Photos Of The Week -- November 20-26

Afghan kids play at Nader Khan Hill overlooking Kabul on November 22. Children may be safer in the Afghan capital than in London or New York despite a deadly nine-year Taliban insurgency, NATO's top civilian representative in the country has said.

Photo by Marai Shah for AFP

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka reacts as he plays in a charity tennis match with Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki in Minsk on November 19.

Photo by Vasily Fedosenko for Reuters

Russian journalist Nadira Isayeva speaks after accepting an award at the Committee to Protect Journalists' 20th Annual International Press Freedom Awards Dinner on November 23 in New York. Isayeva, editor in chief of "Chernovik," could face up to eight years in jail if convicted of the criminal charges against her for publishing an interview with a former guerilla leader.

Photo by Michael Nagle for AFP

A U.S. soldier from 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion walks during an early morning patrol in Zhari district in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, on November 22.

Photo by Peter Andrews for Reuters

A mural depicting Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen (right) and Finance Minister Brian Lenihan is pictured on a wall in Dublin, Ireland, on November 24. The Irish government presented a four-year austerity plan outlining 15 billion euros in savings, a key step toward securing an international bailout.

Photo by Peter Muhly for AFP

Protesters wave flags and a giant head wearing a crown reading "Taxes" during a rally against a controversial tax reform on Independence Square in Kyiv on November 22. In recent months, small- and medium-sized business owners have repeatedly criticized the government's plan to unify several laws into a Tax Code due to enter into force on January 1.

Photo by Sergei Supinskyfor AFP

People look on as smoke rises from South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island after being hit by dozens of artillery shells fired by North Korea on November 23. The picture was taken by a South Korean tourist.

A bridge to nowhere in the middle of the Yalu River, which separates North Korea from China. The bridge, which was lit up from the Chinese side on November 24, only reaches half way across the river after it was bombed by the United States in 1950 during the Korean War.

Photo by Frederic J. Brown for AFP