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AFP

Our selection of the top shots around this week ending:

Last Saturday, Ethiopian Orthodox worshippers hold candles as they gather to pray ahead of the Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas celebrations at the Bole Medhanialem Church in Addis Ababa. - The Ethiopian Christmas, also called 'Gena' in Amharic, is celebrated on January 7.

The same day, this aerial view shows a float participating in the "White Day" parade during the Carnival of Blacks and Whites in Pasto, Colombia. The Blacks and Whites carnival has its origins in a mix of Andean, Amazonian and Pacific cultural expressions, and it celebrates the ethnic diversity in the region and was proclaimed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage in 2009.

The following day, on Sunday, a young maiden of the Nazareth Baptist Church, from the Ekuphakameni group, also known as the Shembe Church, climbs the Nhlangakazi Holy Mountain in Ndwedwe, 85 kilometres north of Durban in South Africa. The devotees climb the mountain as part of their annual 10 day pilgrimage. The church was founded in 1913 and is one of the largest African traditionalist churches in Africa. They walk up to 68 kilometres barefoot praying, worshipping, singing, dancing and camping on their four weeks stay at the mountain. The Shembe Church is the oldest independent indigenous Church in Southern Africa.

Also on Sunday, leftist activists attend a mass meeting named ‘Insaaf Yatra’ (Justice Rally) organised by the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) ahead of the upcoming national general elections, in Kolkata.

On Monday, the brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Vulcan Centaur, lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41d at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida for its maiden voyage, carrying Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander. The mission, called Cert-1, also carried on board the cremated remains of several people associated with the original "Star Trek" series, including creator Gene Roddenberry and cast member Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed the character Uhura. Roddenberry's ashes have been launched into orbit before.

Elsewhere, the same day, migrants take part in a caravan towards the border with the United States in Arriaga community, Chiapas State, Mexico. More than a thousand migrants of different nationalities have resumed their passage in the caravan after not receiving a favorable response to their demands to receive humanitarian visas from the National Migration Institute.

On Tuesday, a man walks through a sea of devotees as he tries to reach a glass-covered carriage carrying the so-called Black Nazarene statue during an annual religious procession in Manila, Philippines. Hundreds of thousands of Catholic faithful swarmed a historic statue of Jesus Christ as it was pulled through the streets of the Philippine capital, in one of the world's biggest displays of religious devotion.

That very day, from left, US film editor Carol Littleton, US actor Mel Brooks and US actress Angela Bassett pose with their Academy Honorary Award while US film executive Michelle Satter poses with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award during the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 14th Annual Governors Awards at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles, USA.

On Wednesday, people run with merchandise as crowds leave shops with looted goods amid a state of unrest in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. A festering pay dispute involving Papua New Guinea's security forces sparked angry protests in the capital, where a crowd torched a police car outside the prime minister's office. By Wednesday afternoon pockets of unrest had spread through the capital Port Moresby, with video clips on social media showing crowds looting shops and stretched police scrambling to restore order.

People cross the floodwater of the Carrigrès bridge in a pirogue in the Pompage district in Kinshasa on Tuesday, following heavy rains and the flood of the Congo River.

The flood theme was also seen miles away the same day, where floodwater surrounded homes and houses on a residential street in Wraysbury, west of London, after heavy rain brought flooding to much of the country following Storm Henk.

Also on Tuesday, a man tries on the Aduro Facial Tronic facemask from Red Lite Therapy Collective during Showstoppers at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. The facemask from Red Lite Therapy Collective offers seven colours for treatment in red, green, blue, yellow, orange, cyan, purple and infrared to help with inflammation, anti-ageing, acne, spot removal, softer skin, balanced skin tones and cell rejuvenation.

On Sunday, Hero Motosports Team Rally's Botswanan biker Ross Branch competes during Stage 2 of the Dakar Rally 2024, between Al Henakiyah and Al Duwadimi, Saudi Arabia.

On Thursday, rescuers cordon off the area surrounding a destroyed hotel following a missile strike in Kharkiv amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The previous day in Ecuador, members of the Armed Forces frisk men during an operation to protect civil security in Quito. Ecuador's president Daniel Noboa gave orders to "neutralize" criminal gangs after gunmen stormed and opened fire in a TV studio, as bandits threatened random executions on a second day of terror in the country. Gangs declared war on the government after Noboa announced a state of emergency following the prison escape on January 7 of one of Ecuador's most powerful narco bosses.

On Thursday, Team Audi Sport's Spanish driver Carlos Sainz and his Spanish co-driver Lucas Cruz steer their car during stage 6 of the Dakar rally 2024, a 48h-chrono stage between Shubaytah and Shubaytah, Saudi Arabia.

The same day, relatives, friends, and others mourn next to the coffin of a Ukrainian poet and serviceman Maksym Kryvtsov who was killed fighting Russian troops, at the Saint Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

On Thursday, Israeli soldiers walk among portraits of people taken captive or killed by Hamas militants during the Supernova music festival on October 7, during a visit at the site where the deadly incident took place near Kibbutz Reim in southern Israel, amid continuing battles between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

On Friday, residents evacuate using a horse-drawn carriage in the flooded town of Dayeuhkolot in Bandung after a river overflowed due to heavy rain.