The Sad Story Of The Saiga

Supporters of opposition leader Tomislav Nikolic filled the streets of Belgrade after he declared himself the winner of Serbia's presidential election runoff on May 20. Boris Tadic, who had served two terms as president, conceded defeat. It was the third time that Nikolic had faced off against Tadic in Serbia's presidential vote.

Voters went to the polling stations on May 20 for the second round of a presidential race that pitted two-term President Boris Tadic against nationalist Tomislav Nikolic for a five-year term as head of the Serbian state.

The International Day Against Homophobia is marked by marches and countermarches, and Pakistan prepares to ship fuel to Western forces in Afghanistan once again.

Members of a Georgian Orthodox antihomosexual group clashed with gay activists in Tbilisi on May 17 during an event to mark the International Day Against Homophobia. Police had to intervene to stop the clashes between Orthodox Parents’ Union activists and gay-rights defenders. There were no reports of serious injuries.

With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has declared his income for 2011. According to official documents, Kadyrov earned 4,105,876 rubles, or around $135,000, in 2011. As in previous years, the only piece of real estate he admits to owning is a 36-square-meter flat in the capital, Grozny. His palatial mansion in his home village of Tsentoroi, near Chechnya's second city of Gudermes, officially belongs to his mother.

Thousands of Muscovites turned out on May 13 for the latest "people's walk" to display opposition to newly reinstalled President Vladimir Putin and government tactics to quell dissent. Many in the crowd were wearing white ribbons or garments to show support for Russia's pro-democracy movement. (All photos by RFE/RL's Russian Service)

An election, an inauguration, a marriage, a parade, and protests highlight memorable images from the week's news.

The Olympic torch relay, in which the Olympic flame is carried from Greece's Olympia, site of the first Games 2,800 years ago, to the current location of the Games, was introduced in 1936 for the Berlin Games. This year's relay will first tour Greece, before beginning an extended tour of Britian and ending on July 27 in London.

Collectively, the world eats a lot of meat -- at least 268 million tons of beef, pork, mutton, and chicken a year. According to a new study by the Food and Agriculture Organization, developed Western nations still top the list of the world's most avid carnivores, despite rising concerns about obesity, cholesterol, and animal welfare.

Russia and other former Soviet republics have been marking the 67th anniversary of the end of World War II with parades and celebrations.In Russia, the anniversary was marked on May 9 with a massive military parade on Moscow's Red Square. Newly installed President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and war veterans were among thousands who attended.

On the outskirts of Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan, thousands of people of the Luli minority live in poverty and relative isolation from their ethnic Kyrgyz neighbors. Members of this once nomadic group are struggling to provide for their families' basic needs. Zhanarbek Dzholdoshbaev of RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service took these portraits of the community.

Vladimir Putin was sworn in on May 7 for a third term as Russian president. He said Russia is entering "a new stage of national development" and that the next few years will be "decisive" for the country. If Putin remains in the Kremlin for two more terms, winning reelection in 2018, he will be 71 when his final term ends in 2024. Here's a look back at a few decisive moments in Putin's political career thus far.

Voters in France, Serbia, Greece, and elsewhere prepare to go to the polls as Victory Day approaches in the former Soviet Union.

Norwegian painter Edvard Munch's "The Scream" made headlines this week when it became the most expensive painting ever auctioned. RFE/RL looks at some of the other masterpieces that have sold for astronomical sums.

In New York City's Bryant Park, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) activists held what they called "creative disruptions against corporations” to celebrate the workers' rights movement and protest rising economic inequality as part of May Day festivities. May 1 -- also known as International Worker’s Day -- is a holiday in 80 countries but not in the United States. Members of the OWS movement held numerous demonstrations across the country. (Photos by RFE/RL's Courtney Brooks)

The wooden church, one of Russia's unique architectural treasures, is in danger of extinction. Once dotting the landscape by the thousand, years of harsh weather, fires, war, and neglect have not been kind. Today, some 200 churches remain. Most date from the 1700s and are located in the northern regions of Arkhangelsk, Karelia, and Vologda. In 2002 architectural photographer Richard Davies set out to document these vanishing landmarks. More than nine years and a dozen trips later, he hopes his recently published book, "Wooden Churches – Traveling in the Russian North," will help the country avert a potential cultural tragedy.

