2009: The Year In Photos
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The New Year's fireworks explode over the Prague pendulum and lighting, the symbol of the EU, early on January 1, 2009. The Czech Republic took over the six-month European Union presidency from France( AFP/ Michal Cizek)
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Shia pilgrims gather near the tomb of Imam Hussein to commemorate of his death in the holy city of Karbala, Iraq , 7 January 2009. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi shia visit the holy city of Karbala throughout the Ashura week to mark the death of Imam Hussein. (epa)
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The body of the Russian lawyer Stanislav Markelov lies on the ground after he was shot dead in Moscow on January 19, 2009. He was representing the family of a Chechen girl -- Elza Kungayeva -- and was opposing the early release of
of the Russian officer jailed for her murder. His murder became a symbol of human rights abuses in Chechnya. (ITAR-TASS)
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Barack Obama's hand lies on a bible as he is sworn in as the 44th US president by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in front of the Capitol in Washington on January 20, 2009. (AFP)
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U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama dance during the Commander-in-Chief Ball at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, January 20, 2009. (AFP / Saul Loeb)
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Patriarch-elect of Moscow and All Russia, Kirill kisses the golden cross after being elected at the National Orthodox Church Council in Christ the Savior cathedral in Moscow, Russia, 27 January 2009. (epa)
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Russian policemen detain a participant of a banned National-Bolshevic ultra-left organization, shouting 'We hate government!' during a communist protest rally in the center of Moscow on 31 January 2009. Some hundred demonstrators demanded support for the working class amidst the national crisis. (epa)
March of dissent
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A scene from the International Santa Claus Festival in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on February 7, 2009. (RFE/RL)
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I - Iranian female students waving national flags during a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Tehran, Iran on 10 February 2009
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Belarusian youth clashed with police while they held their annual oppisition rally on St. Valentines day in Minsk on 14 February 2009
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A Kosovo Albanian man adjusts Albanian national flags in the town of Kacanik, southeast of Pristina, on 15 February 2009, on the eve of the first anniversary of Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia. Ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008. Kosovo is recognized as independent by more than 50 countries. (epa)
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The horse-mobile hybrid of Ivan Melnikov, a resident of the village of Stary Kuklyuk at Elabuzhsky rayon in Tatarstan pictured on February 25, 2009. (ITAR-TASS/Vasily Aleksandrov)
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U.S. soldiers arrived from Afghanistan sit inside a plane at the U.S. airbase 30 km outside Bishkek in Manas on February 26, 2009. The soldiers who had been serving with ISAF forces in Afghanistan made a layover on their way to Germany. The United States is still holding out hope for a deal with Kyrgyzstan to avoid the closure of the U.S. military supply base there for Afghanistan even after the Kyrgyz president formalized the shutdown.
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The hands of the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton (R) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, after Clinton presented a device with a red knob to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, during their meeting in Geneva, Switzerland on March 6, 2009. The yellow block with a red button, writing 'reset' in English and 'overload' in Russian. (epa)
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Fireworks explode over the Akhmad Kadyrov mosque in Grozny, Chechnya late on March 9, 2009 during a religious ceremony to mark the birthday of the Muslim prophet Mohammed. (AFP/ Viskhan Magomadov)
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An Afghan health worker drops polio vaccine into the mouth of a child on the second day of a vaccination campaign in Kabul on March 16, 2009. A new three-day nationwide immunization campaign against polio began March 15 in a joint operation with the Ministry of Public Health, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Afghanistan is one of only of a handful of countries in the world that still has the crippling polio virus with new cases reported every year, most often in areas where insurgent threats mean vaccinators are unable to reach all children.
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Elderly Russian men and women sunbathe near the wall of the Peter Paul fortress in St. Petersburg on March 16, 2009. Russians are enjoying some sunshine at the end of a long harsh winter. (AFP/Elena Palm)
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A bus is passing near a large election billboard of the presidential candidate of the ruling VMRO DPMNE party George Ivanov in Skopje on March 20, 2009. Macedonia went to the polls on March 22 in presidential and local elections termed pivotal for its hopes of EU accession, less than a year after a parliamentary vote was marred by deadly shootings. The conservative candidate, George Ivanov won with a landslide victory in the runoff held two weeks later, on April 5.
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Mounted Kyrgyz men play the traditional central Asian sport of Kok-Boru in Bishkek on March 24, 2009 to mark the Kyrgyzstan's Revolution Day holiday. Kyrgyzstan celebrated the 4th anniversary of the 2005 political revolution.
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Iraqi female police cadets train on Ak-47 Kalashnikov machine guns in Karbala, south of Baghdad, on March 26, 2009. A car bomb ripped through a crowd in Baghdad on March 26, killing at least 16 people, including women and children, a day after the U.S. military said violence in Iraq was at its lowest in six years.
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