Week in pictures: 15-21 October 2016 - BBC News

源济

CARLOS GARCIA RAWLINS / REUTERS
Officials in Haiti said more than 1.4 million people urgently need humanitarian help following the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew which killed 900 people. Here a food vendor waits for customers in Jeremie.





OLAMIKAN GBEMIGA/AP
A group of 21 schoolgirls who had been kidnapped by the Islamist group Boko Haram in the Nigerian town of Chibok have been reunited with their families. In an emotional ceremony in the capital Abuja, one of the girls said they had survived for 40 days without food and narrowly escaped death at least once.





SAFIN HAMED / AFP
On Thursday, the Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi announced that the operation to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from so-called Islamic State militants was progressing faster than planned. Mosul has been in the hands of IS since 2014 and is the militants' last major Iraqi stronghold.





JUAN KARITA/AP
Mariela Flores, who is visually impaired, is crowned one of two Miss Jacha Uru - translated from the Aymaran language as Great Day - in La Paz, Bolivia. The families of people with disabilities, with the help of the city government, organised the pageant to promote the rights of children and adolescents with impairments that ranged from physical to sensory to developmental.





TONY GENTILE / REUTERS
Pope Francis canonised a "gaucho priest" from his homeland Argentina, making him the country's first saint. He was among seven saints declared in a Mass in St Peter's Square in Rome from which the Pope is seen leaving after the ceremony.





SHAWN THEW/GETTY IMAGES
It was described as a "bittersweet moment" as Barack and Michelle Obama appeared on Tuesday for the final state dinner of the US president's time in office. "We saved the best for last," Mr Obama said, as the couple welcomed Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his wife Agnese Landini to the White House. The event, attended by guests from the worlds of politics, finance and fashion, was one of the largest of Mr Obama's eight years as president.





SHAUN BOTTERILL / GETTY IMAGES
Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick as Barcelona beat Manchester City 4-0 in the Champions League.





OZAN KOSEOZAN / AFP
A Persian cat takes a break at a cat show in Istanbul, Turkey, organised by the World Cat Federation.





YARA NARDI/ITALIAN RED CROSS/REUTERS
Teams from the Italian Red Cross and the Malta-based Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), reportedly saved a total of 434 migrants in three different operations in the Mediterranean.





AKINTUNDE AKINLEYE/REUTERS
Newly crowned Oba of Benin, Eheneden Erediauwa, is guided through a symbolic bridge by palace chiefs during his coronation in Benin City, Nigeria.