Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL's broadcast region and beyond for the 50th week of 2012. (43 PHOTOS)
Photos Of The Week #50
28
Iraq's Ahmed Gheni (right) challenges Jordan's Abdullah Salem during their West Asian Football Federation Championship soccer match in Kuwait City. (Reuters)
29
Passersby inspect a huge tree that fell on a bus and parked cars near the Palats Sportu subway station in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. (Ukrainian Foto)
30
Female Afghan National Police (ANP) officers aim their weapons during a drill at a training center near the German Army Camp Marmal in Mazar-e Sharif. German police are mentoring the training program for the ANP as part of an ongoing International Security Assistance Force mission. (Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch)
31
Nobel laureates and guests are seated in the Blue Hall to attend the Nobel banquet at City Hall in Stockholm. (Reuters/Jessica Gow/Scanpix)
32
A man carries a mannequin down a snowy street in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. (AFP/Viktor Drachev)
33
Farmer Liu Qiyuan sits inside one of seven survival pods at his home in the village of Qiantun in China's Hebei Province. Inspired by the apocalyptic Hollywood movie "2012" and the 2004 Asian tsunami, Liu hopes his creations, which consist of a fiberglass shell around a steel frame, will be adopted by governments and international organizations for use in the event of tsunamis and earthquakes. Liu has built seven pods, which are able to float on water, some of which have their own propulsion. The airtight spheres contain oxygen tanks and seatbelts with space for around 14 people and are designed to remain upright when in water. (AFP/Ed Jones)
34
A spherical pod, named "Noah's Ark," designed by Chinese inventor Liu Qiyuan floats on a river during a test in Xianghe in Hebei Province. (Reuters/Petar Kujundzic)
35
A diver dressed in a Santa Claus costume swims with sardines during a promotional event at the Coex Aquarium in Seoul. (Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji)
36
A participant is helped into the venue of the "Beauty Without Limits" beauty contest for women confined to wheelchairs in Russia's city of Vladivostok. The contest, organized by a local social group Kovcheg, is open to wheelchair users from Russia's Far Eastern Primorsky region. (Reuters/Yuri Maltsev)
37
Azerbaijani police officers detain an opposition activist during an unauthorized rally in central Baku to demand the resignation of President Ilham Aliyev. (AFP/Tofik Babayev)
38
Students read the Koran at the Jamia Binoria Al-Alamia Seminary Islamic Study School in Karachi, Pakistan. About 6,000 boys and girls are educated, fed, and housed at the madrasah. (Reuters/Athar Hussain)
39
Supporters hold photographs of 15-year-old Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban in October, during commemorations marking Human Rights Day in Lahore. Malala's father has been named a UN special adviser on global education. Malala is recovering in a British hospital. (AFP/Arif Ali)
40
A man brushes snow off the top of a monument in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Reuters/Kyodo)
41
Japanese macaque, commonly referred to as "snow monkeys," relax next to an open-air hot spring bath at the Jigokudani Monkey Park in the town of Yamanouchi. Some 160 of the monkeys inhabit the area and are a popular tourist draw. (AFP/Kazuhiro Nogi)
42
Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych inspects the honor guard during a ceremonial reception at the forecourt of India's presidential palace in New Delhi. Yanukovych is on a four-day state visit to India. (Reuters/Adnan Abidi)
43
A rebel fighter carries his son in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo. (AFP/Odd Andersen)