Week in pictures: 18-24 February 2017

Our selection of some of the most striking news photographs taken around the world this week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow, Russia. The Defenders of the Fatherland Day, celebrated in Russia on 23 February, honours the nation's military and is a national holiday.

A boy moves away from the downwash as a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) helicopter lands in Rubkuai village, Unity State, northern South Sudan. A famine has been declared in parts of South Sudan, the first to be announced in any part of the world in six years.

Heat haze from a fire blurs one of more than 100 firefighters who battled a blaze which sent up a thick plume of smoke from a recycling plant in Sydney, Australia.

A boy takes selfies with Pope Francis during a visit to the parish of St Mary Josefa of the Heart of Jesus in Rome, Italy.

Donald Trump's press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters he would be honest with the American people, but also that the White House may sometimes "disagree with the facts".

Manchester United's French midfielder Paul Pogba (left) and his brother Florentin, a Guinean defender with St Etienne, greeted their family at the end of the Uefa Europa League football match between the sides at Old Trafford, which United won 1-0.

A couple dance backstage prior to the opening ceremony of the traditional 61st Vienna Opera Ball at the Vienna State Opera.

Participants wearing costumes and masks take part in the first day of the traditional carnival parade in Mohacs, Hungary. Dressed in costumes with frightening wooden masks and using various noisy wooden rattlers the event is traditionally held on the seventh weekend before Easter to drive away winter.

Brice Roger of France in action during the men's Downhill training at the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup event in Kvitfjell, Norway.

Five cheetah cubs are seen at Beekse Bergen Safari Park in the Netherlands.

All photographs are copyrighted.