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PHOTOS: Top moments of the week that was

October 13, 2014 09:39 IST

Top 21 images of all the events of the week that was.

 

A devotee of the Chinese Jui Tui Shrine with two umbrellas pieced through his cheeks walks during a procession celebrating the annual vegetarian festival in Phuket. The festival, featuring face-piercing, spirit mediums and strict vegetarianism celebrates the local Chinese community’s belief that abstinence from meat and various stimulants during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar will help them obtain good health and peace of mind. Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Turkish army tanks take up position on the Turkish-Syrian border near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province. Turkish tanks and armoured vehicles took up positions on hills overlooking the besieged Syrian border town of Kobani on Monday as shelling by Islamic State insurgents intensified and stray fire hit Turkish soil. At least 30 tanks and armoured vehicles, some with their guns pointed towards Syrian territory, were positioned near a Turkish military base just northwest of Kobani. Plumes of smoke rose up as shells hit the eastern and western sides of Kobani and sporadic bursts of machinegun fire rang out. Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron embraces his wife Samantha after delivering his keynote address to the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, central England. Photograph: Luke MacGregor/Reuters

A victim of a 5.1 magnitude earthquake stands among debris in Paruro, Cuzco. At least eight people were killed by a 5.1 magnitude earthquake that hit rural southern Peru over the weekend, emergency authorities said on Sunday as the search for victims continued. The quake late Saturday night in Paruro province, in the Andean region of Cuzco, destroyed 15 adobe-style houses and left 75 people homeless, national emergency operations spokesman Carlos Castro told reporters. Photograph: Presidencia/Reuters

A Palestinian man removes belongings from his house that witnesses said was damaged during the seven-week Israeli offensive, in the east of Gaza City. An open-ended ceasefire between Israel and Hamas-led Gaza militants, mediated by Egypt, took effect on August 26 after a seven-week conflict. It called for an indefinite halt to hostilities, the immediate opening of Gaza’s blockaded crossings with Israel and Egypt, and a widening of the territory's fishing zone in the Mediterranean. Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters

Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff takes a selfie with workers during a visit to the Rio 2016 Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro. Photograph: Ricardo Moraes/Reuters

Demonstrators hold umbrellas in support of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy marches, at Times Square in New York. Thousands of pro-democracy protesters thronged the streets of Hong Kong early on Wednesday, ratcheting up pressure on the pro-Beijing government that has called the action illegal, with both sides marking uneasy National Day celebrations. Umbrellas have become a symbol of what some are calling the “Umbrella Revolution”. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

A Turkish soldier carries a Syrian Kurdish refugee baby from the Syrian border town Kobani, near the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province. More than 150,000 refugees have fled Kobani over the past two weeks alone, with a steady exodus continuing. Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters

Climbers descend Mount Ontake, which straddles Nagano and Gifu prefectures, to evacuate as the volcano erupts in central Japan. The Mt. Ontake volcano erupted on Saturday, killing one woman and seriously injuring more than 30 people, officials and media said. The Japan Meteorological Agency said the volcano, 200 km west of Tokyo, erupted just before midday and sent ash pouring down the mountain’s south slope for more than three km. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters

German Chancellor Angela Merkel poses with public during the celebrations marking the German Unification Day in the streets of Hanover. Photograph: Fabian Bimmer/Reuters

A man walks past thousands of pink and blue flags an anti-abortion group placed on the front lawn of Parliament Hill as part of a campaign in Ottawa. Photograph: Chris Wattie/Reuters

A member of the Santarem forcados group holds onto the bull during a bullfight at Campo Pequeno bullring in Lisbon. Forcados are traditional Portuguese bullfighters who catch bulls with their bare hands. Photograph: Rafael Marchante/Reuters

Iraqi Shi’ite militia fighters stand atop destroyed vehicles belonging to Islamic State militants outside Bo Hassan village near Tikrit, northern Iraq. Photograph: Reuters

A protester sits in front of a barricade on the main street to the financial Central district, near the government headquarters building, in Hong Kong. Fresh scuffles broke out between Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters and opponents of the week-long demonstrations, reigniting concerns that the Chinese-controlled city’s worst unrest in decades could take a violent turn. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

A group of people dressed as a Star Wars characters pose at the cartoon fair ‘Vienna Comix’ in Vienna. Vienna Comix, one of Europe's largest cartoon fairs, takes place twice a year and is expected to attract thousands of fans from Austria and the neighbouring countries. Photograph: Leonhard Foeger/Reuters

Muslim pilgrims touch and kiss the al-Hajr al-Aswad ‘Black Stone during Tawaf al-Ifada, on the day of slaughtering after Arafat day, at the Grand Mosque on the first day of Eid al-Adha in the holy city of Mecca. Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Adha to mark the end of the haj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, camels and cows to commemorate Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, Ismail, on God’s command. Photograph: Muhammad Hamed/Reuters

A girl runs past an art installation depicting a shark at the Museum of Optical Illusions in St Petersburg. The museum offers visitors a chance to become involved in their 3D installations, according to local media. Photograph: Alexander Demianchuk/Reuters

A commercial airliner crosses the path of a rising full moon as it comes in to land at Lindberg Field in San Diego. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

Smoke rises after an US-led air strike in the Syrian town of Kobani. US-led air strikes pushed Islamic State fighters back to the edges of the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani, which they had appeared set to seize after a three-week assault, local officials said. The town has become the focus of international attention since the Islamists’ advance drove 180,000 of the area’s mostly Kurdish inhabitants to flee into adjoining Turkey, which has infuriated its own restive Kurdish minority-- and its NATO partners in Washington -- by refusing to intervene. Photograph: Umit Bektas/Reuters

An employee feeds a one-week-old coati cub with a bottle of milk at the Royev Ruchey zoo in the suburbs of Krasnoyarsk. The mother of three cubs refused to nurse them, according to zoo employees. Photograph: Ilya Naymushin/Reuters

An advertisement for donations to fight Ebola in Africa is displayed on a bus stop near the apartment building of a nurse who contracted Ebola, in Alcorcon, outside Madrid. Spanish health authorities said that another person being monitored in Madrid for Ebola had tested negative for the disease. The man, a Spaniard who had travelled from Nigeria, was one of several people hospitalised after authorities confirmed that the Spanish nurse had caught the disease in Madrid. Photograph: Sergio Perez/Reuters