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Day in Photos: March 20, 2012

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Papier mache figures are burned during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain. Every year the city of Valencia celebrates the ancient "Las Fallas" fiesta, a noisy week that is full of fireworks and processions in honor of Saint Joseph which climaxes in the burning of large paper mache figures displayed around the streets of the city.

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Sri Lankan pro-government supporters are held back by police barricades as they demonstrate during a protest march in Colombo. Hundreds of demonstrators took the streets of Colombo and marched towards the British Embassy to denounce Western moves to censure Sri Lanka at this week's UN Human Rights Council meeting.

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A boy plays in the mud on the bank of the Bago river in Bago, Myanmar.

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Indian farmer R. Lakshmi Narasaiah arranges a display of watermelons prior to an auction at The Gaddiannaram wholesale fruit market on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

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A believer asking for a miracle is helped to emerge from the mud at "El Pozito" in El Espinazo, Monterrey, Mexico. Thousands of believers took part in a procession along the town of El Espinazo to ask for miracles to "Nino Fidencio", a famous Mexican 'curandero' (folk healer), whose spirit still heals people, according to the legend.

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A woman collects drinking water in plastic pots from a community tap outside her residence in Bangalore in anticipation of the annual "World Water Day" observed on March 22.

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Afghans gather to celebrate Afghan New Year (Nawroz) in Kabul. Afghanistan uses the Persian calendar which runs from the vernal equinox. The calendar takes as its start date the time when the Prophet Mohammad moved from Mecca to Medina in 621 AD. The current Persian year is 1391.

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Peggy Marchanti, widow of Army Maj. Robert J. Marchanti II of Baltimore, Md., is seated during funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.. Marchanti, 48, of the Maryland Army National Guard, was shot and killed at the Afghan Interior Ministry in Kabul in February.

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A woman walks past a light sculpture by Loop.pH entitled "Luminous Lace" in the Stone Hall at Kensington Palace in London, England. Kensington Palace is due to reopen to the public on March 26, following a 12 million GBP renovation project.

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Anti-government protesters armed with Molotov cocktails clash with riot police in a street filled with tear gas and the smoke of burning debris, in the western village of Shahrakan, Bahrain. Clashes erupted after thousands of mourners participated in the politically charged funeral for Sabri Mahfoudh, 27, whose death the opposition and his family blame on the effects of tear gas.

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An animal rights activist protests against meat consumption through a performance to promote vegetarianism during "Day Without Meat" in Barcelona, Spain.

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Syrian army soldiers look through a hole in a building as they search for Syrian rebels in a suburb of Damascus, Syria. An international human rights group accused Syria's armed opposition on Tuesday of carrying out serious abuses, including the kidnapping and torture of security forces, in a sign of the growing complexity of the year-old uprising against President Bashar Assad.

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South Korean army soldiers wearing protective gear talk each other during an anti-terrorism exercise for Nuclear Security Summit at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea. South Korea is due to host the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul on March 26-27, and North Korea's nuclear program was expected to be discussed on the sidelines of the gathering.

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Thunderstorms announce the coming of spring on Capitol Hill in Washington DC.

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Egyptian Coptic Christians gathering to bid farewell to Pope Shenouda III, the head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, during his funeral in Cairo, Egypt. Thousands of people packed the cathedral for the funeral of Pope Shenouda III, who died on March 17 at the age of 88.

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A Pakistani villager walks during a dust storm in the suburbs of Islamabad, Pakistan. A massive dust storm engulfs various parts of Pakistan restricting the visibility and disrupting domestic and international flights in the country's southern region.

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Venezuelan swimmers take part in a training session of synchronized swimming for the South American Swimming Championship in Belem, Brazil.

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Eight-year-old Floris inspects a mirror cube at the "Extavium" museum in Potsdam, eastern Germany. The new interactive museum, formerly known as "Exploratorium Potsdam", re-opened with much more space for its 130 exhibits and interactive offers for children and their parents.