In March, a law banning homosexual "propaganda" was approved in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg. While the coming months will tell how the ban will be applied, experts are already predicting that more gay and lesbian Russians will be pushed to seek asylum in the West. Protesters on both sides of the issue have made their voices heard in Russia over the past year.

An airplane crash in Pakistan, Chornobyl commemorations, flooding in Russia and Afghanistan, and Tymoshenko protests in Ukraine.

After visiting Yulia Tymoshenko in jail, Ukrainian Ombudsman Nina Karpachova released pictures that appear to show bruises on the former prime minister's body. Tymoshenko claims she received the injuries after prison guards forcibly took her to a clinic last week for treatment.

The ancient settlement of Lahic, in Azerbaijan's north-central Ismailli region, has a unique tradition of metalworking dating back centuries. But locals say Lahic's coppersmiths are turning their backs on generations of tradition to travel to the capital, where they can earn more money. Coppersmithing will soon be just a memory in Lahic, they warn. Photographer Abbas Atilay visited Lahic for RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service.

Abbas Atilay, a photographer for RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, recently visited a hostel in Kyzyl-Dash, a settlement near the capital, Baku. The hostel is home to about 40 underprivileged young people who were released from state care once they turned 18.

North Korea celebrates, Russian punks protest, and daily life in Afghanistan.

On April 18, members of the Network for Affirmation of the Nongovernmental Sector (MANS) found a unique way to protest recent actions by the government of Montenegrin Prime Minister Igor Luksic.

We tracked down hoodied Russian street artist Nikita Nomerz, who is best-known for his "Living Wall" project, which applies human features to rundown city walls and other large objects.

AFP Afghan photographer Massoud Hossaini won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography for an image of a young Afghan girl after a suicide attack at a shrine in Kabul in December 2011. WARNING: Final, prize-winning image contains graphic violence and may be disturbing. (All photos by Massoud Hossaini for AFP unless otherwise indicated.)

The Iranian capital, Tehran, has been inundated following two days of heavy spring rain and unusually severe hail storms. The inclement weather forced the closure of subway lines and flooded city streets, sparking large traffic jams. The large hail also threatened farmer's crops and orchards. (RFE/RL's Radio Farda)

Afghan security forces responded on April 15 to coordinated attacks around the capital, Kabul, and in other cities. A Taliban spokesman claimed his group and allied militants were responsible.

From "Titanic" images to Kyrgyz teddy bears, Arab unrest, and stunning ocean gyres.

Rishtan is a small town in Uzbekistan's Ferghana Province that is famous for producing traditional pottery. Potters in the town have been passing their craft from generation to generation. Rishtan ceramics are noted for their intricate ornamental patterns and bluish or greenish glazes.The Rishtan area, which attracts many tourists, is rich in the fine clay needed for the work. (RFE/RL's Uzbek Service)

Touted as "practically unsinkable" by her operators, the White Star Line, the "RMS Titanic" departed from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912, on her maiden voyage. She stopped in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, before heading to her final destination, New York City. Late on the night of April 14, 1912, "Titanic" hit an iceberg in the frigid North Atlantic and gradually sank, killing 1,514 people.

Workers early on April 12 finished assembling the last panel linking the world's longest cable-stayed bridge. The bridge links Vladivostok to Russky Island, which will host a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation bloc.

Some of Iranian cartoonist Mana Neyestani's selected works. All images provided courtesy of Mr. Neyestani.

An exhibition of ancient objects from eastern Kazakhstan is opening eyes to the complexity of the country's traditional nomadic lifestyle. The installation at a New York institute, which has been two years in the making, features more than 250 objects from the first millennium BC. From elaborate gold pieces, to saddles preserved in permafrost, to massive cooking pots for feasting, the exhibit dispels the misconception that nomadic pastoral life was in any way unsophisticated.

Sarajevo marks the 20th anniversary of the 44-month wartime siege, as Christians prepare to mark Easter.

