a polling station in Chicago, Illinois October 20, 2014. With approval levels hovering around record lows, Obama has spent most of his campaign-related efforts this year raising money for struggling Democrats, who risk losing control of the US Senate in the Nov 4 midterm election. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
