Photos of the Week: Jan. 17-23, 2015
A serviceman of Azov, the Ukrainian volunteer battalion, kisses a relative during a ceremony in Kiev on January 17, 2015 before leaving to the east of the country to take part in anti-terrorists operation.
Fighting in eastern Ukraine has killed three soldiers, officials said Saturday, as an upsurge in clashes in recent days between the army and pro-Russian rebels centered around control of a battered airport.
Washington, D.C.
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst practices the Republican response she will give after U.S. President Obama's State of the Union address, on Capitol Hill January 20, 2015 in Washington, D.C.
California
Diana Meza-Ehlert watches as President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address with her son Lucas, left, and daughter Anais, right, at their home in San Diego, Jan. 20, 2015. Obama's next-to-last State of the Union address spoke to the economic woes of beleaguered low income Americans and the country's shrinking middle class.
California
Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential nominee, left, greets people after speaking during the Republican National Committee's winter meeting aboard the USS Midway Museum Friday, Jan. 16, 2015, in San Diego, California.
Italy
Lindsey Vonn competes during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women's Super-G in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, January 19, 2015.
Vonn won the event, her 63rd time to win a World Cup event, making her the winningest female skier in history.
Ohio
Official game balls for NFL football's Super Bowl XLIX sit in a bin before being laced and inflated at the Wilson Sporting Goods Co. in Ada, Ohio, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015.
The New England Patriots will play the Seattle Seahawks for the NFL championship on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015, in Glendale, Ariz.
Scandal, dubbed Inflate-gate, has followed the Patriots since Sunday's win over the Indianapolis Colts, who claimed an intercepted Patriots football was not properly inflated.
Spain
''Tamborilleros'' wearing their uniforms march in the traditional ' La Tamborrada', during 'El Dia Grande', the main day of San Sebastian feasts, in the Basque city of San Sebastian, northern Spain, Tuesday, January 20, 2015.
From midnight to midnight companies of perfectly uniformed marchers parade through the streets of San Sebastian playing drums and barrels in honor of their patron saint.
China
Glow-in-the-dark blue waves caused by the phenomenon known as harmful algal bloom or "red tide", are seen at night near Sam Mun Tsai beach in Hong Kong, January 22, 2015.
Algal blooms occur when there is a sharp growth in algae population in a water system, and are considered harmful when resulting in negative impacts on other organisms.
Russia
A Russian Orthodox believer bathes in the icy water on Epiphany at a pond in Tyarlevo village outside St. Petersburg, Russia, early Monday, January 19, 2015.
Thousands of Russian Orthodox Church followers plunged into icy rivers and ponds across the country to mark Epiphany, cleansing themselves with water deemed holy for the day. Water that is blessed by a cleric on Epiphany is considered holy and pure until next year's celebration, and is believed to have special powers of protection and healing.
Alabama
Thousands march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge along with members of the cast of the movie "Selma" in honor of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 18, 2015 in Selma, Alabama.
In 1965, King led thousands of nonviolent protestors on a march through Selma to the state capitol in a historic Civil Rights demonstration.
Philippines
Pope Francis, wearing a yellow raincoat, waves to pilgrims after holding a mass at Tacloban's airport January 17, 2015.
An emotional Pope Francis, wearing a plastic poncho over his vestments to protect him from the wind and rain on Saturday, comforted survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, the Philippines' worst natural disaster that killed about 6,300 people 14 months ago.
India
Visitors look at exhibits of stamps and postal related material at a philatelic exhibition in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, January 17, 2015.
Belgium
A Belgian paratrooper guards outside a Jewish school in the central city of Antwerp, January 17, 2015.
Security was tight at public buildings and Jewish districts in Brussels and Antwerp and the army provided 150 troops to bolster police presence, following a raid in an apartment in the city of Verviers. Belgian police killed two men who opened fire on them during one of about a dozen raids on Thursday against an Islamist group.
Spain
A man rides his horse through flames during the "Luminarias" annual religious celebration, on the night before Saint Anthony's, patron of animals, in the village of San Bartolome de los Pinares, January 16, 2015.
According to tradition that dates back 500 years ago, people ride their horses through the narrow cobblestone streets of this small village to purify the animals with the smoke of the bonfires.
Kenya
Kenyan school pupils and activists challenge riot police during a protest against the removal of their school's playground, at the Langata Road Primary School, in Nairobi, Kenya, Monday, January 19, 2015.
Kenyan police tear-gassed schoolchildren demonstrating against the removal of their school's playground, the land of which has been allegedly grabbed by a powerful politician, according to a Kenyan human rights activist.
