From Chicago gun violence and the exhumed body of Richard III to the world’s first “bionic man” and a bear walking a tightrope, TIME presents the best images of the week.

Ingushetia, 2010 (photo: Davide Monteleone)

In his latest book, ‘Red Thistle,’ photographer Davide Monteleone documents the rhythm of life in the Caucasus.

See more photos here.

Masha (left), sentenced for violence, and Sveta, sentenced for theft. Juvenile prison for girls, Ukraine, 2009. (photo: Michal Chelbin)

Photographer Michal Chelbin spent three years photographing prisons in Russia and Ukraine. Her new book ‘Sailboats and Swans’ presents a striking collection of images that portray the strange and contradictory worlds of these institutions.

See more photos here.

July 23, 2012. Artist Pyotr Pavlensky, a supporter of jailed members of the female punk band “Pussy Riot,” with his mouth sewn up as he protests outside the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg.  

From drought-cracked earth in Yemen and massive floods in China to violent protests in California and Olympic preparation in London, TIME’s photo department presents the best images of the week.

See more photos here.

Buvaysar Eskaev, 16, does a backflip against the wall of his gym in Khasav-Yurt, Russia.

The dusty Russian town of Khasav-Yurt, which the locals like to call the Wrestlers’ Mecca, boasts the greatest concentration of wrestling champions in the world. Photographer Yuri Kozyrev documented the young athletes at their school in the North Caucasus.

See more photos here.

Fidel Castro poses with the Cuban women’s basketball team in Havana.

Neil Leifer spent a year traversing the globe to photograph athletes for TIME’s 1984 Olympics special issue. From the plains of Kenya to Russia’s Red Square to The Great Wall of China, Leifer used grand backdrops to photograph the athletic stars of the day.

See more photos here.

20 years after Abkhazia declared independence from Georgia, TIME contract photographer Yuri Kozyrev returned to the region to document the place where he vacationed as a boy and later photographed a brutal war.

See more photos here.

Nati Harnik–AP

July 6, 2012. A sun bear reacts to triple-digit temperatures at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Neb.

From Libya’s landmark election and America’s heat wave to Spain’s running of the bulls and captured Syrian Army soldiers, TIME’s photo department presents the best images of the week.

See more photos here.

The head of the Syrian delegation to the arms bazaar tries out a new silencer-equipped Kalashnikov assault rifle.

TIME contract photographer Yuri Kozyrev’s look inside the Russian weapons bazaar that is powering Syria’s regime.

See more photos here.