Today's best photos: Christmas Eve Mass in the Vatican to Typhoon Rai in the Philippines

'The National' selects the most striking pictures from across the world

Pope Francis offers incense to a figurine of the infant Jesus before leading a Christmas Eve Mass at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Photo: AFP

Christmas Eve Mass

Pope Francis offers incense to a figurine of the infant Jesus before leading a Christmas Eve Mass at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican

Heart-shaped and frozen Baker Pond

Snow covers a frozen Baker Pond on Christmas Eve in East Bolton, Quebec, Canada

Santa Claus on a beach in Puri, India

A giant, sandy Santa Claus on a beach in Puri, Odisha, India

Congregations of ruined churches hold joint Christmas Eve service

Members of Mayfield First Presbyterian Church and Mayfield First Christian Church gather in an empty space between their destroyed churches for a joint Christmas Eve service in Mayfield, Kentucky. A tornado devastated the community about two weeks ago

Turban-tying competition

Sikh children wait for the judges' verdict in a turban-tying competition in Amritsar, India

Bangladesh passenger ferry catches fire

Firefighters and coastguards remove body bags from a passenger ferry that caught fire near the town of Jhalakathi, south of Dhaka in Bangladesh. At least 36 people died when the vessel caught fire on the Sugandha River early on Friday

Typhoon Rai flattens houses in the Philippines

Alona Nacua stands beside her son as she looks at their house that was destroyed by Typhoon Rai in Cebu city, central Philippines on Christmas Day