Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL's broadcast region and beyond for the 41st week of 2014. For more photo galleries, see our "Picture This" archive by clicking on the banner above.
Photos Of The Week
1
Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, the joint winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, is shown after speaking at Birmingham library in Birmingham, England. Malala, who was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012 for advocating girls' right to education, shared the prize with Indian campaigner against child trafficking and labor Kailash Satyarthi. (Reuters/Darren Staples)
2
A woman reporter runs with a rebel fighter to avoid snipers at the frontline against Islamic State jihadists in northern Syria on October 10. (Reuters/Jalal Al-Mamo)
3
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko visits the defense line near the small eastern Ukrainian city of Kurahov, in the Donetsk region. (RIA Novosti/Mikhail Palinchak)
4
Paraguay's Gustavo Gomez (right) challenges South Korea's Lee Chung-yong during a friendly soccer match at Cheonan Sports Complex in Cheonan, South Korea. (Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji)
5
Two people sit in an ambulance waiting to be treated after a rocket slammed into a shopping mall in Donetsk's Kubishevski district in eastern Ukraine. At least two people were killed and five were injured after Grad rockets hit the area. (AFP/John MacDougall)
6
Demonstrators clash with riot police outside a university in Ankara during protests denouncing Turkey's unwillingness to intervene militarily against Islamic State forces in the Syrian town of Kobani. (AFP/Adem Altan)
7
A burqa clad Afghan woman walks along a road in Herat Province. (AFP/Aref Karimi)
8
An Indian potter makes earthen lamps at his workshop before the Hindu festival of Diwali in the western city of Ahmedabad. (Reuters/Amit Dave)
9
Contestants prepare backstage before their performance during the "Grand Prix of Siberia" international ballet competition, held as part of the 3rd International Forum "Ballet of the XXI Century" at the State Opera and Ballet Theatre in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. About 50 ballet dancers from nine countries including Japan, Italy, Germany, Turkey, and Bulgaria took part in the competition judged by a jury headed by the well-known Russian choreographer Yuri Grigorovich. (Reuters/Ilya Naymushin)
10
Turkish Kurds perform their Friday Prayers in solidarity with the people of Kobani in an open field near the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc in Sanliurfa Province close to the border between Turkey and Syria. The UN envoy for Syria called on Turkey to allow volunteers to cross the Syrian border to prevent Islamic State fighters carrying out a massacre in Kobani. (Reuters/Umit Bektas)
11
A sparrow sits in a tank barrel at the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin. (epa/Paul Zinken)
12
Members of the Ukrainian National Guard carry coffins as they attend a mass funeral ceremony at a cemetery in Dnipropetro to bury unidentified soldiers of pro-Ukrainian military forces who were killed while taking part in the conflict in the country's east. (Reuters/Sergei Isaev)
13
Mount Sinabung erupts as seen from Tiga Pancur village in Indonesia's North Sumatra Province. (Reuters/YT Haryono)
14
Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns a shot during his men's singles tennis match against Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai. Djokovic was victorious. (Reuters/Aly Song)
15
A handout photo shows two Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft refueling above a city in Iraq. A Super Hornet fighter jet carried out Australia's first bombing raid in Iraq, targeting what the Defense Ministry described as a "facility" of the Islamist State group. (AFP)
16
Police used tear gas and water cannon in Ankara, Turkey, against demonstrators who were protesting attacks launched by Islamic State insurgents against the Syrian city of Kobani and a lack of action by the Turkish government. (AFP/Adem Altan)
17
Irina, a female pro-Russian rebel, gets ready to take up a position near the Donetsk airport during fighting with Ukrainian government forces. Before fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine, Irina was a croupier in a casino. Using the nom de guerre "Gaika," a cartoon character that translates as Gadget, she joined an artillery unit in a pro-Russian separatist group fighting government forces. (Reuters/Shamil Zhumatov)
18
Japanese-born U.S. citizen Shuji Nakamura (left) laughs as he waits to speak at a news conference in California after winning the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics. He is pictured with 2000 Nobel Prize for Physics winner Herbert Kroemer. Nakamura and two Japanese scientists -- Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano -- won the Nobel Prize for inventing a new energy-efficient and environmentally friendly light source, leading to the creation of modern LED light bulbs. (Reuters/Lucy Nicholson)
19
Smoke rises after an air strike by a suspected alliance war plane on Islamic State targets in the west of the Syrian town of Kobani. (epa/Sedat Suna)
20
A woman smokes next to blood-stained stretchers placed to dry in the sun at a hospital in Schastya, near the eastern Ukrainian town of Luhansk. (Reuters/David Mdzinarishvili)
21
The gallows at Pul-e Charkhi prison on the outskirts of Kabul. Afghan authorities hanged five men who raped four women one month ago, as well as Habib Estalef, head of a kidnapping network. (epa/Jawad Jalali)
22
A Pakistani woman gestures beneath the damaged roof of her house, allegedly caused by shells fired by Indian troops, at the Dhamala border village near the eastern city of Sialkot in Punjab Province. Pakistani officials accused Indian troops of killing four civilians, including two children, in cross-border firing, while mortar attacks in parts of disputed Kashmir injured one and forced the cancellation of Eid prayers. (AFP/Arif Ali)
23
Activists eat breakfast in a mock kitchen as they participate in a protest organized by Amnesty International in front of the Russian Embassy in Prague. The protest was part of Amnesty's campaign to show solidarity with independent voices in Russia speaking out against the country's government. The sign reads: "In Russia, you can freely express your own opinion (only in your own kitchen).'" (epa/Filip Singer)
24
Salesman display sweatshirts printed with portraits of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the GUM department store in Moscow. October 7 is Putin's 62nd birthday. (epa/Yuri Kochetkov)
25
Muslim pilgrims walk on a bridge as they head to cast stones at pillars symbolizing Satan during the final day of the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mina on the third day of Eid al-Adha, near the holy city of Mecca. (Reuters/Muhammad Hamed)