Photos by RFE/RL, AFP, epa, InterPressNews, Itar-Tass, Ukrinform, ISNA, PAJHWOK Afghan News, Photolur, Rifo Dobra, NASA
The Year In Photos
26
The Muslim World celebrates Norouz - Norouz celebration in Khujand, Tajikistan, 21 March 2008
27
Norouz celebration in Afghanistan - Norouz Day in Mazar-e Sharif. People usually make pilgrimage to Mazar Al-Sharif to celebrate New day in the town's shrine.
28
America embraces change. - Supporters stand and hold hands during a prayer while waiting on Democratic presidential hopeful US Senator Barack Obama to arrive and speak at a rally at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Selma, Texas, USA, 29 February 2008. The Texas Primary is 04 March 2008.
29
NATO summit in Bucharest - NATO leaders gather for their first formal working session on the second day of the NATO summit at the Parliament Palace in Bucharest on April 3, 2008. Georgia and Ukraine's efforts to obtain Membership Action Plan were rebuffed by NATO.
30
U.S. President George W. Bush (left) and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin meet in the Bocharov Ruchei. - U.S. President George W. Bush (L) and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin watch the sunset at the Bocharov Ruchei residence at the Black Sea, 6 April 2008. President George W. Bush arrived in Russia hoping to soften Russian President Vladimir Putin's opposition to US missile defence plans, but the White House downplayed talk of a breakthrough.
31
U.S. Roman Catholic officials greet Pope Benedict XVI upon his arrival in the United States. - Roman Catholic officials are escorted on the tarmac to meet Pope Benedict XVI upon his arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, April 15, 2008 as the Pope starts his six-day visit to Washington and New York.
32
Pope Benedict XVI in Washington D.C. - Pope Benedict XVI stands before the crowd at National Stadium on April 17, 2008 in Washington, DC. The recently finished Nationals' baseball stadium became a "church for a day" when Pope Benedict celebrated the first of two huge open-air masses during his six-day visit to the United States.
33
Iranian soldiers march during the annual army day military parade. - Iranians watch soldiers march during the annual army day military parade in Tehran on April 17, 2008.
34
Afghan President Hamid Karzai escapes an assassination attempt. - Afghan military soldiers run to take up positions after gun fire was heard during a military parade in Kabul on April 27, 2008. President Hamid Karzai is safe after an attack on a parade of the Afghan military in Kabul.
35
The ongoing war in Iraq - An Iraqi woman weeps during the funeral of her relative who was killed during clashes between U.S. forces and Al-Mahdi Army in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq 23 April 2008. At least 16 people were killed and another 36 wounded in overnight clashes.
36
Yurya celebration in Belarus - Belarusian women wearing traditional dresses prepare the round loaf for the pagan Yurya celebration in the village of Pagost, 230 km from Minsk, Belarus, 06 May 2008. The tradition is devoted to bread and good future harvests.
37
Myanmar hit by tropical cyclone Nargis - Destroyed fishing boats lay in the port of Yangon after cylone Nargis on May 4, 2008. Myanmar residents awoke to devastation after tropical cyclone Nargis tore through swathes of the country, battering buildings, sinking boats and causing unknown casualties.
38
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is inaugurated. - Newly elected Russian President Dmitry Medvedev walks to read an oath during his inauguration in the Kremlin, Moscow, Russia, 07 May 2008. Dmitry Medvedev was elected a new Russian President 02 March 2008
39
Spread of technology in Russian rural areas - Old women look at a notebook computer in a village in Russia , 6 May 2008
40
China rocked by deadly earthquake. - One week to the minute after the earthquake, now reckoned to be 8.0 magnitude, the whole nation of China stopped to think of the more than 33,000 dead, 200,000 injured and five million homeless. The full extent of the damage unleashed near Beichuan at 14 28 on 12 May has yet to be assessed with at least 50,000 casualties expected in the final tally besides the financial cost for some of China's poorest people.
41
70 000 die in Chinese earthquake. - A Chinese couple carries the body of their primary school aged child away from the school (behind) that collapsed after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the town of Hanwang in Sichuan Province, on May 14, 2008. China's biggest earthquake for a generation left tens of thousands dead, missing or buried under the rubble of crushed communities, plunging the nation into an all-out aid effort. Troops and rescue teams struggled by air, land and water to reach areas of southwestern China stricken by the huge quake that demolished schools, homes and factories.
42
Opposition protests in Georgia after the parliamentary elections - Georgian opposition supporters demonstrate during a rally in Tbilisi, Georgia, 22 May 2008. An independent exit poll showed the Georgian President's party was set to win the parliamentary election, but the opposition claimed victory and vowed to hold a major protest in the capital
43
Russian singer Dima Bilan wins Eurovision Song Contest - Dima Bilan (4th R with flag), flanked by Hungarian violinist Edvin Marton (2nd L) and Olympic figure skating champion Yevgeny Plushenko (2nd R) of Russia, celebrates after winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 at Belgrade Arena early on May 25, 2008.
44
Violence inceases in Afghanistan. - Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers arrive as they walk a road with blood at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on May 29, 2008. A suicide attacker blew up a car bomb near a US-led coalition convoy in Kabul on May 29, causing no serious injuries to the troops but killing three Afghan civilians, police and the coalition said.
45
Pakistani Taliban leader talks to the media. - On May 24, 2008, Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud (C) speaks to the media at his stronghold in the tribal district of South Waziristan near the Afghan border. Top Pakistani Taliban warlord Mehsud on May 24 said jihad, or holy war, would continue in Afghanistan, despite peace negotiations between the militants and Islamabad. "Islam does not recognise boundaries and jihad in Afghanistan will continue," he said.
46
NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission - The flat landscape is strewn with tiny pebbles and shows polygonal cracking, a pattern seen widely in Martian high latitudes and also observed in permafrost terrains on Earth. The polygonal cracking is believed to have resulted from seasonal freezing and thawing of surface ice.
Phoenix touched down on the Red Planet at 4:53 p.m. Pacific Time (7:53 Eastern Time), May 25, 2008, in an arctic region called Vastitas Borealis, at 68 degrees north latitude, 234 degrees east longitude.
This image was taken shortly after landing by the spacecraft's Surface Stereo Imager.
The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
47
Gay parade in Moscow - In a gay parade in Moscow, a man attacks gay activist Aleksei Davydov, 1 June 2008
48
Antisecular demonstrations in Turkey - Demonstrators shout during a protest on June 6, 2008 in Ankara in front of the Constitutional Court a day after the court annulled a law allowing women to wear Islamic headscarves at universities. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan convened an emergency meeting with senior aides on June 6 after Turkey's top court upheld a ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities, dampening his party's hopes of surviving a pending closure case.
49
Ireland rejects EU Lisbon Treaty - Supporters of the 'no' vote celebrate after the Lisbon Treaty was rejected at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) in Dublin, on 13 June 2008.
50
A record-high bribe in Ukraine. - Special unit officers of Ukraine's Interior Ministry guard a $5.2 million bribe displayed for the media at a press conference by Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, Simferopol, 13 June 2008