Nov. 16 Photo Brief: West Bank bloodshed, Hostess expires, fighting Afghan dogs, diving Chinese pigs
Bombings in Gaza and Israel continue, Hostess is going out of business, dog fighting becomes more popular in Afghanistan and more in today’s daily brief.
- Hot-air balloons are seen during the International Hot-Air Balloon Festival at the Metropolitano park in Leon, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. (Mario Armas/Reuters)
- A man dressed as a friar jumps from a 13-meter high cliff during the “Jump of the Friar”, along Herradura Beach in Lima. The jump was to commemorate a local legend, that of a friar who leapt into the sea from the same rock to commit suicide over his love of a woman, some two hundred years ago. (Mariana Bazo/Reuters)
- Homes destroyed by a fire during Hurricane Sandy are seen in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens, New York. (Eric Thayer/Reuters)
- Kenyan police officers carry the slain body of their colleague killed by alleged Turkana cattle rustlers in a military-style ambush, near Baragoi in the north-western Samburu district of northern Kenya. Hundreds of people in northwest Kenya are fleeing fearing reprisals after security forces started a hunt for cattle raiders who massacred at least 32 police officers, residents and community leaders said. (Reuters)
- Israeli border police officers detain a Palestinian demonstrator during clashes after a protest against Israel’s military operation in Gaza, outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City. The latest upsurge in a long-running conflict was triggered on November 14 when Israel killed Hamas’s military mastermind, Ahmed Al-Jaabari, in a precision air strike on his car. Israel then began shelling the enclave from land, air and sea. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)
- Trees are seen at sunset surrounded by heavy fog hanging above Lake Geneva above Riex near Lausanne, western Switzerland. (Fabrice Coffrini/Getty Images)
- A view of a box of 10 Hostess Twinkies is seen in this photo taken January 11, 2012. Hostess Brands, the baker of Twinkie cakes and other iconic American foods announced today that it is going out of business, closing plants, laying off its 18,500 workers and putting its brands up for sale. The Irving, Texas, company said a nationwide worker strike crippled its ability to make and deliver its products. Its brands also include Ding Dongs, Ho Ho’s and Dolly Madison. (Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images)
- An on strike sign is posted on the other side of the street from a now-closed Wonder Bread bakery in Lenexa, Kansas. Hostess Brands Inc, the bankrupt maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread, said it had sought court permission to go out of business after failing to get wage and benefit cuts from thousands of its striking bakery workers. (Dave Kaup/Reuters)
- Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish fire at a factory, which according to locals was hit by an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip. Egypt’s premier vowed to intensify Cairo’s efforts to secure a truce and urged world leaders to end Israel’s “aggression” in Gaza, as he visited the Hamas-run enclave. (Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)
- Palestinian youth take cover behind a makeshift barrier during clashes with Israeli soldiers at the Qalandia checkpoint, in the occupied West Bank, during a protest against the war on Gaza. Thousands of angry Palestinians rallied across the West Bank, urging Hamas militants to ‘bomb Tel Aviv’ as Israel pursued a relentless air campaign on the Gaza Strip. (Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images)
- An Israeli soldier aims at Palestinian youth during a protest against the war on Gaza, at the Qalandia checkpoint, in the occupied West Bank. (Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images)
- An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man is seen through a damaged car window after a rocket fired from Gaza landed in the southern city of Ashdod. Israel has started drafting 16,000 reserve troops, the military said on Friday, in a sign that violence could escalate further with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)
- A fire hydrant is seen buried in the sand in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens, New York. (Eric Thayer/Reuters)
- A Santa Claus statue is seen in front of a home destroyed by Storm Sandy in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens, New York. (Eric Thayer/Reuters)
- A mailbox with a warning notice is seen in front of a home destroyed by Storm Sandy in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens, New York. (Eric Thayer/Reuters)
- Afghan spectators watch as two fighting mastiff dogs attack each other during the weekly dog fights on November 16, 2012 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Dog fighting was banned under the Taliban for being un-Islamic but it is now common practice. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
- Afghan men pull apart two fighting mastiffs during the weekly dog fights in Kabul, Afghanistan. Dog fighting was banned under the Taliban for being un-Islamic but it is now common practice. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
- Afghan spectators watch as two fighting mastiff dogs attack each other during the weekly dog fights in Kabul, Afghanistan. Dog fighting was banned under the Taliban for being un-Islamic but it is now common practice. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
