The world's week in pictures

Thousands of tearful, flower-carrying mourners descended Thursday on the South Korean headquarters of the Unification Church to offer prayers to their late "messiah" Sun Myung Moon. Men clad in black suits and women in white dresses flooded the church's main compound in Gapyeong, 60 kilometres (35 miles) east of Seoul, at the start of a 10-day wake ahead of Moon's funeral on September 15.

Photo by AFP Sep 7, 2012