Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL's broadcast region and beyond for the first week of 2015. For more photo galleries, see our "Picture This" archive.
Photos Of The Week #1
1
Local residents dressed as Father Frost and his granddaughter Snegurochka (Snow Maiden) walk with servicemen as they visit checkpoints of the Ukrainian Army and self-defense units to help welcome in the near year near Lysychansk in the Luhansk region. (Reuters)
2
Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian protester during clashes following a protest against the nearby Jewish settlement of Qadomem, in the West Bank village of Kofr Qadom near Nablus, on January 2. (Reuters/Abed Omar Qusini)
3
Residents salvage their belongings after a raging fire engulfed around 2,000 houses in the metro Manila area in the Philippines. At least eight people, including a 7-year-old child, died and thousands were displaced. (Reuters/Romeo Ranoco)
4
A roadside popcorn vendor waits for customers in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (AFP/Noorullah Shirzada)
5
A U.S. soldier fires a Javelin missile during a training exercise near Operating Base Gamberi in Afghanistan's Laghman Province. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
7
New Year's fireworks above the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia. (epa)
8
Boys play on a swing on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan. (Reuters/Khuram Parvez)
10
A floating installation of 25,000 wishing spheres line Marina Bay as Singapore's financial district is seen in the background. Throughout December, people penned their New Year's wishes on the spheres, which were placed in the water as part of the city-state's 50th year of independence. (Reuters/Edgar Su)
11
A Pakistani boy organizes traditional clay pots at a workshop in Tandojam. (epa/Rhan Khan)
12
An Afghan girl sits amid burning garbage at a dump in Kabul. (Reuters/Mohammad Ismail)
13
Father Frost and his granddaughter wave from a horse-drawn carriage as they take part in a New Year's parade in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. (epa/Igor Kovalenko)
14
A sea lion paints the Chinese character for "sheep" as part of a New Year's Day attraction at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium in Yokohama in suburban Tokyo. (AFP/Kazuhiro Nogi)
15
A trench and positions of a Ukrainian volunteer battalion are covered with snow not far from the eastern city of Lysychansk. (epa/Ivan Boberskyy)
16
Volunteers in Kyiv paint children's faces during New Year celebrations for internally displaced persons from eastern Ukraine and Crimea. According to the UN, Ukraine has more than 600,000 IDPs from the conflict-affected areas. (epa/Roman Pilipey)
17
Shop owner Mohammad Hussain sits on the wreckage of a vehicle in the aftermath of a fire at a timber market in Karachi, Pakistan. More than 100 shops were destroyed. (Reuters/Akhtar Soomro)
18
British Prime Minister David Cameron competes in the Great Brook Run, a mile-long course through water and mud, at Chadlington in southern England. (Reuters/Eddie Keogh)
19
Boats are seen on the Buriganga River during a nationwide dawn-to-dusk strike in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (epa/Abir Abdullah)
20
Bicycles covered in snow in Berlin (epa/Lukas Schulze)
21
A member of the Indonesian military scans the open water during a search-and-rescue operation for a missing AirAsia flight over the waters of the Java Sea. (AFP/Juni Kriswanto)
22
Snow covers central Prague (epa/Filip Singer)
23
Indian Central Armed Police Force personnel jump with joy as they celebrate after their graduation parade near Bhopal. (epa/Sanjeev Gupta)
24
Vladimir Shcherba, 53, a fan of winter swimming, takes a dip in the Yenisei River with the outside temperature at minus 23 degrees Celsius in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. (Reuters/Ilya Naymushin)
26
A long exposure shows a man writing "2015" with a burning torch in front of the Chateau de Chillon castle on the shores of Lake Geneva in Veytaux near Montreux, Switzerland. (epa/Anthony Anex)
27
Visitors weather the driving snow during the 63rd Four Hills ski-jumping tournament in Oberstdorf, Germany. (epa/Fredrik von Erichsen)
28
Relatives react at the news that debris had been found from the missing AirAsia plane at Juanda Airport in Surabaya, Indonesia. (epa/Made Nagi)