Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL's broadcast region and beyond. (39 PHOTOS)
Photos Of The Week #2

1
Hundreds of people demonstrated in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, on January 13 to call atention to the deaths of young army conscripts. (RFE/RL)

3
Police try to stop an activist of the Ukrainian feminist group Femen from protesting against the Catholic Church's stand on same-sex marriage on St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on January 13. (AFP/Vincenzo Pinto)

4
Girls run from a wave during a storm in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on January 12. (AFP/Mikhail Mordasov)

5
Shi'ite families refusing to bury their dead after twin bombings in Pakistan's troubled southwestern city of Quetta vowed to continue their sit-in protest on January 12 until the army takes over security. (AFP/Banaras Khan)

6
One year after a tragic accident that left 32 people dead, the "Costa Concordia" cruise ship still lies aground off the Italian island of Isola del Giglio. (AFP/Filippo Monteforte)

7
Demonstrators gather for an antigovernment protest in the central Iraqi city of Samarra. Thousands of Sunni Muslims took to the streets of Baghdad and other parts of Iraq to decry the alleged targeting of their minority, in rallies hardening opposition to the country's Shi'ite leader. (AFP)

8
A homeless man, Bratislav Jovanovic, 43, enters a grave that he uses as a shelter during winter at a cemetery in Nis, 200 kilometers south of Belgrade. Jovanovic has been homeless for nearly 20 years, since his house burned down. For the last 15 years he has lived in a tomb beside the caskets of his descendants. (AFP/Sasa Djordjevic)

9
A cloud formation tinged with red dust travels across the Indian Ocean near Onslow on the western Australia coast. (Reuters/Brett Martin/fishwrecked.com)

10
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man covered with snow walks in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was transformed into a winter wonderland after heavy snowfall turned the Holy City and much of the region white, bringing hordes of excited children onto the streets. (AFP/Menahem Kahana)

11
Local residents carry the coffin of a bomb blast victim during a funeral in Mingora. An explosion at a religious gathering in Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley that killed 22 people and wounded more than 80 was caused by a bomb, officials said. (AFP)

12
Members of a local winter swimming club take part in their weekly bath in the Yenisei River while air temperatures stood at minus 17 degrees Celsius in the town of Divnogorsk, outside Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. (Reuters/Ilya Naymushin)

13
A sculpture titled "Home To Go" by Albanian-born artist Adrian Paci is displayed at the Kosovo National Gallery during an exhibition in Pristina. (AFP/Armend Nimani)

14
Vladimir Franz, a candidate for the Czech presidency, corrects his tie while riding in "Air Franz One," his official campaign car, in Prague. Franz is a prominent Czech composer, painter, and professor who is also a registered candidate in the 2013 Czech presidential election on January 11-12. He is a polling a surprising third in opinion surveys.

15
Visitors walk past a painting by French designer Nicolas Henriot during the inauguration of the tower Panorama at the Friche Belle de Mai culture center in Marseille. It's part of the Marseille-Provence European Capital of Culture 2013 event, which will start on January 12. (Reuters/Jean-Paul Pelissier)

16
Afghan President Hamid Karzai reviews an honor guard at the Pentagon before his meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in Washington. (AFP/Jewel Samad)

17
Two killer whales surface through amid the ice of Hudson Bay near the community of Inukjuak, Quebec. The whales are part of a pod of several that are trapped in the sea ice of the Hudson Bay. (Reuters)

18
Snow covers the Russian Church in the neighborhood of Ein Kerem on the western outskirts of Jerusalem. The worst snowstorm in 20 years shut public transport, roads, and schools in Jerusalem and along the northern Israeli region bordering Lebanon. (Reuters/Ronen Zvulun)

19
Devotees carry the statue of the Black Nazarene during the start of an annual procession in Manila. The Black Nazarene is a life-size wooden statue of Jesus Christ carved in Mexico and brought to the Philippines in the 17th century. It is believed to have healing powers in the predominantly Roman Catholic country. It is paraded through the narrow streets of Manila's old city from dawn to midnight. (Reuters/Erik De Castro)

20
A photographer takes pictures of the "Costa Concordia" cruise ship off the Italian island of Giglio. Work is moving head to remove the ship almost a year after it ran aground, killing 32 people. (AFP/Filippo Monteforte)

21
This black-and-white photo provided on January 9 by the Honkawa Elementary School in Hiroshima, Japan, shows the mushroom cloud from the Hiroshima atomic bombing split in two. It is believed to have been taken about 30 minutes after the bombing on August 6, 1945, from a location some 10 kilometers east of the blast. "The existence of this shot was always known in history books, but this is the first time that the actual print was discovered," said a curator at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. (AFP/Honkawa Elementary School)

22
A man walks through water in the village of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank near the northern city of Jenin as rainstorms and snow hit the region. (AFP/Saif Dahlah)

23
South Korean special warfare forces take part in a winter season drill in Pyeongchang, about 180 kilometers east of Seoul. (AFP/Dong-A Ilbo)

24
Women police officers in Baghdad attend celebrations marking the 91st anniversary of the founding of the country's police. (AFP/Ahmad Al-Rubaye)

25
An ash cloud rises from the Plosky Tolbachik volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. (ITAR-TASS)

26
French actor Gerard Depardieu (left), who recently received a Russian passport from President Vladimir Putin, meets with Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic. Depardieu was in Montenegro to prepare for a film in which he plays the disgraced former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.