Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL's broadcast region and beyond for the 49th week of 2014. For more photo galleries, see our "Picture This" archive.
Photos Of The Week #49
1
A man plays with his son as he sits in his one-room home in a Christian slum in Islamabad, Pakistan. (Reuters/Zohra Bensemra)
2
A view of salt ponds at the Maras mines in Cuzco, Peru. Salt has been obtained in Maras since pre-Incan times by evaporating highly salty local subterranean stream water. The water is intricately channelled through constructions, flowing gradually down onto several hundred ancient terraced ponds. (Reuters/Enrique Castro-Mendivil)
3
An Iraqi man mourns over the coffin of a relative who was killed in a bomb attack in the Baghdad Shi'ite suburb of Sadr City. (AFP/Ahmad al-Rubaye)
4
Afghan pigeon fancier Abas Aqa feeds his birds as some take flight on the rooftop of his residence in Herat. (AFP/Aref Karimi)
5
Lazar and his sister Andjelka sit by a candle in their home in the eastern Serbian town of Majdanpek. (Reuters/Marko Djurica)
6
People walk past burnt-out kiosks at a street market near a destroyed building housing local media known as the Press House, in central Grozny, on December 4, following a deadly attack by insurgents. (AFP/Elena Fitkulina)
7
An aerial photo shows a large oil spillage caused by an oil pipeline that breached during maintenace work in the Arava Desert in southern Israel. (EPA/Israeli Environmental Protection Ministry)
8
Disabled Palestinians take part in a volleyball training session in Gaza City on December 3. (Reuters/Suhaib Salem)
9
An Iraqi Turkoman stands among the rubble of his home destroyed in fighting between Iraqi security forces and Islamic State militants east of Tikrit on December 3. (epa/Ali Mohammed)
10
A street vendor woman warms herself as she stands by a stove in Ankara. (Reuters/Umit Bektas)
11
Female Afghan border police personnel take part in a ceremony at a police training center on the outskirts of Herat. (AFP/Aref Karimi)
12
A Belarusian student wears a gas mask during a fire-safety drill at a school in the village of Krevo, some 100 kilometers northwest of Minsk, on December 2. (AFP/Sergei Gapon)
13
An Afghan woman carries a sack of grass on her head along a road in Nangarhar Province on December 2. (Reuters/Parwiz)
14
A Ukrainian soldier fires a missile with a portable air-defense system during exercices near the city of Shchastya, north of Luhansk, on December 1.
15
Indian activists and children release ribbons and balloons during an event to mark World AIDS Day in Kolkata. (AFP/Dibyangshu Sarkar)
16
A Moldovan student gets facepaint applied before attending a rally calling for the reunification of Moldova and Romania as well as to commemorate Romania's National Day in Chisinau. (Reuters/Gleb Garanich)
17
People look out a window after their building in the Telstilshik district of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk was shelled. (AFP/Eric Feferberg)
18
A refugee child from the Caucasus holds a banner during a protest in Istanbul against Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Turkey. Members of the Caucasian refugee community in Turkey say Putin has presided over a policy that has violently targeted members of the community. (epa/Sedat Suna)
19
An activist from the women's rights group Femen nails a photo of her sister to a door as she protests against her kidnapping outside the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) headquarters in Kyiv. (Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko)
20
Afghan children sit near their home in Herat. (AFP/Aref Karimi)
21
Pro-democracy protesters defend themselves with umbrellas against the police on Lung Wo Road, next to the Hong Kong Chief Executive's Office, part of the Central Government Office complex that the protesters are trying to surround. (epa/Alex Hofford)