Week in pictures: 12 - 18 March 2016 - BBC News

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Dmitri Lovetsky / AP
A long-exposure photograph captured the service towers either side of the Russian Soyuz-FG booster rocket that will carry the space capsule Soyuz TMA-20M, complete with a new crew, to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.





Andy Wong / AP
Bus ushers posed on the steps of the Great Hall of the People during the closing session of China's annual parliamentary meeting in Beijing.





Ross Land / AP
Williams driver Felipe Massa of Brazil hit some surface water during the first practice session of the new Formula 1 season, which begins in Australia.





Olivier Hoslet / EPA
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande shared a private moment during a meeting at the European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium.





Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
US President Barack Obama warned White House contenders to avoid raising tensions, a day after a rally by Donald Trump was called off amid clashes. Mr Obama said presidential hopefuls should not resort to "insults" and "certainly not violence against other Americans". Mr Obama is seen here trying on a supporter's hat at a Democratic National Committee event at Gilley's Club in Dallas, Texas.





Clodagh Kilcoyne / Reuters
Thousands of people attended St Patrick's Day parades and festivities. Here Caoimhe Cooburn-Gray posed for a picture in Dublin, Ireland.





Boris Roessler / EPA
The inside of St Catherine's Church in Frankfurt, Germany, was illuminated as part of the Luminale, the eighth Biennale of Lighting Culture.





Stoyan Nenov / Reuters
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei (right) set up a piano in the middle of a refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian border and invited Nour Al Khzam to play. She is trying to reach her husband in Germany. Ai Weiwei said her performance "tells the world that art will overcome the war".





Sanjeev Gupta / EPA
Streaks of lightning lit up the sky in Bhopal, India.





Mario Tama/Getty Images
Anti-government demonstrators marched in front of the National Congress building in Brasilia during a protest against the swearing-in of ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as chief of staff to his successor, Dilma Rousseff. Shortly afterwards a Brazilian judge blocked the appointment.