Best images from around the world in the past 24 hours — February 24

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  Victor Dubuisson of France takes a shot out of the desert on February 23, 2014, on the 20th hole in his championship match against Jason Day of Australia, during the Match Play Championship golf tournament in Marana, Arizona. Day won after 23 holes. Ted S. Warren / AP photo

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  A couple of clowns get nosy on February 23, 2014, at the Boitata block party, a pre-Carnival celebration in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Carnival officially begins February 28. Leo Correa / AP photo

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  A Bulgarian Muslim bride has her face decorated on February 23, 2014, at the end of a two-day wedding ceremony in the mountain village of Ribnovo, 200 kilometres south of the capital Sofia The remote village in south-west Bulgaria has kept its traditional winter marriage ceremony alive despite decades of Communist persecution and poverty. The wedding ritual was resurrected among the Pomaks — Slavs who converted to Islam under Ottoman rule. The highlight of the ceremony is the painting of the bride’s face. In a private rite, her face is covered in thick, chalky white paint and decorated with colourful sequins. Valentina Petrova / AP photo

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  An Israeli soldier walks through smoke on February 24, 2014, during an emergency drill held at a girls school in Pisgat Zeev. The urban settlement is in an area Israel annexed to Jerusalem after capturing it in the 1967 Middle East war. Ammar Awad / Reuters

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  Revellers pose at a street party during pre-Carnival festivities on February 23, 2014, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Carnival officially begins on February 28. Brazil is gearing up to host the 2014 Fifa World Cup. Mario Tama / Getty Images

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  A leopard leaps by a bystander in the Degumpur residential area in Meerut, India, on February 23, 2014. The animal sparked panic in the north Indian city, where it strayed into a hospital, a cinema and an apartment block before evading captors, an official said. AFP photo