2010: The Year In Photos
Orthodox Christians bathe in freezing water on Epiphany Day, January 19, at the New Jerusalem monastery near Moscow.
Photo by RFE/RL
Dubai's Burj Khalifa tower, the world's tallest skyscraper, is illuminated by lasers during its opening ceremony on January 4.
Photo by Karim Sahib for AFP
A woman is rescued from the rubble in Port-au-Prince after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti on January 12. The Haitian government estimates that more than 200,000 people died as a result of the earthquake and 1 million were left homeless.
Photo by Lisandro Suero for AFP
The new patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Bishop Irinej of Nis, was enthroned on January 23 at Belgrade's Cathedral Church.
Photo by Vesna Anđić for RFE/RL
A cloud of smog and dust lies over the Afghan capital, Kabul, on January 21.
Photo by RFE/RL
Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad visits a laser technology exhibition in Tehran on February 7.
Photo by epa
A supporter of Viktor Yanukovych celebrates the victory of the former Orange Revolution villain in Ukraine's presidential election on February 10.
Photo by Sergei Supinski for AFP
Georgian athletes carry a flag marked with black at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver on February 12, shortly after their teammate Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed in a crash during a luge training run.
Photo by Kevork Djansezian for Getty Images/AFP
A woman mourns at the Lubyanka metro station in Moscow on March 30 after twin suicide bombings in the subway system killed at least 39 people.
Photo by Alexander Natruskin for Reuters
Protesters try to seize a rocket-propelled grenade from a riot policeman during clashes in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, on April 7. The opposition protests and deadly clashes in April led to the ouster of President Kurmanbek Bakiev.
Photo by Vladimir Pirogov for Reuters
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev exchange the newly signed START Treaty at Prague Castle on April 8. The landmark agreement, reached after months of negotiations and delays, significantly cuts both countries' nuclear arsenals.
Photo by Jewel Samad for AFP
The Northern Lights appear above the ash plume of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano late on April 22. Huge ash clouds from the erupting volcano in March and April caused major air-travel disruptions across Europe.
Photo by Lucas Jackson for Reuters
Deputies scuffle during a session of the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv on April 27. Opposition lawmakers hurled eggs and smoke bombs inside the chamber as lawmakers approved an agreement allowing Russia's Black Sea Fleet to stay at Sevastopol until 2042.
Photo by Gleb Garanich for Reuters
A riot policeman falls after being hit with a Molotov cocktail near the Greek parliament in Athens during a nationwide strike on May 5, called by civil servants protesting against strict austerity measures.
Photo by John Kolesidis for Reuters
Military airplanes fly over a Kremlin church during a rehearsal for a military parade on Moscow's Red Square on May 9, marking 65 years since the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany.
Photo by Maxim Shipenkov for epa
A giant sinkhole caused by the rains of Tropical Storm Agatha is seen in Guatemala City on June 1. Agatha caused mudslides and road collapses that left some 175 people dead.
Photo by Luis Echeverria for epa
A gull is covered in heavy oil on June 4 on the banks of East Grand Terre Island, Louisiana. Millions of barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico over several months after an explosion in April at BP's "Deepwater Horizon" oil rig, causing massive environmental and economic damage.
Photo by Win McNamee for Getty Images/AFP
A South African soccer fan blows a mini vuvuzela before the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Johannesburg on June 11.
Photo by AFP
A Russian Orthodox priest blesses the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft before its launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 14.
Photo by Vyacheslav Oseledko for AFP
An Afghan girl sits outside a temporary shelter at a refugee camp in Kabul on July 8. Nearly 300,000 Afghans remain displaced within their own country, and nearly 3 million more are refugees abroad, mainly in Pakistan and Iran.
Photo by RFE/RL
A Bosnian woman touches gravestones at the Potocari memorial cemetery near Srebrenica, Bosnia. On July 11, Bosnians marked the 15th anniversary of the wartime Srebrenica massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim males by Serb troops.
Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff for AFP
Residents of Pakistan's Baluchistan Province cling to a rope as they walk through floodwaters on July 23. Heavy monsoon rains throughout much of Pakistan led to severe floods that affected as many as 20 million people.
Photo by Reuters
A man sits on the ground as a house burns outside the Russian town of Vyksa, near Nizhny Novgorod, on July 29. The hottest summer temperatures on record in Russia led to deadly wildfires in July and August.
Photo by Mikhail Voskresensky for Reuters
Police detain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in Moscow on July 31 for attempting to stage an unsanctioned rally to defend the right to freedom of assembly.
Photo by Yuri Timofeyev for RFE/RL
Russian police detain a protester for trying to prevent loggers from cutting down a section of the Khimki Forest. Activists have been trying to keep the forest from being cleared to make way for a highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Photo by Alexander Natruskin for Reuters
A U.S. soldier carries his luggage at Tallil Air Base as he prepares to leave Iraq on August 15. The last U.S. combat brigade withdrew from Iraq on August 19, although some 50,000 U.S. troops remain there in an advisory capacity.
