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Pictures of the Week: November 9 – November 16

From escalating violence in the Gaza Strip and austerity riots in Europe to the flooding of Venice and murmurations of starlings in Scotland, TIME presents the best images of the week.

From escalating violence in the Gaza Strip and austerity riots in Europe to the flooding of Venice and murmurations of starlings in Scotland, TIME presents the best images of the week.

Image: Nov. 11, 2012. A murmuration of starlings put on an a display over the town of Gretna, Scotland. Image: Nov. 11, 2012. Police secure the area during clashes at the March of Independence marking Poland's Independence Day, in Warsaw. Image: Nov. 12, 2012. Israeli tanks stand in position overlooking a Syrian village from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Image: Nov. 11, 2012. Christian worshippers pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City. Image: Nov. 11, 2012. A team of Libyan experts and military engineers dump fuel from expired SA-2 missiles, under the supervision of the United Nations, in Tripoli. Image: Nov. 12, 2012. Injured people are treated outside a damaged hospital in Thabeik Kyin township, Myanmar. Image: Nov. 11, 2012. A view of St. Mark's Basin during covered by exceptionally high water in Venice. Image: Nov. 14, 2012. A man holds a flare as thousands of people from France and Belgium demonstrate during an anti-austerity protest in Lille, France. Image: Nov. 9, 2012. The Ohio State Buckeyes bring the ball up court against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, during the Carrier Classic college basketball game played on board the U.S.S. Yorktown in Charleston, S.C. Image: Nov. 15, 2012. A pig dives into the water in Ningxiang county, Hunan province, China. Villager Huang Demin drives his pigs to dive into the water from a 3-metre-high platform at least once a day, believing that the diving exercises would improve the quality and taste of the meat. Image: Nov. 9, 2012. An Afghan boy chases his friend riding a horse at the Qargha Lake in Kabul. Image: Nov. 9, 2012. Strong winds and waves ripped several homes from their foundation, like this one in the Oakwood neighborhood of Staten Island, N.Y. Image: Nov. 9. 2012. The sister of 11-year-old Ahmed Abu Dagah cries during the funeral of her brother in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Image: Nov. 9, 2012. An injured inmate lies on the ground, wounded by gunfire after a riot in the Welikada prison in Colombo, Sri Lankan as look on. Image: Nov. 9, 2012. A Japanese high school student holds a rose as he attends a ceremony to remember the fall of the Berlin Wall 23 years ago at the memorial site Bernauer Strasse in Berlin. Image: Nov. 9, 2012. A Colombian Air Force soldier attends a ceremony to mark the 93rd anniversary of the Air Force at the military base in Bogota. Image: Nov. 10, 2012. People gather at the site of a firecracker market that was destroyed in a fire in Vadodara, India. Image: Nov. 10, 2012. Pakistani students pray for the health of 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai during a ceremony at their school in Mingora, Pakistan. Hundreds of Pakistani students and human right activists observed a day of appreciation for Yousufzai, who is being treated in Britain after being shot by the Taliban. Image: Nov. 10, 2012. Kingsley Ihim, 12, Markeya Ihim, 15 mos., Jazzamia Ihim, 7, Martin Ihim, 4, and Shaun Ihim, 5, watch as Kebion, 6, practices his karate moves in the family’s 4th floor kitchen in the Redfern Houses of Rockaway, N.Y. Image: Nov. 11, 2012. Security cameras on a pole in front of a giant portrait of former Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Image: Nov. 11, 2012. Two homes were leveled and numerous neighboring homes were damaged by a massive explosion that sparked a huge fire and killed two people in Indianapolis. Image: Nov. 11, 2012. An injured person sits in a chair outside Kyauk Myaung hospital following a powerful earthquake that hit Myanmar, killing at least 13 people. Image: Nov. 11, 2012. