In pictures: Orthodox Christmas

Most of the Christian world has just finished celebrating Christmas but for many Orthodox Christians like these in Bethlehem the feast has just begun.

Pope Shenouda III, ailing head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, led prayers at Cairo's Cathedral of St Mark.

Dmitry Medvedev, expected to succeed Vladimir Putin as Russian president this year, attended a Christmas service with his wife Svetlana in Moscow's Christ The Saviour Cathedral.

Mr Putin visited Veliky Ustyug, northern Russia, home to a theme park dedicated to Grandfather Frost, a version of Father Christmas. Here they leaf through a "Book of Good Deeds".

The temperature in Veliky Ustyug dipped to -22C on Christmas Eve.

Georgians, fresh from a presidential election after months of turmoil, were also attending Christmas services.

This Serbian Orthodox believer was praying in the ancient monastery of Gracanica, outside Pristina, Kosovo.

Swedish peacekeeping troops were out in force to guard the church in Gracanica, at a time of new tension in majority-Muslim Kosovo.

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