Itlay
A bald eagle called Olimpia, the mascot of Roman soccer team Lazio, lands in the stands before the start of the Italian Serie A soccer match against Naples at the Olympic stadium in Rome, January 18, 2015.
Niger
A man holds a copy of the Koran during a protest against Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou's attendance last week at a Paris rally in support of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which featured a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad as the cover of its first edition since an attack by Islamist gunmen, in Niamey.
Syria
A Free Syrian Army fighter prepares a locally made shell before launching it towards forces loyal to Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad in Old Aleppo, January 17, 2015.
Haiti
A wounded demonstrator is carried by fellow demonstrators during a protest against Haiti's President Michel Martelly in Port-au-Prince, January 17, 2015. Haitians took to the streets on Saturday in an anti-government protest as tensions rose in the Caribbean nation in the wake of the dissolution of the national parliament. The Haitian parliament was dissolved on January 13 after the failure of last-ditch negotiations for a deal to extend the terms of its members to avert a political crisis.
Australia
Serena Williams of the U.S. serves to Vera Zvonareva of Russia during their women's singles second round match at the Australian Open 2015 tennis tournament in Melbourne, January 22, 2015.
Brazil
A man dives off the rocks at Arpoador on January 18, 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Temperatures reached 113 degrees Fahrenheit in the coastal city.
Ukraine
A man removes debris inside his house, which according to locals was recently damaged by shelling, in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine January 17, 2015.
Germany
Little Amur tiger girl Alisha is presented to the public at the Tierpark zoo in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, January 22, 2015.
Alisha is one of three young tigers born in December 2014. Two died because their mother Aurora could not produce enough milk for them, so the zoo decided to feed the cub by hand.
Colombia
Russia's Ekaterina Gnidenko and Australia's Caitlin Ward, right, fall after a collision during the women's kerin at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Cali, January 18, 2015.
Indonesia
Rescue team members walk as they carry the wreckage of a seat of the AirAsia Flight QZ8501 airliner at Kumai port in Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia, January 19, 2015.
The flight lost contact with air traffic control in bad weather on December 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.
Chechnya
People attend a rally to protest against satirical cartoons of prophet Mohammad, in Grozny, Chechnya, January 19, 2015.
Tens of thousands of people staged the rally on Monday in Chechnya against French magazine Charlie Hebdo's cartoons of the prophet, which the predominantly Muslim region's leader denounced as "vulgar and immoral". Seen in the background is the Heart of Chechnya mosque.
Florida
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, January 20, 2015.
The unmanned rocket blasted off with a next-generation communications satellite designed to provide cellular-like voice and data services to U.S. military forces around the world. Picture taken using long exposure, looking over the campus of Florida Institute of Technologies in Melbourne, about 40 miles from the launch pad. REUTERS/(UNITED STATES - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY MILITARY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR4M87X
China
A worker takes a nap during lunch break, at a Foxconn factory in the township of Longhua in Shenzhen, Guangdong province January 21, 2015.
Ukraine
Members of the armed forces of the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic drive a tank on the outskirts of Donetsk, January 22, 2015.
Ukraine
A woman cries as she kneels during a funeral ceremony for Georgian Tomaz Sukhiashvili, 35, a member of self-defence battalion "Donbass", who was killed in the fighting in eastern Ukraine, at the Independence Square in central Kiev, January 21, 2015.
A law is being prepared to increase the size of the Ukrainian armed forces by 68,000 personnel to a total of 250,000, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said on Wednesday. Yatseniuk spoke after a surge in violence in Ukraine's eastern territories where government forces are fighting Russian-backed separatists, including clashes on Tuesday which Kiev says followed attacks by Russian regular troops.
Ukraine
A Ukrainian serviceman fires a weapon during fighting with pro-Russian separatists in Pesky village near Donetsk January 21, 2015.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accused Russia on Wednesday of sending 9,000 troops to back separatist rebels in the east of his country, and the IMF chief said she backed extra financial help for Kiev as the conflict inflicts severe economic damage.
Libya
A member of the Libyan pro-government forces, backed by the locals, holds his weapon as he looks through a hole in a wall, during clashes with the Shura Council of Libyan Revolutionaries, in Benghazi, Libya, January 21, 2015.
The Shura Council of Libyan Revolutionaries is an alliance of former anti-Gaddafi rebels who have joined forces with Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia.
Washington, D.C.
Early morning light shines on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., January 19, 2015.
Visitors gather at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial to celebrate MLK day.