Pilgrims arrive in Mecca's Grand Mosque for prayer on Oct. 31. More than 1.5 million Muslims visit Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage to Islam's holiest site, the world's largest annual human assembly -- which peaks on Nov. 5, according to local state media.
Some 14,345 Chinese participants attempt to set a new Guinness World Record as they gather for a bath at a hot spring in southwest China's Chongqing municipality. The former world record was 10,121 people concurrently taking a hot spring bath in China's Hubei province.
An elderly woman heads toward a polling station in the village of Kyzyl Birlik, some 12 miles outside the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, on Oct. 30. The volatile Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan voted today in presidential polls aimed at overcoming tensions that sparked a revolution and deadly ethnic bloodletting in the space of a year.
Hindu devotees offer prayers to the sun during the Chhath Festival at a beach in Mumbai on Nov. 1. The festival is mainly observed in the eastern part of India, where devotees pray to the sun and water gods eights days after celebrating Diwali, the festival of lights.
People ride on truck flatbeds as they cross floodwaters on a street near the Chao Praya river in Bangkok on Nov. 2. The death toll from Thailand's worst floods in decades surged above 400, as public anger simmered over the authorities' handling of the crisis.
The animal market on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Nov. 1, ahead of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha. Eid al-Adha (the Festival of Sacrifice) is celebrated throughout the Muslim world as a commemoration of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son for God. Cows, camels, goats, and sheep are traditionally slaughtered on the holy day.
Russian soldiers dressed in World War II uniforms march during a military parade rehearsal at the Red Square in Moscow, on Nov. 1. The military parade and commemoration event will take place on Nov. 7. This year's event marks the 70th anniversary of the first parade, held in 1941, when soldiers left for the front line after marching through the Red Square, as Nazi German troops engaged Soviet soldiers a few miles from Moscow.
People gather around a relative's grave at the San Jose cemetery in Mexico City's Santiago neighborhood on Nov. 1, as Mexicans celebrated the Day of the Dead in connection with the Catholic holy days of All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Ceremonies -- which traditionally include all-night vigils in cemeteries and colorful altars with food and drink -- take place across the country.
Greek Presidential guards perform the changing of the guard in front of the Parliament in Athens on Nov. 2, at the start of a three-day debate on a vote of no-confidence for the current government. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou battled for his political life after narrowly securing cabinet backing for a controversial referendum on the country's debt rescue. He then backed down from the referendum, but still faces a no-confidence vote.
A local man leads tourists riding camels on desert dunes leading to the Khor al Adaid inlet of the Persian Gulf on Oct. 30, near Umm Sa'id, Qatar. Camel safaris and four-wheel drive tours of the desert are popular visitors' activities in Qatar.
Young Turkmen men and women attend an inauguration ceremony at the Palace of Happiness wedding complex, recently built in Ashgabat on Oct. 28, with a huge portrait of Turkmenistan's president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov in the background.The opening of the "palace," where couples must register their marriages, was accompanied by directives from the eccentric ruler, who instructed newlyweds to visit national monuments andplant trees on their special day.
A baby hippopotamus swims with its mother at the Berlin Zoo on Nov. 1, in Berlin. The baby hippo was born at the zoo on Oct. 23.
A demonstration in the French city of Cannes on Nov. 1, two days ahead of the G-20 summit -- which took place on Nov. 3 and 4. Meanwhile, thousands of anti-capitalists marched through the streets of the nearby city of Nice to protest corporate greed ahead, echoing protests worldwide.
Nepalese Hindu devotees worship the rising sun as they stands in the Rani Pokhari during the Chhath festival, which honours the Sun God, in Kathmandu on Nov. 2, 2011.
A Catholic nun visits an U.S. military cemetery in Manila on Nov. 1. Millions of Filipinos gathered at cemeteries to offer prayers for their deceased loved ones on All-Saint's Day, a traditional practice in his country where over 80 percent of the 94.9 million people are Catholics.
A French firefighter walks in the Maido Forest after a fire on Nov. 1, near the city of Saint-Paul-de-la-Réunion on the French island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean. French authorities sent reinforcements to battle a wildfire raging through the national park on the island, a unique ecosystem designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
A lone rowboat in the Wessling Lake on a foggy autumn day on Oct. 31, in Wessling, Germany.