- An Israeli boy sits on the stairs in a bomb shelter in the southern city of Ashkelon. Israeli tanks and troops massed outside Gaza and the military said on Friday it was calling up 16,000 reservists, signs of a possible imminent invasion of the Palestinian enclave after 48 hours of air strikes. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)
- An Israeli women holds her dog as a siren sounds warning of incoming rockets in the southern city of Ashkelon. The latest upsurge in a long-running conflict was triggered on Wednesday when Israel killed Hamas’s military mastermind, Ahmed Al-Jaabari, in a precision air strike on his car. Israel then began shelling the coastal enclave from land, air and sea. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)
- The brother of Palestinian boy Faris Basyoni, who was killed in an Israeli air strike, looks at his blood on a wall at his family’s damaged house in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. Basyoni was killed on Thursday night when an Israeli air strike hit his family house. Egypt opened a tiny window to emergency peace diplomacy in Gaza on Friday, but hopes for even a brief ceasefire while its prime minister was inside the bombarded enclave to talk to leaders of the Islamist Hamas movement were immediately dashed. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)
- Relatives of 10-month-old Palestinian girl, Hanen Tafesh, killed the day before in an Israeli air strike, mourn over her body before her funeral in Gaza City, Israeli warplanes carried out multiple new air strikes on the Palestinian territory, including several hits on Gaza City, the third day of an intensive campaign which the military has said is aimed at stamping out rocket fire on southern Israel. (Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)
- A pig dives into the water in Ningxiang county, Hunan province November 15, 2012. Villager Huang Demin drives his pigs to dive into the water from a 3-metre-high platform at least once a day, believing that the diving exercises would improve the quality and taste of the meat. He would later sell the meat of his pigs at three times higher than market prices, local media reported. (Stringer/Reuters)
- A pig dives into the water in Ningxiang county, Hunan province November 11, 2012. Villager Huang Demin drives his pigs to dive into the water from a 3-metre-high platform at least once a day, believing that the diving exercises would improve the quality and taste of the meat. He would later sell the meat of his pigs at three times higher than market prices, local media reported. (Stringer/Reuters)
- Male Tour De Takong (Stiletto Race) participants rest before running along the 500 m stretch of Shoe Avenue in Marikina City, east of Manila. The race, which is annual event, requires participants to wear high heels that measure a minimum of 3 inches and a 1.5 centimeters tip diameter. The Tour De Takong is part of the Shoes Festival, which started on September 10 and will end on December 31. (Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)
- Kenyan Police officers look over the valley on November 15, 2012 where the mass killings of police took place in Samburu north district near Baragoi. Some of the remaining four bodies where found close to where the ambush took place by alleged Turkana cattle rustlers. (Ivan Lieman/AFP/Getty Images)
- Performers on stage during the 13th Annual Latin Grammy show on November 15, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)
- Afghan men watch Kowk Jangi (partridge fighting) in a park in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Kowk is a fighting partridge, prized by their owners who lavish great care on them, and keep them in domed wicker cages. The owners fight the partridges on Friday mornings in short bouts of strength, as the birds are too valuable to allow them to be seriously harmed, with spectators gambling on the result. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
- Afghan men spectate during Kowk Jangi (partridge fighting) in a park in Kabul, Afghanistan. The final winner is declared by referees if the other Kowk keeps on retreating, when the owner admits defeat, or when the bird dies, which happens rarely. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
- A Mexican miner emerges from a shaft in a coal mine in Agujita, Coahuila State in Mexico on November 13, 2012. According to the Mining Chamber of Mexico, the country produces annually 15 million tons of coal, with an average annual production worth USD 3,800 million, representing 1.6% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). (Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)
- A Mexican miner smokes after exiting a shaft in a coal mine in Agujita, Coahuila State in Mexico on November 13, 2012. The bulk of the coal is used for power generation and steel production. Recent press reports affirm that drugs cartel are involved in the coal-related activities. (Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)
Twinkies maker Hostess plans to go out of business
Carey Gillam | Reuters
2:17 p.m. EST, November 16, 2012
(Reuters) – Hostess Brands Inc, the bankrupt maker of Twinkies snack cakes and loaves of Wonder Bread, is seeking a U.S. court’s permission to go out of business after failing to get wage and benefit cuts from thousands of its striking bakery workers.
The 82-year-old Hostess, which has about $2.5 billion in sales and is one of the largest wholesale bakers and distributors of breads and snack cakes in the United States, filed the request with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York early Friday morning. A hearing on the matter is set for Monday.
The Irving, Texas-based company said the liquidation would mean that most of its 18,500 employees would lose their jobs. Hostess immediately suspended operations at all of its 33 plants across the United States as it moves to start selling assets.