Photo by Thaier al-Sudani for Reuters
Muslim men read the Koran during the holy month of Ramadan at the Imam Hussein Shrine in Karbala, Iraq, on August 18.
Photo by Mushtaq Muhammed for Reuters
Maluza Abramishvili (left), 52, and Nunu Basaria, 49, Georgian refugees from Abkhazia, are seen with their lips sewn together during a hunger strike in Tbilisi on August 25. Dozens of refugees protested a government decision to evict them from their current homes.
Photo by David Mdzinarishvili for Reuters
Victims of Pakistani flooding reach for emergency aid in Kot Addu on August 30. UN officials said the humanitarian impact of the floods was the greatest of any disaster in recent history.
Photo by Arif Ali for AFP
Supporters of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), attend a rally in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on September 3. Turks voted in a referendum on September 12, approving reforms aimed at bringing the constitution into compliance with European Union standards.
Photo by Umit Bektas for Reuters
Afghan villagers load a donkey with election supplies for a village in the Panjshir valley on the eve of a national parliamentary vote, the second since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Nearly a quarter of the votes cast in the September 18 election were disqualified due to fraud or other irregularities.
Photo by Mara Shah for AFP
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov speaks to the media on September 18 amid a long-running political standoff with the Kremlin. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sacked Luzhkov 10 days later, saying that he had "lost trust" in the powerful mayor.
Photo by Denis Sinyakov for Reuters
A girl holds a South Ossetian flag during a celebration in the region's capital, Tskhinvali, on September 20, the 20th anniversary of the region's declaration of independence from Georgia. Russia has recognized the independence of South Ossetia, along with another breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia, while most Western countries have not.
Photo by Kazbeg Basayev for Reuters
Female officers of the Afghan National Army (ANA) attend their graduation ceremony in Kabul on September 23. The newly trained Afghan army is seeking to recruit female officers for its office-based work as it boosts its numbers to enable foreign forces to draw down.
Photo by Shan Marai for AFP
Activists stage a mock hanging outside UN headquarters in New York to protest Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's appearance at the 65th UN General Assembly on September 23.
Photo by Eric Thayer for Reuters
A Kyrgyz man votes on October 10 in elections to replace the interim government. The polls were aimed at forming the first parliamentary democracy in Central Asia in the wake of a violent uprising earlier in the year.
Photo by Igor Kovalenko for epa
A census-taker fills in a form in Vladivostok in Russia's Far East on October 14. The nationwide census aimed to enumerate everyone living in Russia, including foreigners and people without citizenship.
Photo by Yuri Maltsev for Reuters
A security officer stands guard inside the damaged parliament building in Grozny, Chechnya, on October 19. Islamist rebels killed at least four people as they tried to seize Chechnya's parliament in a brazen suicide attack.
Photo by Kazbek Basayev for Reuters
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili swims in the Black Sea on October 20 near the resort city of Batumi. According to Georgian media, Saakashvili swam about three kilometers to prove that the holiday season in Batumi lasts six months.
Photo by Irakli Gedenidze for AFP
The Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran, where engineers began loading fuel into the core on October 26. The development was one of the final steps toward Iran's goal of becoming a nuclear power.
Photo by Mohammad Babaie for Reuters/IRNA
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, speaks to the press in London on October 23 about the organization's release of classified U.S. military documents. In late November, WikiLeaks caused worldwide political furor when it began releasing a massive cache of secret U.S. diplomatic cables.
Photo by Leon Neal for AFP
Iraqi security forces stand outside a Catholic church in central Baghdad on November 1 in the wake of a deadly attack claimed by an Al-Qaeda group. Seven security forces and 46 Christians were killed when U.S. and Iraqi forces stormed the cathedral to free dozens of hostages from the attackers.
Photo by Sabah Arar by AFP
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev takes pictures near Soviet-made defense turrets during his November 1 visit to Kunashiri Island, one of four islands known as the Southern Kuriles in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan. A dispute over the islands has overshadowed Russian-Japanese relations for more than 60 years.
Photo by Mikhail Klimentyev for Reuters
A supporter of the right-wing Tea Party faction is dressed as comic-book character Captain America near the U.S. Capitol on Election Day, November 2. The elections delivered wide-ranging victories to the Republican Party.
Photo by Rod Lamkey for Getty Images/AFP
A Muslim pilgrim prays at the top of Mount Al-Noor during the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on November 9. The hajj is one of the world's biggest displays of mass religious devotion and a duty for Muslims who are able to perform it.
Photo by Mohammed Salem for Reuters
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka addresses delegates during the fourth All-Belarusian national assembly in Minsk on December 6. Lukashenka, who has ruled the former Soviet republic since 1994, looks set to dominate the December 19 presidential vote.
Photo by Maxim Guchek for AFP
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning, cries during an interview with Iran's English-language Press TV in an image released on December 9. The stoning sentence against Ashtiani, who is charged with adultery and murdering her husband, has raised an outcry from human rights defenders.
Photo by Reuters/Press TV
Supporters of Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci celebrate election victory in Pristina on December 12. The parliamentary elections were the first since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February 2008.
Photo by Armend Nimani for AFP