A member of the general trade union GMB stands outside The Houses of Parliament in London as public sector staff strike over pensions. Up to two million workers in Britain went on strike over changes to their pensions, after the government responded to slashed growth forecasts with fresh spending cuts. (AFP)

Nimrod plays on the swings at the Nyumbani Children's Home for children with HIV, in Karen on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. The orphanage, which is heavily reliant on foreign donations, cares for over 100 children with HIV whose parents died of the disease and provides them with housing, care, and anti-retroviral medicine. (AP)

Retiring paramilitary policemen bid farewell to their comrades inside a train at a station in Dandong, Liaoning province, China. (Reuters)

People wave Vatican flags during a general audience with Pope Benedict XVI in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican. (AP)

A volunteer lines up 25-Centavo coins in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record currently being held by the U. S. at Rizal Park in Manila, Philippines. More than three million pieces are lined up for hours to stretch 70 kilometers to break the 64.8-kilometer record.  (AP)

Workers hold iron rods at the construction site of a bridge on the river Tawi in Jammu. India's economy grew at its weakest pace in more than two years in the quarter that ended in September, revealing the heavy toll that stubbornly high inflation, rising interest rates and crisis-hit global capital markets are having on Asia's third-biggest economy. (Reuters)

A ferret looks out of the jacket of an activist of the Frankfurt Occupy movement at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany. (AP)

A woman prepares snacks to sell near the railway line in Rangoon, Burma. (Reuters)

The sun rises above an Orthodox Church in the town of Novogrudok, 150 km west of the Belarussian capital Minsk. (Reuters)

Toyota Boshoku Corp.'s concept vehicle T-Brain is displayed during the press preview of the Tokyo Motor Show. The show opens to the public this weekend. (AP)

Primary school students present giant and small red ribbons during an event on the eve of World AIDS Day in Wuyuan, in southern China's Jiangxi province. China will have about 780,000 people infected with the AIDS virus by the end of this year, state media reported, with most having contracted it through heterosexual sex. (AP)