Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL's broadcast region and beyond for the 20th week of 2013. For more photo galleries, see our "Picture This" archive. (34 PHOTOS)
Photos Of The Week #20
1
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men attend a demonstration near recruitment offices in Jerusalem against plans to enlist men from their community into the military. (AFP/Daniel Karmann)
2
An activist sits on a bench holding onto multicolored balloons to mark International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia in Belgrade. (AFP/Saul Loeb)
3
A man works on a wheat thresher in a field in the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan.
4
A U.S. Marine holds an umbrella for U.S. President Barack Obama as he held a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Rose Garden of the White House. (AFP/Saul Lo)
5
Visitors wait to receive the first beer in Erlangen, Bavaria, during the opening ceremony called Anstich of the traditional beer festival Bergkirchweih. The event is one of the biggest open-air beer gardens in Europe. (AFP/Daniel Karmann)
6
Pope Francis lets a white dove fly in front of pilgrims following his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. (AFP/Osservatore Romano)
7
A Palestinian sets fire to a tire during clashes between hundreds of Palestinians and Israeli soldiers after a march marking the 65th Nakba day or Day of Catastrophe on May 15 in Betunia near the West Bank city of Ramallah. (AFP/Abbas Momani)
8
A crowd attacks a minibus carrying gay-rights activists during an International Day Against Homophobia rally in Tbilisi, Georgia. (Reuters)
9
A Femen activist holds a burning crucifix with a Barbie doll affixed to it during a protest action in front of the so-called Barbie Dreamhouse in Berlin, the first life-sized mansion dedicated to the doll in Europe. Berlin feminists are mobilizing against the 2,500-square-meter mansion, which they call a sexist icon. (AFP/Barbara Sax)
10
Russia's Ilya Kovalchuk (left) and Aleksandr Ovechkin react after their devastating 8-3 loss to Team USA in their 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship quarterfinal match in Helsinki. (Reuters/Grigory Dukor)
11
Russian conscripts are seen inside a train carriage at a local railway station in Stavropol before their departure. (Reuters/Eduard Korniyenko)
12
A bird flies underneath an atmospheric phenomenon known as a "sun dog" in the sky over Seaside Heights, New Jersey. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
13
An honor guard carries the coffins of three Georgian soldiers killed in Afghanistan at the airport in Tbilisi.
14
Afghan policemen inspect the aftermath of a suicide car bomb in Kabul on May 16. (AFP/Massoud Hossaini)
15
Albania's Adrian Lulgjuraj and Bledar Sejko perform during dress rehearsals for the second semifinal at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in the Malmo Opera Hall in Sweden on May 15. (Reuters/Khalil Ashawi)
16
Iran's Mahjobeh Omrani (right) and Neda Shahsavari serve to Prachi Jha and Erica Wu of the United States during the women's double qualifying round at the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Paris. (Reuters/Charles Platiau)
17
A Free Syrian Army fighter rests on a sofa inside a house in Deir al-Zor. (Reuters/Khalil Ashawi)
18
People gather on Radunitsa, or the Day of Rejoicing, at a cemetery on the outskirts of Minsk. The Orthodox Church holiday remembers the dead. (Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko)
19
An Afghan confectioner works at a traditional sweets factory in Herat. (AFP/Aref Karimi)
20
A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying U.S. astronaut Tom Marshburn, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield lands some 150 kilometers southeast of the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. (Reuters/Carla Cioffi)
21
Visitors walk on a 40-meter-high spiral tower in the forest of Prora on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, Germany. The tower is part of a new 1.25 kilometer Baumwipfelpfad (treetop trail) through the mixed forest of the region. The project, built around a new natural heritage center, is scheduled to be finished at the end of May. (AFP/Jens Buettner)
22
U.S. astronaut Tom Marshburn (right), Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko (center), and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield rest after leaving the Russian Soyuz space capsule following its landing in central Kazakhstan on May 14.
23
Syrian Army soldiers advance on the village of Western Dumayna, seven kilometers north of the rebel-held city of Qusayr. Syrian troops captured three villages in the strategic Qusayr area of Homs Province, allowing them to cut supply lines to rebels inside Qusayr. (AFP/Joseph Eid)
24
An Indian Hindu devotee falls on burning coals while holding her daughter during a coal run at the Maa Maariamma Mela in Jalandhar, India. The devotees run on fire after fasting for seven days to prove their devotion. The mother and daughter were both injured. (AFP/Shammi Mehra)
25
Canadian astronaut and International Space Station (ISS) Commander Chris Hadfield performs his zero-gravity version of David Bowie's hit "Space Oddity." The video, with its familiar refrain of "Ground control to Major Tom," has had millions of hits on YouTube and is being touted as the first music video ever filmed in space. Hadfield returned to Earth on May 14. (NASA via Reuters)