In Pictures

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The week in pictures

From a destructive meteor shower in Russia to anti-Shia violence in Pakistan, Al Jazeera showcases the week in images.

A Russian policeman stands near an eight-metre hole, reportedly the site of a meteorite fall, in the ice of a frozen lake in Russia(***)s Ural region. Approximately 1,000 people were hurt in the area, mostly by shards of flying glass following the shock wave from the meteorite strike.
Published On 17 Feb 2013
The Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, began on February 10 and marks the start of the Year of the Snake, according to the Chinese zodiac. Above, visitors pray among slaughtered pigs holding incense and tangerines in their mouths as offerings during a Spring Festival praying ceremony in China(***)s Fujian Province.
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On February 11, Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation from the papacy - the first time in hundreds of years that a leader of the Catholic church has done so. Above, a bird flies over St Peter(***)s Square at the Vatican.
Local residents survey a damaged market caused by Saturday(***)s bombing in Quetta, Pakistan. The death toll from the horrific bombing that tore through the crowded vegetable market in a mostly Shia Muslim neighbourhood in southwestern Pakistan climbed to 81, with many of the severely wounded dying overnight.
South African "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius breaks down during his court appearance in Pretoria, South Africa on February 15. Pistorius, a double amputee who became one of the biggest names in world athletics, broke down in tears after he was charged in court with shooting dead his girlfriend, 30-year-old model Reeva Steenkamp, in his Pretoria house.
A view of the burned-out cabin where remains of murder suspect, former Los Angeles Police Department officer Christopher Dorner, were found in Big Bear, California. Dorner barricaded himself in the remote cabin and engaged law enforcement officers in a shootout, shooting two police, killing one and wounding the other. Dorner was wanted in connection with the deaths of an Irvine couple and a Riverside police officer.
A masked Bahraini anti-government protester holding rocks and an empty bottle stands in a street during clashes with riot police in Sanabis, Bahrain on February 11. After nearly two years of nonstop unrest, opposing factions in Bahrain began talks on Sunday in attempts to ease the conflict.
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Passengers cheer after disembarking from the Carnival Triumph cruise ship after reaching the port of Mobile, Alabama on February 14. The crippled cruise ship that lost power for more than four days in the Gulf of Mexico was pulled into a port as passengers cheered the end of a "hellish" voyage marked by overflowing toilets and stinking cabins.