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Pictures of the Week: October 19 – 26

From the start of baseball's World Series and Hurricane Sandy in the Caribbean to the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and people dressed as pandas, TIME presents the best images of the week.

From the start of baseball’s World Series and Hurricane Sandy in the Caribbean to the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and people dressed as pandas, TIME presents the best images of the week.

Image: Oct. 21, 2012. Women civilians lay in the back of a truck as they are removed from a hospital in the Tarik Al Bab neighborhood, after they were injured by aircraft strike on a highway in Aleppo, Syria. Image: Oct. 21, 2012. Two Cuban girls guard a polling station in Havana. Cubans lined up at polling stations Sunday for municipal elections in the one-party Communist-run island. Image: Oct. 19, 2012. Mexican soldiers are backlit after a gas pipeline explosion in Zapotlanejo, Mexico. Image: Oct. 22, 2012. A Palestinian worker walks behind posters of the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, left, and Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, right, in preparation for the upcoming visit to Gaza at Palestine stadium in Gaza City. Image: Oct. 23, 2012. Members of the media photograph the Soyuz rocket as it launches in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Image: Oct. 19, 2012. A Chinese opera actress is reflected in a mirror before performing outside a shrine during the annual vegetarian festival in Phuket, Thailand. The festival 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. Image: President Barack Obama and Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney participate in the final Presidential debate with moderator Bob Schieffer on the campus of Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. Image: Oct. 23, 2012. A jaguar swims towards in the water during feeding time at Taman Safari Indonesia in Bogor, Indonesia. Image: Oct. 22, 2012. Medical staff at the Rambam hospital attend to a soldier pretending to be injured following a mock earthquake exercise in Haifa, Israel. Image: Oct. 19, 2012. A devotee of the Ban Tha Rua Chinese shrine with a gun pierced through his cheek takes part in a procession celebrating the annual vegetarian festival in Phuket, Thailand. The festival 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. Image: Oct. 19, 2012. Relatives comfort a wounded woman at the site of an explosion in Beirut. A huge car bomb exploded in central Beirut during rush hour killing at least two people and wounding 46, witnesses and security sources said. Image: Oct. 19, 2012. Mexican youth wearing skeleton masks and standing on stilts are seen at Zocalo Square in Mexico City. Mexicans honor their deceased loved ones during Day of the Dead celebrations on November 1st. Image: Oct. 19, 2012. A Hindu devotee dressed as Hindu monkey god Lord Hanuman leaps through a doorway as he enters Lord Hanuman's temple during a religious procession of the Navratri festival in Amritsar, India. Image: Oct. 19, 2012. Pakistani students, displaced along with their families from Pakistan's tribal areas due to fighting between militants and the army, chant a song with their teacher, not pictured, during their daily school in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Islamabad. Image: Oct. 19, 2012. Pigeons fly over the Grand Mosque at Friday prayers during the annual haj pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Image: Oct. 20, 2012. Chinese customers walk along the spiral steps of the newly opened Apple Store in Wangfujing shopping district in Beijing. Image: Oct. 20, 2012. Actors dressed as Japanese military soldiers and villagers perform during a show at the Eighth Route Army Culture Park, one of two theme parks, in Wuxiang county, north China's Shanxi province. Image: Oct. 20, 2012. A cow is transported from a truck at the animal market in Kabul. Image: Oct. 20, 2012. A wounded Syrian civilian lies in the street with a shot to his stomach as he tries to escape the line-of-fire after he was targeted by a Syrian army sniper in Aleppo, Syria. Image: Oct. 20, 2012. A Free Syrian Army fighters carry a civilian away from the line of fire after he was shot twice by a Syrian army sniper in Aleppo, Syria. Image: Oct. 21, 2012. An Indian performer disguised as the Hindu Goddess Kali performs with fire during the Navratri festival in Allahabad, India. Navratri, the festival of nine nights, is an annual Hindu festival of worship and dance. Image: Oct. 21, 2012. Indian soldiers perform Malkhamb, a traditional Indian sport in which a gymnast performs on a wooden pole, during a two day Army exhibition in Allahabad. Image: Oct. 21, 2012. Heavy floods closed the Roman Catholic shrine, the Grotto of Lourdes, and forced the evacuation of 450 pilgrims in Lourdes, France. Image: Oct. 21, 2012. Tapestries of Maria del Carmen and Pedro Calungsod hang on St. Peter's Basilica during a special mass to name seven new saints in St Peter's square in the Vatican City. Image: Image: Oct. 22, 2012. Priests carry the coffin of Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem Archbishop Torkom Manoogian during his funeral at the Armenian Church in Jerusalem. Image: Oct. 22, 2012. A Rancho Cordova Sheriff holds a child that was unharmed in a triple homicide on De Soto Way in Rancho Cordova, California. Image: Oct. 22, 2012. Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney is embraced by his wife Ann as members of the audience applaud after the conclusion of the final Presidential debate with President Barack Obama on the campus of Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. Image: Oct. 22, 2012. Dozens of clowns from Peru, El Salvador, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua, US and Mexico attend the International Clown Convention 2012 in Mexico City. Image: Oct. 22, 2012. Supporters of President Barack Obama listen as Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event at the J. Babe Stearn Community Center in Canton, Ohio. Image: Oct. 22, 2012. DC Board of Elections worker Linda Johnson waits as voters cast their ballots on electronic voting machines during the first day of early voting in Washington, DC. Image: Oct. 22, 2012. A Nepalese girl flies a kite during the Dashain festival in Katmandu.Dashain commemorates the victory of good over evil. Image: Oct. 23, 2012. Libyans celebrate the one year anniversary of liberation from former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, at Martyrs Square in Tripoli, Libya. Image: Oct. 23, 2012. U.S. President Barack Obama sits aboard Marine One as it lands on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. Image: Oct. 23, 2012. Nepalese devotees splash water on a water buffalo, unseen, as part of a ritual before sacrificing it, during the ninth day of the Dashain festival in Katmandu. Image: Image: Oct. 23, 2012. A refugee child walks on top of a tent in a refugee camp in Atimeh, on the Syrian-Turkish border of the Idlib Governorate, Syria. Image: Oct. 23, 2012. Syrian residents carry the lifeless body of a boy killed by an artillery shell that landed near a bakery, in front of a hospital in Aleppo, Syria. Image: Oct. 23, 2012. Syrian residents carry the lifeless body of a boy who was killed by an artillery shell that landed near a bakery, in front of a hospital in Aleppo, Syria. Image: Oct. 24, 2012. Hindu devotees unload an idol of the Hindu goddess Durga for immersion into the Yamuna river during Durga Puja festivities in New Delhi, India. Image: Oct. 24, 2012. Jamaicans shelter themselves from the rain of approaching Hurricane Sandy as they walk along Sandy Park Gully in Kingston. Image: Oct. 24, 2012. A Palestinian activist is arrested by Israeli soldiers as dozens of Palestinians block the entrance of the Rami Levy supermarket opened in the Shaar Binyamin Jewish settlement close to the city of Ramallah in the Israeli occupied Palestinian West Bank. Image: Oct. 24, 2012. A Palestinian boy watches the funeral of Hamas gunman Ismail al-Tille in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. Image: Oct. 24, 2012. Detroit Tigers left-fielder Delmon Young watches as the San Francisco Giants' Pablo Sandoval second home run goes over the wall in Game 1 of the World Series at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Image: Oct. 25, 2012. A Muslim pilgrim sleeps while others climb Mount Mercy on the plains of Arafat in the early morning during the peak of the annual haj pilgrimage near the holy city of Mecca. Image: Oct. 23, 2012. A cast member performs during the rehearsal of Thais opera by Jules Massenet as part of the Placido Domingo festival at the Maestranza theatre in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain. Image: This general view shows a room where inmates can meet with visitors inside the No. 1 Detention Center during a government guided tour in Beijing. The rare visit to the facility, which has capacity for 1,000 inmates, was opened to the foreign media as Beijing prepares for the 18th Congress of the Communist Party of China. Image: Oct. 25, 2012. A model seen through a veiling curtain walks down stairs in front of a projection displaying a traditional Chinese-style painting at a fashion show by NE TIGER during the China Fashion Week in Beijing. Image: Oct. 25, 2012. Somalis carry a swordfish and a shark on their heads from the ocean to the market in Mogadishu, Somalia. Image: Oct. 25, 2012. President Barack Obama pauses to greet people as he leaves a campaign office. Obama came to Chicago to cast his election ballot, becoming the first sitting U.S. President to vote early.

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