A rapper grandma, a competing ferret and seething fissures: Eyecatching photos of the week

Image: Kim Soo-hyeon / Reuters
Eighty-one-year-old Park Jeom-sun, the leader of the granny rap group "Suni and Seven Princesses", poses in front of the camera at the elderly community centre in Chilgok, South Korea on February 6, 2024. Debuting in August last year, these octogenarian rappers have hit it big, rapping about farm life and bringing energy to a quiet rural area threatened by a population slump.

Image: Anushree Fadnavis / Reuters
People walk by stiff barricades erected on a national highway to stop farmers marching towards New Delhi to press for the better crop prices promised to them in 2021, at the Singhu border in New Delhi, India, on February 13, 2024.

Image: Handout / Icelandic Coast Guard / AFP
A line of billowing smoke and flowing lava pours out of a new fissure during a new volcanic eruption on the outskirts of the evacuated fishing town of Grindavik, Western Iceland, on February 8, 2024. A volcanic eruption started on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland on Thursday, the third to hit the area since December. The latest volcanic eruption in Iceland set a new world speed record for the fastest lava flow.

Image: Franck Fife/ AFP
Ivory Coast's forward #22 Sebastien Haller (Centre) in action during the Africa Cup of Nations 2024 final football match between Ivory Coast and Nigeria at Alassane Ouattara Olympic Stadium in Ebimpe, Abidjan on February 11, 2024. Less than two years after a cancer diagnosis and a severe ankle injury in December, Haller scored an 81st-minute winner to secure the West Africans' third title

Image: Clodagh Kilcoyne / Reuters
Ukraine's Anna Pysmenska and Kyrylo Azarov in action during the World Aquatics Championships mixed 3 metre synchronised final at Hamad Aquatic Centre, Doha, Qatar on February 10, 2024. The team reminded those gathered of the ongoing war in Ukraine and how all the athletes prepared amid constant sounds of air raids and shelling.   

Image: Abdul Majeed / AFP
Burqa-clad women line up to cast their ballots to vote at a polling station during Pakistan's national elections in Peshawar on February 8, 2024. Millions of Pakistanis began voting on February 8 in an election marred by allegations of poll rigging, with the country's most popular politician in jail and a military-favoured candidate tipped to win.

Image: Douglas Magno / AFP
Revellers on horseback take part in a traditional carnival parade in Bonfim, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, on February 12, 2024. Dressed in hand-embroidered velvet costumes and mounted on horses, people rode through the town in a tradition that dates back to the 18th century, turning the war between the Moors and Christians into a festival.


Image: AFP
A woman searches for salvageable items on Al-Mukhabarat Street in Gaza City amid the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment on February 3, 2024. The battles continue to rage between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.


Image: Lee Smith / Reuters
Spectators watch ferrets compete during a heat at the annual Ferret Racing Championship at the Craven Arms and Cruck Barn in Appletreewick, Britain, February 7, 2024. Dreamt up in Yorkshire more than 40 years ago, ferret racing is now a nationwide spectator sport with the unique racetrack constructed afresh each year from 30 metres of four-and-a-half-inch drain piping.
 

Image: Amr Alfiky / Reuters
Hindu monk Brahmavihari Swami looks at intricate marble carvings inside the BAPS Hindu Mandir temple in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on February 7, 2024. It is the Middle East's first traditional 'Hindu stone temple'. Hand-carved by Indian artisans and assembled in the UAE at a cost of around Rs 700 crore, the temple covers about 55,000 square meters of land.


Image: Alfredo Estrella / AFP
French bullfighter Sebastian Castella performs in a packed stadium during a bullfight event at the Monumental Plaza de Toros, Mexico, in Mexico City on February 4, 2024. Bullfighting resumed on Sunday in Mexico City after the Supreme Court revoked an earlier suspension.


Image: Phill Magakoe / AFP
Australia's Raf MacMillan (left) celebrates with teammates after the dismissal of India's Sachin Dhas during the under-19 World Cup youth one-day international final between India and Australia at Willowmoore Park in Benoni on February 11, 2024. Introduced in the 20th over, MacMillan (3/43), a crafty off-spinner, did not give Indians any breathing space.


Image: Andreas Solaro / AFP
Farmers drive their tractors in front of the Ancient Colosseum, as part of an action by farmers to pressure the government to improve their working conditions, in central Rome, Italy, on February 9, 2024. Italy is one of several European countries where farmers have staged weeks of demonstrations to demand lower fuel taxes, better prices for their products and an easing of EU environmental regulations that make it more challenging to compete with cheaper foreign produce.

Image: Pablo Porciuncula / AFP
A Unidos do Viradouro samba school member performs during the last night of the Carnival parade at the Marques de Sapucai Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on February 13, 2024. The school took inspiration from ancestry and enchanted the audience with a plot about the cult of snake voodoo in Africa and Brazil.