The week in pictures

The cultivation of illegal opium has increased in Myanmar for a sixth successive year, fuelled in part by rising demand for heroin across Asia, a United Nations report said Wednesday, October 31.

Egyptian Coptic Christian clergy queue to vote for their new spiritual leader at Saint Mark(***)s Coptic Cathedral in Cairo(***)s al-Abbassiya district on October 29. Egypt(***)s Coptic Christians are voting for a new leader to succeed Pope Shenuda III, who died in March, leaving behind a community anxious about its status under an Islamist-led government.

Syrian rebels killed more than 75 soldiers on November 1, about half of them in attacks on military checkpoints in the north just hours after a wave of bombings hit the Damascus area, activists said. The unusually high toll for regime forces came after days of intense air bombardment of rebel positions around the country that killed hundreds. Above, a mosque was destroyed in shelling by Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar Assad in Idlib province.

Crowds wait for free gas on November 3 at the Bedford Avenue Armory in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. With the death toll currently over 110 and millions of homes and businesses without power, the US east coast is attempting to recover from the effects of floods, fires and power outages brought on by Superstorm Sandy.

Greece unveiled a tough new austerity budget on October 31, sparking a call for a 48-hour general strike, as the EU said there was still work to be done before the recession-hit country can access loan funds needed to stave off bankruptcy. Above, a port police officer lights flares during an anti-austerity demonstration in Athens on November 1.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, praised President Barack Obama(***)s handling of Hurricane Sandy, which hit the East Coast of the United States last week. Above, Obama speaks after a tour around the damage done by Hurricane Sandy in Brigantine, New Jersey, with Christie behind him.

The Chinese Communist Party(***)s 18th National Congress is scheduled to begin on November 8 in the capital, Beijing. The once-a-decade event installs a new leadership to run the world(***)s second-largest economy and newly assertive global power.

Costas Vaxevanis, a 46-year-old veteran investigative journalist in Greece, awaits the beginning of his trial at a court in Athens on Novemeber 1. Vaxevanis was found innocent after wpublishing names from an alleged list of Swiss bank accounts that has exposed the debt-plagued government to charges of a cover-up.