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II stands by a cross bearing a poppy, during the service of remembrance, at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London. Image: Nov. 12, 2012. A woman carries her dog while walking through charred homes in Breezy Point, Queens, N.Y. which were left devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Image: Nov. 12, 2012. The family of a 5-year-old Afghan girl allegedly raped by a 22-year-old man, look on as she lies in a hospital bed in the Kaldar district of Balk Province, Mazar-i-Sharif. Image: Nov. 12, 2012. A girl lights earthen lamps in a formation to form the shape of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, on the eve of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh. Image: Nov. 12, 2012. A relative of Asitha Sanjaya Disanayake, a prison inmate who was killed in a recent prison riot, lights a lamp near his body during a burial ceremony, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Image: Nov. 13, 2012. A Syrian child sits on a sidewalk as he sells cigarettes in the Bab Al-Nayrab neighborhood in Aleppo, Syria. Image: Nov. 13, 2012. An Indian family lights firecrackers during the festival of Diwali in New Delhi. Image: Nov. 13, 2012. Officers of China's People Liberation Army (PLA) watch planes performing during the 9th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai. Image: Nov. 13, 2012. A donkey collapses from the heavy weight of bricks at a brick factory in Baghdad's southeast suburb of Nahrawan. The workers work 12 hours a day for about $5. Image: Nov. 13, 2012. An onca pintada jaguar sits in the Jardim Zoo in Brasilia. Image: Nov. 13, 2012. An Afghan National Army cadet moves to capture fellow cadets dressed as Taliban during a military exercise overseen by French and Canadian soldiers at the Kabul Military Training Center. Image: Nov. 14, 2012. The mother of Shabir Ahmed Mir, a suspected militant of Lashkar-e-Taiba, holds a glass of milk as she clings to the bed carrying the body of her son during his funeral procession in Chingam, India. Image: Nov. 14, 2012. Demonstrators fights with riot policemen during a protest on a day of mobilization against austerity measures by workers in Rome. Image: Nov. 14, 2012. Lu Changshan is seen in a bus which has been converted into a dwelling for him and his wife in Hefei, China. Lu, 39, and his 36-year-old wife Zhang Dingmei have been living in a bus for more than three years, selling cement and sand as their livelihood. In order to constantly watch over their construction materials and save on rent, they chose to live in the bus. Image: Nov. 14, 2012. Fruit bins burn at a packing store in Wolesley, about 120km north of Cape Town. Image: Nov. 14, 2012. A U.S. flag is seen in the front door of a damaged home in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens, N.Y. Image: Nov. 14, 2012. Two wrestlers fight during an amateur wrestling match inside a makeshift ring built on a road junction in Kolkata. Image: Nov. 14, 2012. An Afghan Pashtun boy, who said he was forced from the troubled province of Baglan due to threats from the Taliban, winds up his day after scavenging for recyclables at a garbage dump site in Kabul. Image: Nov. 14, 2012. Afghan boys sit around a fire after scavenging for recyclables at a garbage dump site in Kabul. Image: Nov. 14, 2012. Columns of smoke rise following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City. Image: Nov. 15, 2012. The Iron Dome defense system fires to intercept incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod. Image: Nov. 15, 2012. The parents of 11-month-old Palestinian baby Ahmed Masharawi, killed in an Israeli strike, hold his body during his funeral in Gaza City. Image: Nov. 15, 2012. The brother of Palestinian boy Walid al-Abadlah, who according to hospital officials was killed in an Israeli air strike, kisses his body during his funeral in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Image: Nov. 15, 2012. Palestinians mourn next to the body of Hamas militant Mohammed al-Hams during his funeral in Gaza City. Image: Nov. 15, 2012. An Afghan woman clad in a burqa and her daughter walk through a cemetery in Kabul. Image: Nov. 15, 2012. Israelis react and run for cover as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi. Image: Nov. 16, 2012. The mother of 10-month-old Palestinian girl, Hanen Tafesh, killed the day before in an Israeli air strike, is comforted by her husband and relatives as she mourns before her funeral in Gaza City. Image: Nov. 16, 2012. An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man is seen through a damaged car window after a rocket fired from Gaza landed in the southern city of Ashdod. Israel has started drafting 16,000 reserve troops, the military said on Friday, in a sign that violence could escalate further with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. Image: Nov. 16, 2012. A guard checks the vacant plenary session hall of the lower house in Tokyo. Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda dissolved the lower house of parliament for an election next month, in a political gamble widely expected to strip his center-left party of power.

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