The Bosnian capital marked the anniversary of the start of the 44-month siege of the city by Bosnian Serb forces that saw the deaths of 11,541 men, women, and children.

A look back at scenes of Sarajevo taken after the 44-month siege of the city and today, 20 years later. More than 11,500 men, women, and children were killed in the bombardment of the city by Bosnian Serb forces, the longest such siege in modern European history. (Photos by Reuters)

Moscow journalists and photographers gathered outside the Uzbek Embassy on April 2 to hold a "pilaf-picket" to support the rights of photojournalists in the Central Asian country. The rally was organized by photographer Viktoria Ivleva, who was detained in Tashkent on her way to meet with Uzbek colleagues and deported back to Russia.

Police in Moscow have detained about 30 antigovernment protesters outside the gates to Red Square. Activists planned to wear their white ribbons on Moscow's key landmark, but police closed off the square.

Russia’s opposition says up to 60 activists were detained on March 31 when police broke up an anti-Kremlin protest in central Moscow.

Memorable images from the week that was. Unrest in Syria, scuffles in Turkey, poverty in Afghanistan, protests in Ukraine, and the pope in Cuba.

People across Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East are celebrating Norouz, the Persian New Year, which marks the coming of spring. In Tajikistan, Norouz means four days of festivities, food, and music. (Photos by RFE/RL's Tajik Service)

A festive atmosphere descended over the Afghan capital on March 20 as Kabul residents welcomed the traditional New Year -- known as Norouz -- with typically lively celebrations.

RFE/RL Azerbaijani Service photographer Abbas Atilay visited an unusual cemetery in Tabriz, northwestern Iran, where pre-Islamic fertility symbols mark the graves. Some of these ancient carvings have disappeared in recent years, possibly destroyed by local Muslims in keeping with the prohibition against representing the human form.

Cat owners from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan gathered in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, on March 18 to show off their prized pets.

Syrians continue to flee the violence in their country and others remember their dead.

Vladimir Putin, Russia's diminutive ex-spy-cum-president-cum-prime-minister-cum-president has gone to great lengths, distances, and depths to cultivate his image as a swashbuckling man of action. Here are some of the Russian leader's most glaringly, er, robust photo ops over the years. (Originally published in January 2011)

Planning your next ski vacation? Feeling adventurous? Don't let a little unrest get in the way of your rest and relaxation. As it turns out Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and (soon) Chechnya offer offbeat getaways for those unafraid of a little risk while on the piste.

These photographs show Iranian police removing and collecting illegal satellite dishes from the roofs of houses and apartments in eastern Tehran in late February. The war against the dishes, which allow Iranians to see uncensored foreign news and entertainment programs, appears to be a losing one, however. Police officers spend a considerable amount of time searching for them, dismantling them, and confiscating them. But like dandelions, the dishes seem to sprout right back up again.

People around the world mark International Women's Day as women make their voices heard.

March 11, 2012, will mark the first anniversary of the massive earthquake and tsunami that pummelled Japan, claiming more than 19,000 lives. These combo images show areas in the devastated northeast in the disaster's immediate aftermath and again more recently.

Russia is marking the 75th birthday of the first woman in space, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. She made international headlines in June 1963 when her Vostok-6 space capsule successfully completed 48 orbits around the Earth in a space flight lasting nearly three days.

Police in Russia arrested dozens of protesters, including three opposition leaders, after forcibly breaking up a rally in central Moscow protesting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's election to a third term as the country's president.

On New Year's Eve 1999, Russian President Boris Yeltsin handed over power to his prime minister, Vladimir Putin, who was acting president until he won an early election in March 2000. In 1990, Putin began his political career in the office of St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, where he stayed until Sobchak lost an election in 1996, after which he joined Yeltsin's administration.

Hardship from Ukraine to the Mideast and elections in Iran and Russia are among the topics of this week's most compelling images.

RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service provides images of clashes on March 1 between security forces and Quba residents angry over a governor's characterization of that northeastern Azerbaijani city as full of "traitors."

Afghan rage over Koran burnings, tragedy mounts in Syria, and Russian and Iranian preparations for elections fill this week's gallery of our favorite images.

