Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL's coverage area and beyond for the second week of 2019. For more photo galleries, see our photo gallery archive.
Photos Of The Week #2
1
An aerial view shows a man swimming in a pool cut in a frozen lake in Shenyang, in China's northeast Liaoning Province. (AFP)
2
Tiwa men and women separate dust from paddy for making maiphur (paddy bags) in their jhum field during the Mai Pathala Misawa ritual in the Karbi Anglong district of Assam, India. (epa-EFE)
3
Internally displaced Afghan boys stand outside their shelter during a snowfall in Kabul. (Reuters/Mohammad Ismail)
4
An actor performs a fire show in downtown St. Petersburg, Russia. (AFP/Olga Maltseva)
5
Restaurant employees smoke near a service entrance in central Kyiv, Ukraine. (Reuters/Gleb Garanich)
6
French gendarmes patrol while a police helicopter flies overhead on the beach of Oye-Plage near Calais. (AFP/Phillippe Huguen)
7
The sun brightens clouds of steam from a local power plant behind a monument to Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin in downtown Moscow. (AFP/Mladen Antonov)
8
Pakistani children play on swings at sunset in Lahore. (AFP/Arif Ali)
9
A woman in Paris passes by a mural inspired by the "yellow-vest" protesters. (AP/Christophe Ena)
10
Ukrainians sing Christmas carols as they carry decorated stars of Bethlehem during a parade in downtown Lviv on January 8. (epa-EFE/Mykola Tys)
11
A woman wearing a red winter jacket walks by a new shopping mall decorated with an eye design in Beijing. (AP/Andy Wong, Filer)
12
A woman lights a candle in a church in Bishkek on January 7, when Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas in the Middle East, Russia, and other Orthodox churches that use the old Julian calendar instead of the 17th-century Gregorian calendar adopted by Catholics, Protestants, Greek Orthodox, and commonly used in secular life around the world. (AFP/Vyacheslav Oseledko)
13
Fans of winter swimming attend a festive event marking Orthodox Christmas in the Black Sea port of Yevpatoria, Crimea, on January 7. (Reuters/Pavel Rebrov)
14
Egyptian soldiers stand guard outside the newly inaugurated Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in the new administrative capital, 40 kilometers east of Cairo, on January 6. (epa-EFE/Khaled Elfiqi)
15
A girl arrives to the new Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ before Christmas Eve Mass, in the new administrative capital, 40 kilometers east of Cairo, on January 6. (AP)
16
Bulgarians sing and dance in the icy waters of the Tundzha River in Kalofer on January 6. (AP)
17
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I (left) kisses Metropolitan Epifaniy, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, as he hands the tomos, a decree granting Ukraine church independence, after the Epiphany Mass at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George in Istanbul, Turkey, on January 6. (Reuters/Murad Sezer)