Gallery: The Week In Pictures

The Japanese team trains before the Synchronised Swimming World Trophy in Beijing

A little blue penguin moves towards the sea after being released by wildlife workers and schoolchildren in Tauranga, New Zealand

A snake crawls through the nose of Chinese stuntman Liu Feinan at Nanning Zoo

Scotland was battered by storm force winds that reached over 160km/h

Aston Villa's Stephen Warnock and Man United's Wayne Rooney collide during a game at Villa Park

The Tungurahua Volcano in Ecuador erupts, throwing rocks and lava into the air

NASA published an illustration of planet Kepler-22b, which it says could support life

US soldiers from the 2-82 Field Artillery wait to load onto their armoured vehicles as they prepare to leave Iraq for Kuwait

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan speaks to the media after announcing his Budget

There were protests outside the Dáil at the spending cuts and tax increases

An athlete aims at the target in a biathlon World Cup event in Ostersund, Sweden

Walker the polar bear plays with a hard hat on his third birthday at the Highland Wildlife Park in Kingussie, Scotland

Police officers console each other after a fellow officer was killed at Virgina Tech University

Rory McIlory celebrates winning the Hong Kong Open with his caddie JP Fitzgerald

A Shia worshiper cuts his scalp during an Ashura commemoration ceremony in Baghdad

Riot police cordon off on Triumfalnaya Square in central Moscow during a protest against Vladimir Putin

German Chancellor Angela Merkel views a concrete poetry installation by Polish artist Stanislaw Drozdz

Charity runners dressed as Santa Claus warm up before taking part in a fun run in Battersea Park in London

Rose-ringed Parakeets roost in a copse in Wormwood Scrubs Park in London

Five vehicles were involved in a pile up on the Dingxi section of Qingdao-Lanzhou motorway in China