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 #3
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A participant holds back an angry bull during the traditional bull-taming festival called Jallikattu in Palamedu, India. (AFP)
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Snow-covered containers create a pattern at the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. (AFP/Robin Utrecht)
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The front of this house in Frankenthal in central Germany fell off without warning and without an obvious reason. The residents were not harmed. (AFP/Uwe Anspach)
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A local train derailed and rammed into a residential building in Saltsjoebaden, Sweden. A domestic cleaner who stole the train and drove it into the building was taken to the hospital after the crash. (AFP/Scanpix Sweden/Jonas Ekstromer)
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A flock of ducks is fed on a pond at the Royal Lazienki Park in Warsaw, Poland. (Reuters/Peter Andrews)
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Revelers pose while parading in the streets during a carnival in the Macedonian village of Vevcani, some 170 kilometers from the capital, Skopje. Vevcani marks the Orthodox St. Vasilij Day annually with a carnival that features a 1,400-year-old celebration with pagan roots. The highlights of the carnival include a political satire where masked villagers act out current events. (Reuters/Ognen Teofilovski)
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A man skates past ice sculptures during a winter festival at a resort outside Almaty, Kazakhstan. (Reuters/Shamil Zhumatov)
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Women dressed in kimonos walk on a snow-covered street to attend a coming-of-age ceremony in Tokyo. (AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno)
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A woman walks past a destroyed monument in the southern Bosnian city of Mostar, 100 kilometers from the capital, Sarajevo. A bomb blast destroyed the monument to fallen soldiers of Bosnia's Muslim-dominated wartime army in Mostar, where divisions between ethnic Croats and Muslims still run deep. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic)
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Holy men walk in a procession toward the Sangham, or the confluence of the the Yamuna and Ganges rivers, to bathe before sunrise during the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India. The Kumbh Mela in the Indian town of Allahabad will see up to 100 million worshippers gather over the next 55 days to take a ritual bath in the holy waters, believed to cleanse sins and bestow blessings. (AFP/Sanjay Kanojia)
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Supporters of Pakistani religious leader Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri takes part in a protest march in Sohawa, about 80 kilometers from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Tens of thousands of Pakistani protesters streamed toward Islamabad, led by a cleric calling for revolution but accused of trying to sow political chaos ahead of elections. (AFP/Farooq Naeem)
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Hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims led by naked, ash-covered holy men stream into the sacred Ganges River at the start of the world's biggest religious festival. The Kumbh Mela in the Indian town of Allahabad will see up to 100 million worshippers gather over the next 55 days to take a ritual bath in the holy waters, believed to cleanse sins and bestow blessings. Before daybreak on January 14, a day chosen by astrologers as auspicious, hundreds of gurus, some brandishing swords and tridents, ran into the swirling and freezing waters for the first bath, signaling the start of events. (AFP/Roberto Schmidt)
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A demonstrator waves a flag to protest France's planned legalization of same-sex marriage on the Champ de Mars near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. (Reuters/Charles Platiau)
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An Indian member of the Sikh Nihang Army wears a turban of more than 300 meters in length at the Maghi Mela festival at the Sikh Shrine Golden Temple in Amritsar, India. Maghi Mela follows the Lohri or harvest festival and commemorates fighters in the Battle of Khidrana fought between the Mughal Army and the 10th Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh Ji. (AFP/Narinder Nanu)
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Snowfall blankets a sculpture in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. (RFE/RL/Karen Minasyan)
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Belarusians perform during a celebration of the Tsary rite in the village of Semezhevo, some 145 kilometers south of Minsk. This unique rite originated in the 18th century and now takes place only in this village. It marks the New Year according to the Julian calendar. (Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko)
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Some riders in the New York City subway wore only their underwear below the waist for the 2013 No Pants Subway Ride. Started by Improv Everywhere, the goal is for riders to get on the subway dressed in normal winter clothes (without pants) and keep a straight face. (AFP/Timothy A. Clary)
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Snow crystals create beautiful patterns on a car window in the German city of Frankfurt. (AFP/Frank Rumpenhorst)