Top Shots: Compelling Images From Our Region

Bosnia-Herzegovina's 172-meter-high Avaz Twist Tower peaks through a dense layer of fog and smog in Sarajevo. 

A seagull flies by as two others sit on an electric light on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea in the Iranian port city of Bandar Anzali. 

A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child during a door-to-door vaccination campaign in Peshawar, Pakistan. 

Contestants compete in a heat of the women's 200-meter backstroke competition at the World Swimming Championships in Budapest. 

A boy plays in front of riot police trucks outside the parliament building in the restive Georgian capital, Tbilisi. 

A steam train festooned with seasonal decorations moves along a railway in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. 

A child rides on a merry-go-round at Christmas fair in the Romanian capital, Bucharest. 

Kyrgyz soldiers stand guard as people gather in front of an illuminated Christmas tree and other decorations on the central Ala-Too Square in Bishkek.