Rewind: Best images in the last 48 hours

Presenting some of the most scintillating pictures from around the globe in the last 48 hours.

A rebel on crutches fires a rocket propelled grenade while fighting on the front line in Sirte, Libya.

Photograph: Anis Mili/Reuters

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The plane carrying Pope Benedict XVI arrives at Erfurt airport, Germany.

Pope Benedict visits his German homeland, touring mostly Protestant and atheist regions in the ex-communist east after previous visits to Catholic strongholds in the Rhineland and his native Bavaria.

Photograph: Frank Augstein/Reuters

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A protester standing on a garbage container shouts anti-government slogans as anti-government protesters try to get back to Manama's Farook Junction, also known as Pearl Square, in Karanna, west of Manama, Bahrain.

A massive police force blocked protesters trying to march to the junction in Bahrain's capital on Friday, witnesses said, a day before a key by-election to fill parliamentary seats vacated by opposition leaders in protest at the crushing of popular unrest in March.

A Ministry of Interior statement said that these protesters responded to calls made through social media websites and that since their movements were illegal, security forces dealt with them. Some protesters were arrested and legal action will be taken against them, the statement added.

Photograph: Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters

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Palestine's President Mahmoud Abbas holds up a copy of the letter that he had just delivered to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon requesting full United Nations representation for a Palestinian state, during his address before the 66th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York.

Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

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Kirgiz falconers hold their saker falcons at a falcon domestication base in Akqi county of Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture, in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. 

The falcons are domesticated for hunting. 

Photograph: Kevin Zhao/Reuters

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Inmates watch from inside their cells as a man dressed as a devil holds a firecracker during a performance to commemorate "La Merce", saint patron of prisons, during festivites inside Palma de Mallorca's prison on the Spanish Balearic island of Mallorca.

Photograph: Enrique Calvo/Reuters

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Cancer patients cry at the end of the "Festival of the Life" fashion show at the Cancer Perola Byington Hospital in Sao Paulo September.

The event was held to promote greater self-esteem and bring attention to the struggle for life among cancer patients, according to the State Health Secretariat of Sao Paulo.

Photograph: Nacho Doce/Reuters

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A traditional Isicathamiya group performs during a competition in Durban.

The Isicathamiya Festival held on South Africa's Heritage Day saw 111 groups competing in a genre made known worldwide by South African musical group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Isicathamiya groups consist mainly of men who sing acapella and perform tightly choreographed dance moves which keep the singers on their toes.

Photograph: Rogan Ward/Reuters

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An Afghan boy carries a chair from the Wazir Akbar Khan hill after the burial ceremony of Burhanuddin Rabbani, former Afghan president and head of the government's peace council in Kabul.

Weeping Afghans gathered under tight security on Friday to bury Rabbani, the government's chief peace negotiator killed this week by a suicide bomber posing as a Taliban envoy with a message about possible talks.

After prayers at the presidential palace, a coffin draped in the black, red and green national flag was taken to a hilltop in the Wazir Akbar Khan district for burial.

Photograph: Omar Sobhani/Reuters

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An anti-Mubarak protester and supporter of Egyptian cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, former leader of the Islamic Group who is serving a prison term in the United States, is seen smoking a cigarette through a hole in a banner demanding political prisoners be freed, at the police academy where former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is on trial in Cairo.

Egypt's ruling military council head testified in Mubarak's trial on Saturday in a hearing that could decide the fate of the ex-president accused of responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of demonstrators earlier this year.

Photograph: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

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Anti-Gaddafi fighters fire a multiple rocket launcher near Sirte, one of Muammar Gaddafi's last remaining strongholds.

Libyan provisional government forces backed by NATO warplanes swarmed into the city of Sirte on Saturday but weathered heavy sniper fire as they tried to win control of one of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi's last bastions of support.

Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

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Contestants watch a video of a male contestant on electronic screens during the recording of an episode of popular Chinese matchmaking television show If You Are the One in Beijing.

The show, which is owned by Jiangsu Satellite Television, has 24 single ladies standing on the stage and five bachelors coming up one after another in every episode.

The bachelors are allowed three videos respectively giving details about their job, love experiences and friends' opinions.

The bachelors then have to try all means to keep the lights on, which stands for the ladies' affection, so that they can gain the right to choose one of the ladies to match up with, or to walk away from the show.

Photograph: Barry Huang/Reuters

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England's Chris Ashton scores a try during their Rugby World Cup Pool B match against Romania at Otago Stadium in Dunedin.

Photograph: Brandon Malone/Reuters

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Members of the Laughter Yoga club practise laughing during morning exercise at a public park in Hanoi.

For the past two years, several hundred people have been gathering each morning at a public park in central Hanoi to practise laughing under the instruction of yoga master Le Anh Son in the belief that this will help them to be happier, fight disease and relief the stresses of daily life.

Laughter yoga was launched in 1995 by Dr Madan Kataria, a physician, in India and there are now more than 6,000 clubs in 60 countries, Son said.

Photograph: Kham/Reuters

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A man dances during the generation festival of the Ebrie ethnic group in Anono, Abidjan.

This feast is an initiation ceremony marking the transition of adolescents to adulthood. During this festival, the leader of the age group passes a torch to another that will in turn manage village affairs.

The festival thus symbolises the handover of the administrative business of the ethnic group to the next generation.

Photograph: Thierry Gouegnon/Reuters

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International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde is reflected in a glass of water during a Development Committee news conference at the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington. Picture rotated 180 degrees.

Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

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A Palestinian woman watches a public screening of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' speech at the United Nations, in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Abbas asked the United Nations on Friday to recognise a state for his people, even though Israel still occupies its territory and the United States has vowed to veto the move.

Photograph: Darren Whiteside/Reuters