Japan's H-2A rocket, which carries the Himawari-8 weather satellite, leaves the launching pad at the Tanegashima Space Center, Kagoshima prefecture, in southwestern Japan in a bid to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts related to natural disasters. #

Israeli Airsoft teams in action during a combat simulation session, on October 7, 2014 in Kfar Saba, Israel. Originating in Japan, Airsoft is similar to the sport of paintball, but utilizes replica weaponry in strategic battlefield scenarios. #

A farmer leads a decorated buffalo as he arrives for Chonburi's annual buffalo race festival, east of Bangkok, on October 7, 2014. The event, which also celebrates the rice harvest, dates back to the buffalo trade in Chonburi, once the commercial center of Thailand's east. #

Typhoon Vongfong is seen in the Pacific Ocean as it approaches Japan's main islands on its northward journey, in this Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image taken from NASA's Aqua satellite on October 9, 2014. Japan is bracing for its strongest storm this year, a super typhoon powering north toward the Okinawa island chain that threatens to rake a wide swathe of the nation with strong winds and torrential rain. #

A photographer takes pictures of an installation titled "Infinity Mirrored Room - Filled With the Brilliance of Life" by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama during her exhibition at the Rufino Tamayo museum in Mexico City on October 6, 2014. #

Qin Wuyue, born in 2010, poses during an interview with Reuters in Shanghai August 22, 2014. Reuters photographer Carlos Barria photographed a person born in each year China's one child policy has been in existence; from a man born in 1979, to a baby born in 2014, and asked them if they would have like to have siblings. China, the world's most populous country with nearly 1.4 billion people, says the country's one-child policy has averted 400 million births since 1980, saving scarce food resources and helping to pull families out of poverty. Couples violating the policy have had to pay a fine, or in some cases have been forced to undergo abortions. But late last year, China said it would allow millions of families to have two children, part of a plan to raise fertility rates and ease the financial burden on a rapidly aging population. #

Castellers Colla Vella Xiquets de Valls form a human tower, called "castell", during a biannual competition in Tarragona city on October 5, 2014. The formation of human towers is a tradition in the area of Catalonia. #

Indonesian Air Force helicopters fly in formation over the fleet of military ships in a show of force during a ceremony commemorating the 69th anniversary of Indonesian Armed Forces in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, on October 7, 2014. #

Cows stand in a meadow on a mountain in front of Mount Saentis (2,502 meters/8,209 feet above sea level) during sunny autumn weather near the eastern Swiss town of Wattwill on October 9, 2014. #

A part of the al-Dukhaneya neighborhood near Damascus, Syria, after soldiers loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad took control of it from rebel fighters, on October 6, 2014. #

A pro-democracy student protester sleeps on an occupied roadway surrounding the government complex in Hong Kong on October 7, 2014. Student-led protests for democratic reforms in Hong Kong continued to shrink Tuesday morning but a few hundred demonstrators remained camped out in the streets, vowing to keep up the pressure until the government responds to their demands. #

Russian Interior Ministry members stand guard as Muslims attend an Eid al-Adha mass prayer in Moscow on October 4, 2014. Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Adha to mark the end of the haj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, camels and cows to commemorate Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, Ismail, on God's command. #

Excalibur, the dog of the Spanish nurse infected with Ebola, barks from her balcony in Madrid, Spain, on October 8, 2014. Authorities captured the dog and euthanized it, drawing protests from some who asked that the dog be quarantined rather than destroyed. #

Two snipers of the German Armed Forces walk on a training ground during an exercise prior the arrival of German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen at the Bundeswehr training ground on October 10, 2014 near Bergen, Germany. #

A male red deer with antlers covered in bracken, walks through undergrowth in Richmond Park in south west London on October 3, 2014. Over 600 red and fallow deer roam in the largest of London's Royal Parks, and have their numbers managed in an annual cull each November and February. #

