July 26 Photo Brief: Chincoteague pony swim, Bhopal victims stage own Olympics, deadly rains in Beijing
Chincoteague pony swim, victims of the 1984 Bhopal disaster stage “Special Olympics” to protest London 2012 sponsor, death toll and damage in aftermath of Beijing flood, and more in today’s daily brief.
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- Wild ponies are herded into the Assateague Channel to for their annual swim to Chincoteague Island, on July 25, 2012 in Chincoteague, Virginia. Every year the wild ponies are rounded up to be auctioned off by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
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- Congolese people flee a clash between M23 rebels and the Congolese army on the edge of the village of Rugari, around 37km from Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s restive North Kivu province on July 26, 2012. This area has seen heavy fighting over the past three days, displacing thousands of people and increasing fears of a move by M23 on the provincial capital. (Phil Moore/AFP/Getty Images)
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- An Indian disabled child suffering from the effects of the 1984 Bhopal disaster, reacts in discomfort while waiting to participate in a march during a “Special Olympics” in Bhopal on July 26, 2012. Disabled children suffering the effects of the 1984 Bhopal disaster in India will take part in the “Special Olympics” to protest against London 2012 sponsor Dow Chemical. The event is aimed at raising awareness about the legacy of birth defects and pollution from the accident at a factory owned by U.S. chemical company Union Carbide, which was bought by Dow in 1999, organisers said. (Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Children perform in Jerusalem’s Old City during celebrations to mark the breaking of the fast on the seventh day of the holy month of Ramadan, on July 26, 2012. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A picture taken on July 19, 2012 shows the entire stock of Group B blood at Juba Training hospital, in Juba, South Sudan. Due to insufficient stocks, patients at the hospital must rely on relatives to donate blood. (Camille LePage/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Nomura Holdings Inc outgoing Chief Executive Kenichi Watanabe attends a news conference in Tokyo July 26, 2012. Nomura Holdings Inc will appoint securities unit head Koji Nagai as its new CEO on Thursday, two sources said, after Watanabe quit to take responsibility for an insider trading scandal at Japan’s top investment bank. (Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)
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- Romania’s suspended President Traian Basescu holds a lit torch as addresses the crowd during a rally in Bucharest July 26, 2012. Thousands of Romanians rallied in central Bucharest both for and against Basescu on Thursday, showing the deep divisions in the country before a referendum on his removal from office at the weekend. (Bogdan Cristel/Reuters)
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- A displaced Bodo villager sits in Gosaigaon village at Kokrajhar district in the northeastern state of Assam on July 26, 2012. Large troop deployments appear to have stemmed an outburst of ethnic violence in northeast India, officials said Thursday, after a week of clashes that left at least 45 people dead. (Dipetndu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Amber Vigil (L) consoles Kailyn Vigil, second cousin of massacre victim Micayla Medek, after her funeral in Aurora July 26, 2012. Family and friends filed into a Denver church on Thursday for the funeral of the 23-year-old woman who was among the 12 people killed in a massacre at the opening of the new “Batman” movie. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)
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- U.S. gymnast Gabrielle Douglas takes part in a training session at 02 North Greenwich Arena in London on July 26, 2012 on the eve of the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Frances’ Tony Estanguet clears a gate during a Canoe Slalom training session on July 26, 2012 at the Olympic Park, in London. (Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images)
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- An elderly woman stands by her damaged home in the devasted area in Beijing on July 26, 2012, after the worst rainstorms in six decades pounded the capital city on July 21 leaving the metropolis flooded and tens of thousands of people stranded in surging waters. (AFP/Getty Images)
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- A damaged taxi lies on a street in the devasted area in Beijing on July 26, 2012, after the worst rainstorms in six decades pounded the capital city on July 21. The flood left tens of thousands of people stranded in surging waters. Authorities in Beijing said they would begin to “strike” out at online critics of the government response to recent record flooding, while declining again to release updated casualty tolls. (AFP/Getty Images)
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- This photo taken on July 25, 2012 shows a member of the Indonesian national police and the special crime unit inspecting one of 14 seized preserved bodies of critically-endangered Sumatran tigers at a warehouse in Cibubur, south of Jakarta. (Bay Ismoyo/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A fighter from the Syrian opposition aims fire during clashes with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, in the center of Syria’s restive northern city of Aleppo on July 25, 2012. The Syrian army and rebels on July 25, sent reinforcements to Aleppo to join the intensifying battle for the country’s second city, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged the world “to stop the slaughter.” (Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Lightning is seen in the sky above the Christopher Columbus monument at Madrid’s Colon Square July 26, 2012. (Juan Medina/Reuters)
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- Employees and members of the media are pictured in the Passeig de Gracia Apple store in Barcelona July 26, 2012. The store will become Apple’s largest store in southern Europe when it opens officially on July 28. (Albert Gea/Reuters)
Chincoteague pony swim a dream come true
By Erin Cox, The Baltimore Sun
8:38 p.m. EDT, July 25, 2012
CHINCOTEAGUE, Va.— — As the herd of wild ponies emerged on the horizon Wednesday morning, Robin Dodge looked across the water to see her childhood fantasy come true.
More than 145 horses were poised at the Assateague Channel for the annual 75-yard swim, a tradition that has outlived most people on this tiny Virginia island.
“This has been my lifelong dream since I was 8 years old,” said Dodge, 55, who drove from upstate New York with her husband. Moments later, a voice crackled over the loudspeaker, assuring a crowd that would eventually swell to 40,000 that this was not a dream: “If you can hear me talking, you’re here now.”
Unlike petting Black Beauty, watching the Pony Swim of Chincoteague is a fantasy that can be lived in adulthood.
For 87 years, the herd owned by the island’s volunteer fire company has plunged into the shallow water separating the wildlife refuge of Assateague Island from Chincoteague, where the youngest ponies are auctioned at a carnival. Dodge and thousands of others arrived early — some, days in advance — to watch a picturesque swim of more than six minutes, the longest in recent memory. By Friday, 67 ponies will be sold at auction and about 100 will return to the wild, swimming back across the channel.
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