Week in pictures: 7-13 May 2022

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-61439494

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A selection of powerful news photographs taken around the world this week.

Workers look after trees planted in the "green belt" area around the city of Karbala, Iraq.

The opening ceremony at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi, Vietnam, marked the beginning of the Southeast Asian Games. About 5,000 athletes will be competing in 40 sports.

Prince Charles stood in for the Queen for the first time to open a new session of Parliament, after she had to pull out because of mobility problems. The Prince of Wales, flanked by the Duke of Cambridge and the Duchess of Cornwall, read the Queen's Speech during the State Opening of Parliament in the House of Lords.

The Azov regiment released this photo of an injured Ukrainian serviceman inside the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, which is besieged by Russian troops. All elderly people, women and children have now been evacuated from the plant.

Hundreds of people were forced to evacuate their homes due to a swift-moving wildfire in southern California. Meanwhile, the largest wildfire in the US continues to threaten communities and businesses in New Mexico.

A bee-eater bird catches a bee in the village of Buszkowice in Podkarpacie, Poland.

Migrants wait to disembark from a Spanish coastguard vessel at the port of Arguineguin, on the island of Gran Canaria, Spain.

British soldiers participate in a Nato "Swift Response 22" exercise in North Macedonia, to test the military alliance's deployment readiness along its eastern borders.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan walks through cannabis plants which are being legally cultivated at a licensed factory in Los Angeles. The mayor was seeing for himself how legalised cannabis production operates in California.

Sri Lankan security forces were ordered to shoot law-breakers on sight in a bid to quell anti-government protests. Demonstrators are calling for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa over the island's worst ever economic crisis.

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