Described as Ukraine's "first gay-pride event," dozens of activists defied a ban by local authorities to take part in a gay-rights parade in Kyiv on May 25. For about an hour, the participants held rainbow flags and banners amid a strong police presence. Ten people who tried to disrupt the march and tear up posters were detained. They were among some 100 activists who were protesting against the event. On May 23, a court in Kyiv upheld a request by city authorities to ban the march, saying it risked sparking violence.
A bunker in the western Czech Republic built in the 1960s to house Soviet nuclear warheads is being turned into a museum where visitors can take a close look at the arms race of the Cold War era. The bunker, one of three such depots in the former Czechoslovakia, was kept secret during the communist era.
May 22 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of German composer Wilhelm Richard Wagner, one of the most celebrated composers of the 19th century. He is best known for the Ring Cycle of four operas, as well as the operas "The Flying Dutchman" and "Tristan and Isolde," sometimes described as marking the start of modern music. Though his music is highly influential, Wagner's legacy is controversial, the result of his nationalist and anti-Semitic writings, which later became a source of inspiration for Adolf Hitler.
On May 18, a group of athletic men in tracksuits picked a fight with demonstrators during the "Get Up, Ukraine!" opposition rally in Kyiv. Several protesters were injured, as were the journalists Olha Snitsarchuk and Vladyslav Sodel, who were attacked by some of the men when they began filming the fight.
A major tornado struck the town of Moore in the U.S. state of Oklahoma on May 20, killing at least 24 people and leaving many others injured or missing. The tornado, thought to measure a kilometer across, reduced whole neighborhoods to rubble.
The Wadi Al-Salaam (Valley of Peace) cemetery in Najaf, Iraq, is reputed to be the largest cemetery in the world. The remains of millions of Shi'ite Muslims are buried there, and more than half a million more are interred each year. Shi'a from all over Iraq seek to be buried in the Valley of Peace, which neighbors the Imam Ali Mosque, one of the holiest Shi'ite sites. (Photos by Abbas Atilay of RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service)
A museum of the Stalin-era prison camp system in central Kazakhstan has given visitors a nighttime tour, where they were "treated" to prison meals and a performance of mock interrogations. The unusual visit on the night of May 18 was organized by the Museum of Political Oppression in Dolinka. The central town became infamous in the 1930s as the center of the Qaraghandy Corrective Labor Camps system (KarLAG).
For generations, Afghan miners from the village of Qara Zaghan have used chisels and pickaxes to extract small amounts of gold from the nearby mountains, part of the towering Hindu Kush range. But the mining business there is in the midst of massive changes. Engineers from international mining companies have built a dirt road through the mountains and are busy surveying the sites to determine how best to exploit the area's mineral wealth. (12 PHOTOS)
More than 30,000 people took part in a rally in the Crimean city of Simferopol on May 18 to mourn the victims of the deportation of Crimean Tatars at the end of World War II. Organizers conducted a "minute of grief and unity" and a Muslim prayer for those who never returned from the expulsion, ordered by Josef Stalin. There were some calls for Crimean Tatar autonomy at the event. (14 PHOTOS)
Thousands of antigay protesters led by Orthodox Christian clergy today prevented a gay-rights rally from taking place in Tbilisi. Thousands of protesters broke through a police cordon and charged the venue where the rally was to be held, forcing the rights activists to leave on buses under police protection. The gay-pride demonstration was scheduled to mark the International Day Against Homophobia. (RFE/RL's Georgian Service)
A subway car known as the "Watercolor Train" is showing a new exhibit as it carries passengers through the Russian capital. The train car is outfitted with art each year to mark the anniversary of the opening of the Moscow Metro on May 15, 1935. (7 PHOTOS)
Twenty-five years ago, on May 15, 1988, Soviet troops began the nine-month process of withdrawing from Afghanistan. Some 100,000 troops would leave the country by February 15, 1989, after nine years of war that killed more than 14,000 Soviet soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Afghan combatants and civilians. (12 PHOTOS)
On May 14, Russian state TV showed video of the detention of a U.S. diplomat identified as Ryan C. Fogle. It displayed objects said to belong to him, including two wigs, a compass, and a map of Moscow. Russia said Fogle worked "undercover" as third secretary of the U.S. Embassy's political department and was caught trying to recruit a Russian counterterrorism officer to work as a spy. He was ordered to leave the country. U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul was summoned to the Foreign Ministry over the incident on May 15.
The mausoleum holding the remains of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin reopened to visitors on May 15 after it was closed for renovation in December. Lenin's body stayed inside the tomb on Red Square while the repairs took place under the cover of a protective temporary "cupola." (17 PHOTOS)
A new mosque and Islamic center has opened in Rijeka, Croatia, prompting raves from the local media that the structure is the most beautiful mosque in Europe. The construction cost an estimated 10 million euros. The mosque is only the third to be built in Croatia since the 17th century withdrawal of the Ottoman Empire. (9 PHOTOS)
A little more than 10 years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, RFE/RL Azerbaijani Service photographer Abbas Atilay traveled through Iraq to document the state of that war-torn country. Atilay's photos capture a vital and recovering Iraq, but also show the scars left by a decade of instability. (20 PHOTOS)
Pakistanis are voting in landmark parliamentary elections that mark the country's first democratic transition of power between civilian governments. The country has been ruled by the military for more than half of its history. (Photographs by RFE/RL Radio Mashaal correspondents)