Oct. 16 Photo Brief: Saving Private Ryan Thomas, cheering for Malala, Navratri Hindu festival
In the field video and photos of an Afghan IED attack that injured Private Ryan Thomas, Indian sand artist sculpts in honor of Pakistani girl Malala Yousufzai, the Dashain and Navratri Hindu festivals get underway and more in today’s daily brief.
- US Army soldiers attached to 2nd platoon, C troop, 1st Squadron (Airborne), 91st U.S Cavalry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team operating under NATO sponsored International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) carry a wounded comrade injured in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast during a patrol near Baraki Barak base in Logar Province on October 13, 2012. The soldier, 21 year-old Private Ryan Thomas from Oklahoma suffered soft tissue damage and after surgery in Afghanistan was scheduled to be evacuated to Germany. (Munir uz Zuman/AFP/Getty Images)
- US Army soldiers attached to 2nd platoon, C troop, 1st Squadron (Airborne), 91st U.S Cavalry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team operating under NATO sponsored International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) carry a wounded comrade injured in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast during a patrol near Baraki Barak base in Logar Province on October 13, 2012. The soldier, 21 year-old Private Ryan Thomas from Oklahoma suffered soft tissue damage and after surgery in Afghanistan was scheduled to be evacuated to Germany. (Munir uz Zuman/AFP/Getty Images)
- Indian sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik gives final touches on a sand sculpture in honour of Pakistani girl Malala Yousufzai at Puri beach, some 65 kilometers from Bhubaneswar. In an attack which outraged the world, Malala was shot on a school bus in the former Taliban stronghold of the Swat valley October 9 as a punishment for campaigning for the right to an education. (STR/DEL/AFP/Getty Images)
- A woman rests after an accident at Kraft Foods in Bad Fallingbostel, northern Germany. Catastrophe alarm was sparked out when a tank of sodium hydroxide solution was by mistake filled with nitric acid, producing a poisonous cloud of nitrous gases. Around 1,500 people have been evacuated from their homes, after the chemical accident. (Ingo Wagner/AFP/Getty Images)
- This October 16, 2012 NASA Aqua satellite image captures by the on board Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) shows a view of the Western Ross Sea and Ice Shelf, Antarctica. (NASA HO/AFP/Getty Images)
- A boy pulls his goat after buying it at a livestock market during the first day of Dashain, Hinduism’s biggest religious festival, in Kathmandu. Hindus in Nepal celebrate victory over evil during the festival by sacrificing animals and worshipping the Goddess Durga as part of celebrations held throughout the country. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)
- A Nepalese youth plays on a swing during the first day of Dashain, Hinduism’s biggest religious festival, in Kathmandu. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)
- A boy looks on as a policeman patrols the Jacarezinho slum during an operation, to install Peacekeeping Unit (UPP) in Rio de Janeiro. The introduction of the peacekeeping program in the region is part of efforts to crack down on crime and increase security as the city prepares to host the 2014 soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. (Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)
- A girl dressed as a Hindu Goddess sits on the banks of river Ganga during the Navratri festival in the northern Indian city of Allahabad. Devotees worship various forms of Hindu goddesses during the festival, whose name literally means nine nights. (Jitendra Prakash/Reuters)
- A child stands on October 15, 2012 in the Kanyaruchinya camp for internally displaced people, some 10 kms from the eastern Congolese city of Goma. The camp houses some 57,00 people from the Rutshuru territory, which borders Rwanda and Uganda. The M23 movement — a group of former Tutsi rebels who had been integrated in the regular army in 2009 — has been battling Democratic Republic of Congo troops since May in Rutshuru. (Junior D. Kannah/AFP/Getty Images)
- Cambodian people watch as workers install a portrait of the late former king Norodom Sihanouk in front of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh. Grieving Cambodians wore black ribbons and flags flew at half-mast on October 16 as the nation mourned the death of revered ex-king Norodom Sihanouk and prepared for the return of his body from China. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images
- A man climbs a scaffolding at a construction site in Yangon, Myanmar. (Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)
- A man jumps from a boat to another by the river Buriganga in Dhaka October 16, 2012. (Andrew Biraj/Reuters)
- A picture taken on October 16, 2012 at Sotheby’s auction house in Paris shows German composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven handwritten partition which will be auctioned at Sotheby’s on October 17,2012. (Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images)
- A soldier from the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast (FRCI) stands guard in the neighborhood of Abobo in Abidjan. Ivory Coast police yesterday fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of young peddlers from a market area in Abidjan, sparking clashes where gunshots were fired and several people were hurt, witnesses said. The clashes began after several hundred youths fought a police operation to disperse peddlers who were blocking traffic on roads surrounding the main market area in the Abobo neighbourhood, witnesses said. (Sia Kambou/AFP/Getty Images)
- Migratory pelicans fly over the Lakhpat Fort area at Lakhpat, some 600 kms from Ahmedabad, on October 15, 2012. India’s Gujarat state is known as a bird lovers’ paradise and is a haven for migratory birds. (Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images)
Taliban says its attack on Pakistani schoolgirl justified
Reuters
8:09 a.m. EDT, October 16, 2012
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Taliban insurgents said on Tuesday that the Pakistani schoolgirl its gunmen shot in the head deserved to die because she had spoken out against the group and praised U.S. President Barack Obama.
Malala Yousufzai, 14, was flown to Britain on Monday, where doctors said she has every chance of making a “good recovery”.
The attack on Yousufzai, who had been advocating education for girls, drew widespread condemnation.
Pakistani surgeons removed a bullet from near her spinal cord during a three-hour operation the day after the attack last week, but she now needs intensive specialist follow-up care.
Authorities have said they have made several arrests in connection with the case but have given no details.
Pakistan’s Taliban described Yousufzai as a “spy of the West”.