Around the world in 20 pictures

PIC: An Iraqi man pushes his mother on a wheelbarrow as they flee to an area held by the Iraqi Special Forces 2nd division in the Samah neighbourhood of Mosul during an ongoing operation against Islamic State (IS) group jihadists. Hundreds of people used the opportunity to get out of harm's way during a period of relative calm on the frontline neighbourhoods of eastern Mosul. (AFP)

A LOOK AT WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING AROUND THE GLOBE LATELY . . .

An Iraqi Special Forces 2nd division fighting vehicle is seen moving in the Samah neighbourhood of Mosul. Iraqi forces have broken into jihadist-held Mosul and recaptured neighbourhoods inside the city, but a month into their offensive, there are still weeks or more of potentially heavy fighting ahead.

 

 

From left: US astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet pose for pictures during a press conference at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome on Wednesday. The trio is to take off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome to the International Space Station (ISS) early on Friday local time.

 

 

A commander of the Kurdish female Women's Protection Units (YPJ) speaks in the village of Tuwaylaa, just outside the city of Raqa. The YPJ are female brigades fighting alongside male fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the militia alliance supported by the United States in the offensive launched on November 5 to capture Raqa from IS jihadists.

 

 

US President Barack Obama leaves after delivering a speech at the Niarchos foundation in Athens on Wednesday at the end of his official visit in Greece.
Obama was wrapping up the Greek leg of a farewell European trip with a visit to the Acropolis and an eagerly-awaited speech on democracy before heading to Berlin. On his final visit to Europe as president, Obama has chosen Greece, the "cradle of democracy", as the place to deliver a speech addressing the uncertainties that have led to the rise of populists like Donald Trump.

 

 

Britain's Prince William, Duke of Cambridge plays football with pupils as he visits a local primary school in the old quarters of Hanoi on Wednesday. Prince William is in Vietnam to attend an international conference on wildlife trafficking.

 

 

A man is hit by a wave at New Brighton in north west England on November as he runs along the sea wall.

 

 

A member of Communist Party of India displays a 1000 rupees note at a protest against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the withdrawal of high-value banknotes from circulation in Chennai. Long queues formed outside banks in India since the government's shock decision to withdraw the two largest denomination notes from circulation.

 

 

A migrant sits in front of a makeshift shelter in an abandoned warehouse in Belgrade. Hundreds of thousands of migrants had passed through Serbia in 2015 and early 2016. This road trough the Balkans had been closed in March after the borders of several countries, including Croatia, had been closed for migrants.

 

 

A worker shovels building material around a soon be torn down and empty residential building in Shanghai, China.

 

 

Sanusi Abdulkadir (C), a leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) leads in Kano the funeral prayers for some of the victims of clashes that broke out on November 14 between police and members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) taking part in an annual 130-kilometre walk to the city of Zaria to mark the Ashura religious festival. A pro-Iranian Shiite group alleged that Nigerian police had shot dead a two-year-old girl after firing into a crowd during a religious procession in the northern city of Kano. A leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) and procession organiser Sanusi Abdulkadir said police had opened fire on thousands of people without provocation and took away corpses from the hospital.

 

 

South African opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), South African ruling party African National Congress (ANC) and South African main opposition party Democratic Alliance (DA) members and supporters rally in protest outside the Middelburg Magistrate Court on wednesday during the first hearing of two white men accused of assault charges after an online video emerged showing them pushing a black man into a coffin and threatening to burn him alive. Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Martins Jackson, both 28, were remanded in custody after their lawyer decided not to apply for bail.  The men face charges of kidnapping and assaulting 27-year-old Victor Mlotshwa over an incident that occurred in August at a farm near the town of Middelburg in the eastern province of Mpumalanga.

 

 

A woman casts her ballot on Wednesday in Baidoa. Somalia is in the process of selecting a new parliament, upper house and president in a limited franchise election that involves 14,000 delegates from all regional states, including Galmudug and Puntland.

 

 

Health personnel measure a child as part of a program for malnourished children sponsored by the World Food Program at a Health Center in Mbau, Eastern DR Congo. Malnutrition is very common in DR Congo and the problem has been amplified lately in the Mbau area by the influx of displaced people fleeing a surge in violence.

 

 

In Kenya, this stockpile of illegal arms confiscated from a variety of criminals goes up in smoke in Ngong in Kajiado county as a demonstration of the Kenyan government's commitment to combat armed crime in the east african nation. Gun crime rates, including poaching of wildlife and armed robbery, have remained a thorn in the flesh of the country's security organs, spiralling upwards in the last few years as perpetrators grow increasingly sophisticated.

 

 

Earthquake damage to State Highway 1 is seen south of Kaikoura. Rescue efforts after a devastating earthquake in New Zealand intensified on Wednesday as a fleet of international warships began arriving in the disaster zone.

 

 

In Brazil, this demonstrator runs to kick a tear gas canister during a Rio de Janeiro state's public servants protest against austerity measures in front of the Rio de Janeiro state Assembly (ALERJ), where lawmakers began discussing the measures promoted by the governor Luiz Fernando Pezao pushing budget cuts in response to nearly empty public coffers.

 

 

Still in Rio, a riot police water cannon splashes demonstrators during the protest against austerity measures.

 

 

A passant photographs the Brandenburger gate in Berlin on a foggy Wednesday in Germany.

 

 

And finally, this Moroccan soldier stands guard outside the COP22 Climate Change Conference in Marrakesh, Morroco.