Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL's broadcast region and beyond. For more photo galleries, see our "Picture This" archive. (37 PHOTOS)
Photos Of The Week #5
1
On February 3, residents of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) walk past guns displayed at the Stalingrad Battle memorial a day after the 70th anniversary of the end of the brutal engagement that changed the course of World War II. (AFP/Mikhail Mordasov)
2
Indonesia's Lokon volcano spews hot smoke 2,000 meters into the air on February 2. (AFP)
3
A man runs through the snow after a snowstorm in the desert near Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. (Reuters/Mohamed Alhwaity)
4
A museum guard displays a burned ancient manuscript at the Ahmed Baba Center for Documentation and Research in Timbuktu, Mali. The majority of Timbuktu's ancient manuscripts appear to be safe and undamaged after the Saharan city's 10-month occupation by Islamist rebel fighters. (Reuters/Benoit Tessier)
5
Armenian presidential candidate Paruyr Hairikian is wheeled by medical staff members at a hospital in Yerevan. Hairikian was wounded by unknown gunmen in the capital in an attack that could delay the February 18 election. Doctors treating Hairikian said he was in stable condition and the wound was not considered life-threatening. (Reuters/News.am/Arsen Sarkisyan)
6
Employees sort logs on a bank of Russia's Yenisei River at the Novoyeniseisk wood processing plant in the Siberian town of Lesosibirsk. The plant exports timber to Europe, Northern Africa, and Asia. (Reuters/Ilya Naymushin)
7
Rescuers look for survivors near the wreckage of vehicles after an expressway bridge partially collapsed due to a truck explosion on the Lianhuo highway in Henan Province. At least five people died and eight others were injured. The truck was loaded with fireworks and the explosion caused several vehicles to tumble from the 30-meter-high bridge. (Reuters)
8
Four white lions and four white tigers pose for a picture at the Serengeti wildlife park in Hodenhagen, central Germany. The tiger cubs were born at the park in October, the lion cubs in November. (AFP/Julian Stratenschulte)
9
Fu Xuepeng, who was paralyzed in a road accident when he was 23, breathes with the aide of a homemade ventilator while his mother, Wang Lanqin, looks on at their home in China's Zhejiang Province. A local hospital has decided to help Fu's parents after reports they have kept their son alive for more than five years using a hand-pumped resuscitator bag and a ventilator made by a local do-it-yourself expert. They took turns compressing their son's bag 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until someone made them a ventilator. To minimize the electricity bill, the couple still compresses the bag by hand during the day and turns on the machine only at night. (AFP)
10
A Kyrgyz woman, Zhyparkan Omurova, tries to commit self-immolation in front of the parliament building in Bishkek to protest a court judgment against her son. (RFE/RL/Mirlan Toktaliev)
11
The giant monument known as the Mother Motherland statue rises at the memorial on Mamayev Hill built to honor those who died in the World War II Battle of Stalingrad in the Russian city of Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad. Russia is remembering the Red Army's victory in the Battle of Stalingrad over invading Nazi forces, one of the bloodiest battles in human history, which ended on February 2, 1943. (AFP)
12
Free Syrian Army fighters run for cover as a tank shell explodes on a wall during heavy fighting in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus. (Reuters/Goran Tomasevic)
13
A woman shields her nose from tear gas along a road littered with stones and tear-gas canisters after clashes between riot policemen and protesters on Qasr el-Nil bridge, which leads to Tahrir Square, in Cairo. (Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)
14
Activists supporting the human rights watchdog Amnesty International wear masks featuring Egypt's Queen Nefertiti wearing a gas mask as they demonstrate near the Chancellery where Germany's chancellor was to meet with Egypt's president in Berlin. (AFP/Odd Andersen)
15
A view of damaged buildings in the Jouret al-Shayah district of the Syrian city of Homs. (Reuters/Thair Al-Khalidieh/Shaam News Network)
16
Nationalists, carrying torches, march in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv to mark the 95th anniversary of a battle near the small city of Kruty. Some 300 students, cadets, and schoolboys were killed in a battle against the Red Army on January 29, 1918, to protect the newborn Ukrainian People's Republic against Bolshevik aggression. (AFP/Yuriy Dyachyshyn)
17
South Korea says it has successfully launched a satellite into orbit from its own soil for the first time. It comes just weeks after rival North Korea launched its own satellite into space. South Korea's 140-ton Korea Space Launch Vehicle lifted off from the Naro Space Center on the south coast. (Reuters/Lee Sang-hak/Yonhap)
18
Zoroastrian performers fight with the devil during the annual Sadeh festival in a western suburb of Tehran. Sadeh is an ancient Persian festival that is celebrated by lighting a huge bonfire to defeat the forces of darkness, frost, and cold. (AFP/Behrouz Mehri)
19
Blood stains are seen on snow at the site of a plane crash outside Almaty, Kazakhstan. Twenty-one people were killed when the Challenger-200 aircraft operated by SCAT airline went down near the Almaty airport. (Reuters)
20
Hassan, a farmer, carries a bunch of flowers in the field to be sold in local markets in Lahore, Pakistan. (Reuters/Mohsin Raza)
21
A guard stands against a snow-covered wall of the Kremlin in Moscow. (AFP/Kirill Kudryavtsev)
22
A vendor throws water on a pile of carrots as he waits for customers on the outskirts of Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (Reuters/Parwiz)
23
Supporters of the Communist Party hold a rally protesting the arrival of a mission from the International Monetary Fund in Ukraine. The IMF is expected to hold talks with Kyiv on a $15 billion loan. The banner reads "IMF -- A Mortician Of The National Economics." (Reuters/Alexandr Kosarev)
24
An Iranian scientist holds a live monkey that Iran claimed returned alive after it traveled in a capsule to an altitude of 120 kilometers for a suborbital flight. Iran took a "big step" toward sending astronauts into space by 2020, Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi told state television. The authenticity of Iran's claims are now in doubt. (AFP/IRNA/Mohammad Agah)
25
Bodyguards carry Zlatomir Ivanov (center) after he was shot in front of the central court building in downtown Sofia. An unidentified gunman shot the Bulgarian crime boss, nicknamed "The Beret," four times in his legs, arm, and stomach as he was about to enter the central court building. He and a bodyguard were taken to the hospital. (Reuters/Gergana Kostadinova)