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 #51
1
Members of the Qatari armed forces take part in Qatar's National Day celebrations in Doha on December 18. (Reuters/Naseem Zeitoon)
2
Iraqi candidates for the Miss Iraq beauty contest pose in front of the Ishtar Gate at the ancient archaeological site of Babylon, outside the modern city of Hilla, south of the capital, Baghdad. The beauty contest, which is the first one in more than 40 years in the country, will take place on December 19. (AFP/Ahmad al-Rubaye)
3
A man lies inside a coffin as activists protest against the sale of medication that they say can be used for the production of synthetic drugs in Pyatigorsk, Russia. The board reads: "Pharmacy keeper! See you in hell." (Reuters/Eduard Korniyenko)
4
The hands of temporarily detained migrants are seen through a police bus window as they leave the Tae Kwon Do stadium in the southern suburb of Faliro in Athens. (Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis)
5
Men work at a makeshift oil refinery in Marchmarin town in the southern countryside of Idlib, Syria. The refinery site has been active for four months. The owner says that he gets the crude oil from Islamic State-controlled areas in Deir al-Zor Province and Iraq. The price for a barrel of crude oil varies and is controlled by the Islamic State, but it is currently at $44 dollars per barrel, he said. (Reuters/Khalil Ashawi)
6
Family food packages provided by a local relief group for those severely affected by Yemen's ongoing conflict are prepared to be distributed to Yemenis in Sanaa. According to reports, the eight-month conflict in Yemen has taken almost 6,000 lives and left 21 million people facing shortages of food and vital supplies. (epa/Yahya Arhab)
7
Soldiers from the People's Liberation Army take part in winter training at China's border with Russia above Heihe in Heilongjiang Province. (Reuters)
8
People hold torches to mark the first anniversary of the school attack in Peshawar during a rally in Lahore, Pakistan. On December 16, 2014, seven Pakistani Taliban gunmen killed more than 150 people, mostly students, at the Army Public School in Peshawar city. (epa/Rahat Dar)
9
The mother of Uzair touches his picture in a gallery of the victims of the December 16, 2014, massacre by Taliban gunmen at a school in Peshawar, Pakistan. The Taliban killed 147 people in the attack, the majority of them children. (Reuters/Fayaz Aziz)
10
Shi'ite Muslim clerics gather at a religious school south of Baghdad, Iraq, on December 15. (Reuters/Alaa al-Marjani)
11
Men pray inside a mosque in the village of Duisi in the Pankisi Gorge, Georgia. (Reuters/David Mdzinarishvili)
12
Women from Srebrenica cry during the exhumation of a mass grave believed to hold the bodies of massacre victims from the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, near the eastern town of Zvornik, on December 15.
13
A man performs on stage during the official opening ceremony for activated energy links in Vilnius, by way of which Lithuania introduced new power lines to Sweden and Poland connecting the EU-member Baltic states to the Western energy market while reducing their dependence on imports from Russia. (AFP/Petras Malukas)
14
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (right) points to a store window while souvenir shopping with Celeste Wallander from the National Security Council, in Moscow on December 15. (AFP/Mandel Ngan)
15
Photographers take pictures as Russia's Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft carrying British stronaut Tim Peake, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, and U.S. astronaut Tim Kopra blasts off from Kazakhstan on December 15. (AFP/Kirill Kudryavtsev)
16
Kurds clash with Turkish police in Diyarbakir as they protest against the recent curfews imposed on Kurdish towns. (AFP/Ilyas Akengin)
17
Camels walk in the southern Iraqi desert of Samawa in an area used by herdsmen to graze their stock. (AFP/Haidar Hamdani)
18
An Afghan boy rides a horse as the sun sets on the Nadir Khan hilltop overlooking Kabul. (AFP/Shah Marai)
19
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man lights candles on the eighth and final night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah in Jerusalem. (AFP/Menahem Kahana)
20
Kosovar police officers wear gas masks during a plenary session of Kosovo's parliament in Pristina. Opposition lawmakers have often thrown tear gas to protest against agreements that have been reached in Brussels during an EU-brokered dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. (epa/Valdrin Xhemaj)
21
Men search for belongings at a site hit by missiles in the Douma neighborhood of Damascus, Syria. (Reuters/Bassam Khabieh)
22
An Afghan day laborer works at a coal yard in Herat Province. (AFP/Aref Karimi)
23
Firefighters work among the remains of the Novokhopersky psychiatric home, which was destroyed by a fire, in the village of Alferovka in Russia's Voronezh region. At least 23 people were killed in the blaze. (TASS)