Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL's broadcast region and beyond. For more photo galleries, see our "Picture This" archive.
Photos Of The Week #12
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Sculptor Pavel Greshnikov finalizes a statue of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the style of a Roman emperor in the workshop of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. The bust, which will be cast in bronze, is due to be unveiled outside a metro station on the northern outskirts of St. Petersburg on May 9, the holiday commemorating the Soviet victory in World War II. (TASS/Sergei Konkov)
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A total solar eclipse is seen in Norway on March 20. (Reuters/Jon Olav Nesvold)
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Pigeons disperse at the Shahi Doshamshira Mosque in Kabul on March 20. (AFP/Shah Marai)
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Smoke engulfs the skyline of Frankfurt, Germany, as a result of an anticapitalist protest near the European Central Bank (ECB) building before the official opening of its new headquarters. (epa)
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Ukrainian servicemen take a break from digging trenches on a beach in the port city of Mariupol on the Azov Sea on March 20. (Reuters/Marko Djurica)
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko reacts during Dynamo Kyiv's Europa League victory over Everton at the Olympic Stadium in the Ukrainian capital on March 19. (epa/Mykola Lazarenko)
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Female Afghan students look on during a ceremony marking the start of the new school year at Amani High School in Kabul on March 19. (AFP/Wakil Kohsar)
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Women throw water on men from a rooftop as they take part celebrations to welcome the coming of spring in China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region on March 18. (Reuters)
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Youths from Turkey's Kurdish community gather in a street for Norouz celebrations marking the arrival of spring and the new year on March 18. (AFP/Yasin Akgul)
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A policeman detains an anticapitalist protester near the European Central Bank building before the official opening of its new headquarters in Frankfurt on March 18. (Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach)
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Russian Navy sailors line up as they take part in a festive ceremony marking the first anniversary of the signing of a treaty annexing Crimea, in Sevastopol on March 18. (Reuters/Maxim Shemetov)
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A pro-Russian rebel takes cover during what Ukrainian separatists said was an antiterrorist drill in Donetsk on March 18. (Reuters/Marko Djurica)
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Iranian families release lanterns in a park in Tehran on March 17. (AFP/Behrouz Mehri)
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Residents of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic take part in a vigil for children killed in the conflict in Donetsk. The vigil took place after a young girl was accidentally killed by a Ukrainian armored vehicle in the Ukrainian-held town of Konstantinovka, sparking riots there. (AFP/Aleksandr Gayuk)
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A member of the Iraqi security forces stands between captured Islamic State ammunition being displayed in Al-Alam Salahuddin Province. (Reuters/Thaier Al-Sudani)
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Carl McCormack from Scotland wears a St. Patrick's Day costume as he stands with thousands of spectators to watch the New York City St. Patrick's Day parade up 5th Avenue in Manhattan. (Reuters/Mike Segar)
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Iraqi Kurdish actors perform in a play in memory of the victims of a gas attack ordered by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 1988 in the Kurdish town of Halabja. Some 5,000 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in the chemical gas attack by Hussein's air force as part of a campaign to crush a Kurdish rebellion. (AFP/Safin Hamed)
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A sailor inspects a cannon on the Romanian frigate Regina Maria during a military drill on the Black Sea. (AFP/Daniel Mihailescu)
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An Israeli soldier casts his ballot in parliamentary elections behind a mobile voting booth in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Migdalim, near Ariel. Millions of Israelis voted on March 17 in a tightly fought election, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing an uphill battle to defeat a strong campaign by the center-left opposition to deny him a fourth term in office. (Reuters/Amir Cohen)
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Orthodox nuns watch firefighters work to extinguish a fire in the bell tower of the Novodevichy monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site, in Moscow. No one was injured. The octagonal tower was built in the late 1600s and is more than 70 meters tall.(Reuters/Tatyana Makeyeva)
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Kazakhs herd their sheep amid a heavy snowfall in Yili, in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Around 400,000 livestock in Yili started the 10-day trip to their spring pastures at the end of winter, according to local media. (Reuters/China Daily)
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A man carries a picture depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin in a T-shirt with an inscription reading "Crimea" at an open-air political cartoons exhibition in Moscow marking the one-year anniversary of Russia's annexation of the peninsula. The annexation was declared illegal in an overwhelming vote by the UN General Assembly. (AFP/Dmitry Serebryakov)
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A mock gravestone depicts Russian President Vladimir Putin as former German dictator Adolf Hitler as part of a "Funeral of Putin" performance in a front of the Russian Embassy in Kyiv. Putin appeared in public on March 16 for the first time in 10 days. His unexplained absence had sparked a plethora of rumors. (Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko)
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An Afghan health worker administers polio vaccine drops to a child on the second day of a vaccination campaign in Kabul. (AFP/Shah Marai)