Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL's coverage area and beyond for the 50th week of 2018. For more photo galleries, see our photo gallery archive.
Photos Of The Week #50
1
A Christian family browses Christmas ornaments to decorate their home for upcoming celebrations at a shop in Lahore, Pakistan. (AP/K.M. Chaudhry)
2
A priest flashes a V sign as he wears a Ukrainian-flag-colored glove as outside St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv on December 15 where Ukrainian Orthodox leaders agreed on the creation of a new national Orthodox Church and elected a leader to head it. (AFP/Genya Savilov)
3
Protesters stand in front of mounted police during a demonstration in front of the Opera House in Paris against rising costs of living blamed on high taxes on December 15. (AFP/Abdul Abeissa)
4
A man stands near smoke billowing from a brick kiln in Karachi, Pakistan. (epa-EFE/Shahzaib Akber)
5
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo takes off for a suborbital test flight in Mojave, California, on December 13. (AFP/Gene Blevins)
6
Protesters clash with police during a demonstration against amendments to Hungary's Labor Code outside the parliament building in Budapest on December 13. (epa-EFE/Zoltan Balogh)
7
A man wears a mask during an anti-pollution protest outside City Hall in Bucharest, Romania, on December 12. (AP/Vadim Ghirda)
8
A Palestinian gesticulates as smoke rises during clashes with Israeli troops near the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on December 13. (Reuters/Mohamad Torokman)
9
Afghan girls pose for a photograph in the Sarhood district of Nangarhar Province. (epa-EFE/Ghulamullah Habibi)
10
Cherantha de Silva from Sri Lanka competes in the Men's Butterfly 100-meter heats during the FINA Swimming Short Course World Championships in Hangzhou, China, on December 12. (epa-EFE/Roman Pilipey)
11
A Russian cosmonaut performs a spacewalk near a Soyuz orbital module to examine a pressure leak. (epa-EFE)
12
A man walks along a deserted street in Strasbourg the day after a deadly shooting in the French city on December 11. (Reuters/Christian Hartmann)
13
Participants in an annual ball for students of military schools sit backstage during the event in Moscow. (AP/Aleksandr Zemlianichenko)
14
People gather to pay their last respects to Russian human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva, during a farewell ceremony in Moscow on December 11. (Alexander Nemenov/AP)
15
People enjoy decorations that have been installed for upcoming New Year celebrations in downtown Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. (AFP/Vyacheslav Oseledko)
16
An Indian Army serviceman displays his motorbike skills during an event at a training college in Bangalore. (epa-EFE/Jagadeesh)
17
A woman plays with a dog in Minsk's Central Gorky Park on a winter's day in Belarus. (epa-EFE/Tatyana Zenkovich)
18
The North Korean fishing boat. Um Pha I, lies stranded near Vladivostok, Russia. (Reuters/Yuri Matsev)
19
Women wearing floral wreaths take part in a "Grandfather Frost" celebration in Belarus. (TASS/Viktor Drachev)
20
A woman with a child takes a selfie in a light tunnel in Kazan, Russia. (TASS/Yegor Aleyev)
21
A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child during a three-day countrywide vaccination campaign in Peshawar, Pakistan. (epa-EFE/Arshad Arbab)