Activists of The All-India Democratic Women's Association protest Dec. 14 in Hyderabad, India, in front of the Reserve Bank of India, the nation's central banker, against microfinance institutions. Since then, the Andhra Pradesh state assembly passed a law that makes it so difficult to make loans that microfinance companies say they won't be able to do business. Noah Sheelam/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Soldiers from Niger patrol the road between Agadez and Arlit in September. Issouf Sanogo/Getty Images hide caption
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) meets with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Istanbul, Dec. 22, 2010. Turkey is vying with Iran to be the most influential regional power in Iraq. Tolga Bozoglu/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
The Okryu-Gwan restaurant in Dubai is a rare import from North Korea. The restaurants serve as an important source of hard currency for Pyongyang. Other branches are in China, Nepal and Thailand. Peter Kenyon/NPR hide caption
Swati embroidery is being revived "one stitch at a time" in the vocational institution established in a wing of Ahmed Zeb's home in Saidu Sharif, the old capital of Swat. The princess has taught hundreds of women "to stand up, avoid charity, [and] earn with dignity." Julie McCarthy/NPR hide caption
Former Israeli president Moshe Katsav, as he left the justice court in Tel Aviv earlier today. Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
A young child held an empty bottle as people queued to recieve water from a tap in Belfast on Wednesday. Peter Muhly/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
An Ivory Coast soldier stands guard during a rally held by Charles Ble Goude (unseen), leader of Ivory Coast's Young Patriots, in Abidjan on Wednesday. Defiant Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo's most notorious lieutenant on Wednesday urged the strongman's diehard supporters to launch an unarmed assault on rival Alassane Ouattara's UN-defended base. Sia Kambou/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gives the presidential decree to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his second term during a ceremony in August 2009. Since that time, a political fissure has emerged within Iran's conservative camp, threatening possible open conflict between the two men. AP/Office of the Supreme Leader hide caption
Dozens of African migrants cross into southern Israel through the border with Egypt last week. Construction has begun on a $270 million, 87-mile fence along the porous border. It's one of four measures proposed to try to stem the flow of African migrants into Israel. Assaf Golan/AP hide caption
Decades ago, the border fence near the port of entry at Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Mexico, was made of wire mesh. Now it's a thick steel wall covered with graffiti. Loosely translated, this part of the wall says "Walls Equal Death," although the end of the phrase is not shown. Claudio Sanchez/NPR hide caption
Wafaa Bilal implanted a webcam in the back of his head. The camera is taking a picture a minute for a year, and the images are being streamed live at Mathaf, the Arab Museum of Modern Art. Wafaa Bilal hide caption
A U.S. soldier is brought to the emergency room at the U.S. hospital at Bagram Air Field, north of Kabul, after he was wounded by a roadside bomb in Wardak province, June 2009. The facility uses both cutting-edge technology as well as old techniques discovered anew to treat the massive number of wounded soldiers who pass through. Rafiq Maqbool/AP hide caption
Robert Bonifas (left) and Don Parrish on the road in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. The pair are members of a travel website where people compete to see the world. Frank Langfitt/NPR hide caption