Protests broke out in several Afghan cities following reports that international troops at Bagram air base had desecrated copies of the Koran in what U.S. officials described on February 21 as an unintentional incident. On the third day of protests, February 23, the Taliban urged Afghans to violence, saying they should "beat and capture" foreigners.

Twenty-six photos by Liu Xia, the wife of jailed human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, have been compiled into an exhibition called "The Silent Strength of Liu Xia," which is on display at New York's Columbia University.

Hundreds of cars have gone round Moscow's Garden Ring, a 16-kilometer avenue that loops around the Kremlin, decked out with balloons and banners to demand that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin allow free elections in Russia.

Iranian ninja women, Europe's deep freeze, and Vladimir Putin's presidential campaign feature in this week's gallery of our favorite images.

In Iran, from 3,000 to 3,500 women train in "ninjutsu" -- a school of martial arts descended from the ancient arts of Japan's ninja assassins -- in independently run clubs working under the supervision of the Ministry of Sports' Martial Arts Federation.

Snow in Europe and Asia, Greek protests, camel racing in Iran, and Syrian refugees.

World Press Photo, an independent, nonprofit organization that supports photojournalism, has once again honored the best photographers from around the globe. Here is a selection of the winning images from 2011. More than 100,000 photographs were submitted for consideration.

Severe winter weather continues to wreak havoc across Eastern and Central Europe, as well as Central and South Asia. The official death toll in Poland has reached 62. Ukraine has reported 135 deaths. Eighteen people have died from the cold in the Czech Republic, while Hungary reports 12 deaths over the past three days. Seventeen have died in Lithuania, where a low of -31 Celsius was recorded. Authorities in Bosnia and Serbia are attempting to deliver food and medicine to thousands who have been cut off due to heavy snow.

Eighty-five-year-old Queen Elizabeth II marked her Diamond Jubilee on February 6, 2012. Elizabeth, who took up the throne after her father, George VI, died on February 6, 1952, is Britain's longest-serving monarch after Queen Victoria, who reigned for more than 63 years.

Snow and ice, celebrations and protests.

Russia's lively protest culture was on display on February 4 as tens of thousands of demonstrators brought signs and slogans to an anti-Kremlin rally in Moscow.

In Uzbekistan, the national game of "kopkari" is held to celebrate an occasion such as a wedding or the birth of a son. The basic objective is for a rider on horseback to get an animal carcass, a goat or sheep, into a circle or across a finish line. The prize on offer is a measure of the wealth of the game's sponsor.

Photographer Khalil Gholami of Iran's Fars news agency recently traveled to the snow-covered village of Asalem, near the Caspian Sea in northwestern Gilan Province, and brought back these beautiful images.

Midhat Poturovic of RFE/RL's Balkan Service visited a park near Sarajevo to capture the excitement of mostly young visitors interacting with creatures from "The World of Dinosaurs" exhibition. The 52 exhibits are constructed based on research by paleontologists from the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, Germany. The exhibit near Sarajevo Zoo runs from January 25-February 19.

Protests, arrests, referendums, and celebrations.

Thousands of Egyptians gathered in central Cairo on January 25, 2012, to mark the first anniversary of the mass public revolt that forced longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak to eventually resign as president. More than 800 protesters died in the unrest. Here's a look back at the 18 momentous days of the Egyptian revolution.

Millions of Asians are shooting off fireworks, sitting down to feasts, and having family reunions to mark the Year of the Dragon. The Lunar New Year that began on January 23 is the most important holiday of the year for many people in Asia. The dragon is considered the most favorable and revered sign in the 12-year cycle of beasts that appear in the Chinese zodiac.

Since coming to office five years ago, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has sought to show off his own style of leadership -- all the way down to the color scheme. From his clothing to his carpets to the flowers that ornament his public appearances, everything in Berdymukhammedov's world is a gleaming, crystalline white. We look at Turkmenistan's own "colored" revolution.

A New York City gallery has opened its doors to an exhibit of Arab Spring-inspired photos by acclaimed Iranian-American artist Shirin Neshat.

From urban terror to ballot boxes and holy nights.