This Week in Pictures: May 3-May 9 | MSNBC

This Week in Pictures: May 3-May 9 | MSNBC: The tense standoff between pro-Russian separatists and government supporters in eastern Ukraine that had remained relatively peaceful since Russia annexed Crimea in March turned violent this week, when supporters of Russia stormed government buildings in Odessa and Donetsk. The deadliest clash occurred when more than 40 people were killed in a burning trade building in Odessa that was attacked on May 3.

South Africans went to the polls this week, 20 years after the inauguration of the country’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, in an election the secured the power of the African National Congress despite misgivings about the country’s current president, Jacob Zuma. Voting continued in India, which is holding the world’s largest election that will have taken a month to complete when it wraps up next week, and Afghans mourned loved ones lost in a landslide in Badakhshan province, in the country’s north.