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 #24
1
A man shoots a tranquilizer dart to put a hippopotamus to sleep on a flooded street in Tbilisi following a deadly flash flood. Animals from the city's zoo, including tigers, lions, bears, and wolves escaped from cages damaged by the rainfall. Some were captured or killed while the search for others goes on. (Reuters/Beso Gulashvili)(Re
2
Rescuers try to figure out what to do with a runaway bear that found itself perched precariously on the ledge of a flooded building on a Tbilisi street after a deadly flash flood. Police have shot dead several animals over safety concerns, with six wolves killed at a children's hospital, according to broadcaster Rustavi 2.
3
Syrian refugees try to grab bottles of water thrown from the Turkish side of the border near the Syrian town of Tal Abyad, at Akcakale in Sanliurfa Province. (AFP/Bulent Kilic)
4
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko inspects fortifications of Ukrainian forces during his visit to the Mariupol district in the Donetsk region. (TASS/Mykhailo Palynchak/Ukrainian Presidential Press Service)
5
Russian President Vladimir Putin enters the hall for an awards ceremony at the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow on June 12. (epa/Sergei Ilnitsky)
6
Russian girls dancing at a concert dedicated to the Day of Russia at the Kant air base in Kyrgyzstan on June 12. (epa/Igor Kovalenko)
7
A view of the art installation called Thinking Of You in Pristina, Kosovo. In the installation, thousands of women's dresses and skirts hang on clotheslines, dedicated to the survivors of sexual violence during the 1998-99 Kosovo war. (epa/Valdrin Xhemaj)
8
A Syrian child holds a drawing as he waits to disembark from Belgian Navy vessel Godetia at the Augusta port, Italy, on June 10, as around 250 migrants from Syria arrived at the Sicilian harbour from a Damascus refugee camp. (Reuters/Antonio Parri)
9
A woman walks outside the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku ahead of the 2015 European Games, which will run from June 12-28. (AFP/Tobias Schwarz)
10
A Ukrainian serviceman laces up his boots in an Orthodox church destroyed after helling between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in the village of Pisky in the Donetsk region. (AFP/Oleksandr Ratushniak)
11
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left) wears a traditional Kazakh outfit after he officially opened the organization's new office building in Astana. (AFP/Ilyas Omarov)
12
Afghan laborers work at a brick kiln on the outskirts of Kabul. (epa/Hedayatullah Amid)
13
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks with National Security Adviser Susan Rice from his room at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on June 9. Kerry was receiving physical therapy after surgery on a broken right leg sustained in a cycling accident in France. (Reuters/State Department)
14
Pakistani Christian relatives of convicted murderer Aftab Bahadur Masih mourn beside his body after his execution in Lahore. Pakistan executed Masih, who was 15 when he was sentenced to death for murder, despite an outcry from human rights groups and the United Nations. Rights group Reprieve said two witnesses who implicated Bahadur had since recanted, saying they were tortured. (AFP/Arif Ali)
15
Dark smoke billows from a fire at a fuel depot as Ukrainian servicemen walk past in the village of Kryachki, some 30 kilometers southwest of Kyiv. The blaze killed five people, including three firemen. (AFP/Sergei Supinsky)
16
Migrants from conflict-ridden areas in Syria push their bicycles on a motorway on their way to enter the European Union, near the central Macedonian city of Veles. After numerous deaths while hiking on railroads, and arrests while hiding on trains, the immigrants have changed their means of transport, and the Macedonian government has turned a blind eye to their behavior. (epa/Georgi Licovski)
17
Female Peshmerga fighters take a selfie in Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous region. (AFP/Safin Hamed)
18
Defendants on trial for deaths in a riot following a football match in Port Said in February 2012 stand behind bars during their trial in Cairo. An Egyptian court on June 9 confirmed the death sentences of 11 men for their part in the country's worst-ever football-related violence. The February 2012 riots left 74 dead. (epa/Khaled Elfiqi)
19
A local resident carries bread as a Ukrainian serviceman stands guard in the village of Novotoshkivske near the front line with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. (Reuters/Gleb Garanich)
20
Migrants rest after disembarking from the British assault ship HMS Bulwark at the Sicilian port of Catania after being rescued at sea on June 8. (Reuters/Antonio Parrinello)
21
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (left) gestures while chatting with U.S. President Barack Obama sitting on a bench outside the Elmau Castle after a working session of a G7 summit near Garmisch-Partenkirchen on June 8. (AFP/Pool/Michael Kappeler)
22
People take part in the traditional Rusalle Festival (Festival of Mermaids) in the village of Nezhyn, Belarus. (AFP/Sergei Gapon)
23
A member of the Right Sector's Ukrainian Volunteer Corps checks a weapon at his position at the Butovka coal mine near Donetsk. (Reuters/Oleksandr Klymenko)
24
A boy sits on a swing near his building, which was damaged during fighting between the Ukrainian Army and pro-Russian separatists, as an armored personnel carrier of the Ukrainian armed forces is seen nearby in Avdiyivka, near Donetsk. (Reuters/Gleb Garanich)
25
Afghan shepherds are silhouatted against the dying sun while feeding a goat on the outskirts of Kabul. (epa/Hedayatullah Amid)