Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL's broadcast region and beyond for the second week of 2017.
On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama was elected to become the 44th president of the United States. The Democratic senator from Illinois made history as the first black candidate to win the presidency, and his election attracted massive attention worldwide. Obama inherited a daunting set of challenges from his predecessor, President George W. Bush: the worst economy in decades, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and an international image of the United States that had been marred by the policies of the "war on terror." Here are images of some of most important moments of Obama's presidency.
The Mari El Republic in central Russia is home to the Mari people, an ethnic minority that proudly preserves its traditions. Sometimes described as "Europe's last pagans," locals speak a Finno-Ugric language and observe pre-Christian rituals, although some also follow the Russian Orthodox faith. The Mari religion centers on believers' connections to nature, with rituals taking place in sacred forest groves. RFE/RL photographer Sergey Peteryaev asked Mari women to pose in traditional dress and describe their impressions of Mari identity, language, and faith.
Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL's broadcast region and beyond for the first week of 2017.
Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL's broadcast region and beyond for the last week of 2016. For more photo galleries, see our Picture This archive.
On December 30, 2006, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging at an Iraqi military base called Camp Justice. Hussein ruled Iraq with an iron fist after becoming president in 1979, before being toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Violence shook the Middle East, migrants made dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean and Europe, and voting in the United Kingdom and the United States produced shock results. These photographs tell some of the stories that defined 2016. (44 PHOTOS)
Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL's broadcast region and beyond for the 51st week of 2016.
Before Aleppo became a symbol of the horrors of Syria's ongoing war, it was known for its traders and craftspeople -- a city where Muslims, Jews, and Christians rubbed elbows in some of the most elegant bazaars and courtyards in the Middle East. But a current of grievances ran beneath the cobblestones. The Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT ​has allowed RFE/RL to reproduce 14 images from their remarkable archive to help tell the story of Syria's devastated former second city and the war that has engulfed it.
Some of the most compelling photographs from RFE/RL's broadcast region and beyond.
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![Aerial view of Aleppo's Citadel, photographed in 1937. When writer Gertrude Bell visited the famous trading town in 1907, she likened it to "a cup and saucer, the houses lie in the saucer and the [Citadel] sits on the upturned cup."](https://gdb.rferl.org/EC4271C2-4528-4CD1-863E-EE2C7B34047C_w100_r1.jpg)
![Aerial view of Aleppo's Citadel, photographed in 1937. When writer Gertrude Bell visited the famous trading town in 1907, she likened it to "a cup and saucer, the houses lie in the saucer and the [Citadel] sits on the upturned cup."](https://gdb.rferl.org/EC4271C2-4528-4CD1-863E-EE2C7B34047C_w66_r1.jpg)