Sydney locals line up along the waters edge dressed in fluro costumes in an attempt to create Bondi's largest fluro wave stretching from South Bondi to North Bondi at Bondi Beach on October 10, 2014 in Sydney, Australia. The event is to raise awareness on World Mental Health Day and show support for everyone who has ever suffered, or knows someone who has suffered with depression and other disorders. #

This long exposure photograph taken late on October 9, 2014 shows scorching lava flow and giant ash clouds released from the crater during an eruption of Mount Sinabung as seen from Karo district located on Sumatra island. Indonesian authorities said pyroclastic flows reached 4.5 kilometers down the slope threatening populated villages while ash clouds reached three kilometers into the sky during its latest series of eruptions that began on October 5. #

One of the two hyenas who were rescued by animals right group Animals Lebanon, inside a cage in Aley, Lebanon, on October 8, 2014. Max and Val, the brother and sister pair of Hyenas are being kept in Aley after they were rescued by Animals Lebanon and will soon be sent to a sanctuary in France. #

A radio-controlled flying witch makes a test flight past a moon setting into clouds along the pacific ocean in Carlsbad, California, on October 8, 2014. Reuters was invited to photograph the testing of the life sized device by inventor Otto Dieffenbach. #

Participants fight during a fire war ceremony at Dalem Temple on October 8, 2014 in Tuban, Kuta, Indonesia. The annual ceremony, known locally as Siat Geni, is held to ward off bad luck and bring courage. #

A Palestinian man stands on the balcony of his destroyed house as he waits for the visit of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to Gaza's neighborhood of Shijaeyih on October 9, 2014. #

Muslim pilgrims arrive to cast stones at pillars symbolizing Satan, during the annual Hajj pilgrimage, on the first day of Eid al-Adha in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on October 4, 2014. #

Smoke rises from the impact of an airstrike next to a hill where ISIS militants had placed their flag in the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobane by the Kurds, seen from the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern village of Mursitpinar, Sanliurfa province, on October 8, 2014. #

Activists from the women's rights organization Femen are removed as they demonstrate on the roof of the Moulin Rouge Cabaret in Paris, on October 06, 2014, to protest against the sex industry. #

Kurdish peshmerga fighters fire a mortar during clashes with ISIS militants in the al-Zerga area near Tikrit city, in Salahuddin province of Iraq, on October 8, 2014. Kurdish peshmerga forces backed by Shi'ite volunteer fighters launched an operation on Wednesday to drive Islamic State militants out of the area as part of an attack to capture the city, peshmerga forces sources said. #

Kansas City Royals' players celebrate in the clubhouse after winning Game 3 of baseball's AL Division Series against the Los Angeles Angels on October 5, 2014, in Kansas City, Missouri, The Royals won 8-3 to sweep the Angels in the series. #

Foad, the brother of 15 year-old Nora who left her home in Avignon, France, for Syria nine months ago, shows a portrait he took last September on his cell phone as he attends an interview with Reuters in Paris on October 6, 2014. Foad, a French truck driver of Moroccan origin, traveled alone through war-torn Syria to rescue his 15-year-old sister from an Islamist group she said was holding her captive. But when they finally stood face to face, in tears, she would not leave. Foad is convinced that his sister Nora, whom he described as an impressionable teen who loved Disney movies before leaving for Syria one afternoon in January, stayed on because she was threatened with execution by the French-speaking commander, or emir, of the group she joined. The former high school student is among dozens of European girls, many of them her age, living with such groups in Syria - an aspect of the conflict that is beginning to worry European governments previously more focused on the flow of young men to join the ranks of Islamic state and other armed militias. #

People walk through a tunnel on the main road in the occupied areas in Hong Kong's Central District on October 9, 2014. Talks between the Hong Kong government and student leaders of a democracy protest that has blocked main roads in the Asian financial hub for nearly two weeks are canceled because they're unlikely to be constructive, a senior government official said Thursday. #