This Week in Pictures (March 3-9)

Alina Zagitova during her performance at the ice skating show "Olympic Athletes Festival. Champions in Moscow"

Female Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters and journalists watch on as they release a bear into the wild in the Gara Mountains near the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk on March 4, 2018, after Iraqi Kurdish Animal rights activists from a local NGO rescued it from a private home.

People wearing costumes and face paint pose as they take part in a "Zombie walk" in Tel Aviv as part of the Jewish holiday of Purim on March 3, 2018.
The carnival-like Purim holiday is celebrated with parades and costume parties to commemorate the deliverance of the Jewish people from a plot to exterminate them in the ancient Persian empire 2,500 years ago, as described in the Book of Esther.

An Afghan boy jumps off the turret of a Soviet tank on a hilltop on the the outskirts of Kabul, Sunday, March 4, 2018.

A woman smeared with coloured powder shakes her head to remove it during Holi celebrations in Mumbai, India.

Сandidate for the presidency in Russia, Vladimir Putin at a rally/concert "For a Strong Russia" in the Luzhniki Stadium.

Iskander mobile short-range ballistic missile system launching from the Kapustin Yar training area in the Astrakhan region.

Runners wait at the change-over during the women's 4x400m relay final at the 2018 IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships at the Arena in Birmingham on March 4, 2018.

Winter wooden church of John the Baptist of the St. Elijah Vodlozersky poustinia orthodox friary is located in Vodlozersky National Park, Republic of Karelia.

US actress Blanca Blanco arrives for the 90th Annual Academy Awards on March 4, 2018, in Hollywood, California.

Members of nationalist parties participate in a torchlight procession arranged to coincide with the anniversary of Ukrainian Insurgent Army General Roman-Taras Yosypovych Shukhevych's death on March 5, 1950

Hospitality staff members react after posing for a selfie during the opening session of China's National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Monday, March 5, 2018. China's government pledged Monday to deliver robust growth, pursue advanced technology and boost military spending while urging the public to embrace President Xi Jinping's rule as its ceremonial legislature prepared for changes to allow him to stay in power indefinitely.

An air balloon shaped as a bunch of tulips drifts over Vasilyevsky Spusk Square, Moscow

A woman dives into a partly frozen lake in Shenyang in China's northeastern Liaoning province.

43rd Cesar Awards ceremony - Photocall - Paris, France. French actress Marion Cotillard is assisted as she arrives during the Cesar ceremony.

A fish counter in a fish market in Seoul.

Elephants are fed fruit before an elephant polo match in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, March 8, 2018. The annual King's Cup Elephant Polo tournament raises funds for projects that improve the lives of Thailand's wild and domesticated elephant population.

Anchoress from an Old Believer's family Agafia Lykova goes with a cord of wood to her hunter's cabin. She has been living in the Sayan taiga for 30 years. Geologists found the family in 1978.

A girl taking a photo by a car that is part of the special exhibition,
100th anniversary of the USSR fire protection service at the 27th exhibition of antique cars "Oldtimer-Gallery" in Moscow's Sokolniki Culture and Exhibition Center.

Female cadets during training sessions in the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School of pilots named after Hero of the Soviet Union A.K. Serov.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Patriarch Neophyte of Bulgaria, Metropolitan of Sophia during a divine liturgy in the Cathedral of Prince Alexander Nevsky in Sofia.

A woman sits on a pier on March 3, 2018 to watch northern lights (Aurora borealis), on the Lofoten Islands in Bostad, inside the arctic circle in northern Norway.

Participants during the winter swimming competition "The Great Neva Cup 2018" on the beach of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg.

Participants of the fifth annual competition "Beauty in shoulder boards" before the start of the competitive program.

A Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army fighter fires from a tank in Rajo, Syria March 3, 2018.

This picture taken on March 5, 2018 shows a marching band taking a break during a procession next to a shipwreck on the beach of the village Fuye on Nanri island in China's Fujian province.
"Possessed" by local gods, elaborately dressed villagers in a fishing community in eastern China are carried into the surf to ensure an abundant catch, a centuries-old rite needed now more than ever as fish stocks decline. Staged in the village of Fuye on Nanri island, "The Dash of the Ocean Gods" festival is one of many visually striking traditional rituals held in Fujian province in the weeks following the Lunar New Year, which this year fell on February 16, 2018.

Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin during a performance at the ice skating show "Olympic athletes Festival. Champions in Moscow"

People shelter from fireworks before the traditional "torito" (little bull) made of paper, wood and fireworks during celebrations of San Juan de Dios in Tultepec on the outskirts of Mexico City, March 8, 2018.

Riot police detain anti-government protesters, as service members of the National Guard remove a protest tent camp, near the parliament building in Kiev, Ukraine March 3, 2018.

Models present creations during a lingerie fashion show, which is part of the Ski and Fashion festival 2018, in the Lebanese ski resort of Faraya, north of Beirut, on March 4, 2018.