Nov. 19 Photo Brief: Israel-Gaza conflict, Obama’s historic visit to Myanmar, Twinkies maker heads to bankruptcy court, Brazilian Naturist Olympics
Israel-Gaza conflict in its sixth day, President Obama’s historic visit to Myanmar, Twinkies maker heads to bankruptcy court, naturists run the 3 km marathon during the first Brazilian Naturist Olympics and more in today’s daily brief.
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- An Israeli child plays in a large concrete pipe used as a bomb shelter in Nitzan, Israel. According to reports at least 90 Palestinians have been killed and more than 700 wounded during the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
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- A suspected looter is restrained by a policeman with a dog in the somali district of Eastleigh in Nairobi. Police used tear gas and fired into the air to contain the violence which erupted after a bomb exploded in Eastleigh killing seven people and wounding many more. Kenyan residents in Eastleigh turned on Somalis and attacked their shops and stalls, accusing them of being responsible for the bomb. (Carl De Souza/Getty Images)
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- Water pours from river outlet tubes during an experimental high flow release from the Glen Canyon Dam in Page, Arizona. The total maximum release from the dam will reach approximately 42,300 cubic feet per second – 27,300 cfs of full-capacity powerplant releases and a bypass release through four river outlet tubes sending 15,000 cfs of water out over the Colorado River, according to an Interior Department statement. The release is part of a long-term protocol announced in May by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to meet water and power needs and resolve problems with downstream sediment and non-native fish predation on the Colorado River below the dam. (Bob Strong/Reuters)
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- Hot air balloons fly over Metropolitano park as ducks move during the International Hot-Air Balloon Festival in Leon, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. (Mario Armas /Reuters)
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- Hot air balloons fly over Metropolitano park during the International Hot-Air Balloon Festival in Leon, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. (Mario Armas/Reuters)
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- A home destroyed by Hurricane Sandy is seen in the Staten Island borough of New York. (Eric Thayer/Reuters)
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- A boat damaged by Hurricane Sandy is seen in the Staten Island borough of New York. (Eric Thayer/Reuters)
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- U.S. President Barack Obama (R) waves with Aung San Suu Kyi at her residence in Yangon, November 19, 2012. President Obama became the first serving U.S. president to visit Myanmar on Monday, trying during a whirlwind six-hour trip to strike a balance between praising the government’s progress in shaking off military rule and pressing for more reform. (Jason Reed/Reuters)
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- Copies of Terracotta warrior figures are displayed as part of the exhibition ‘Terracotta Army’ at the Brussels Stock Exchange November 19, 2012. The exhibition, which opens today and will run for 3 months, presents a reconstruction of the discovery the terracotta army of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi, organisers said. (Yves Herman/Reuters)
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- A French gunner checks the area aboard a helicopter during a flight to the French base in Naghlu November 19, 2012. French combat troops are due to pull out of Afghanistan by the end of the year. (Eric Gaillard/Reuters)
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- A municipality worker plays a euphonium as he takes part in a rally against state sector layoffs demanded by the country’s international lenders, outside the city hall in Athens November 19, 2012. Greece approved laws on Monday to enforce budget targets and ensure privatisation proceeds are used to pay off debt, seeking to appease foreign lenders before a critical meeting of euro zone finance ministers. (John Kolesidis/Reuters)
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- M23 rebels stand at a small base in the hills of Kanyarucinya on the outskirts of Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on November 19, 2012. DR Congo’s M23 rebels who have closed in on the main eastern city of Goma warned that they will continue their fight against the government unless it opens direct talks with them within 24 hours. (Phil Moore/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Employees of the French Cornille-Havard foundry in Villedieu-les-Poeles work on the melting of two Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral’s bells on November 19, 2012. Four bells have to be renovated and five others made at the foundry for the celebration of the cathedral’s 850th anniversary in 2013. The nine bells will join the tenor bell “Emmanuel” known as the “Bourdon” to re-create the original set used before the French Revolution (1789). (Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Indian Hindu devotees offer prayers to the sun during The Chhat Festival on the banks of the River Brahmaputra in Guwahati on November 19, 2012. The Chhat festival is mainly observed by people of eastern part of the country, where devotees pray to the sun and water Gods eight days after Diwali, the festival of lights. (Biju Boro/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A devotee offers prayer to the setting sun during the “Chhat” festival at Bagmati River in Kathmandu November 19, 2012. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)
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- A Palestinian protester (L) uses a sling to throw a stone at Israeli security forces as others take cover during minor clashes against Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank village of Birzeit, near Ramallah November 19, 2012. Israel bombed dozens of targets in Gaza on Monday and said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that would end Palestinian rocket fire from the enclave. (Mohamad Torokman/Reuters)
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- Palestinians evacuate a wounded man after an Israeli air strike, witnessed by a Reuters journalist, on a floor in a building that also houses media offices in Gaza City November 19, 2012. Egypt’s prime minister said on Monday that an agreement brokered by Cairo to stop the fighting between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza could be close. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)
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- A Palestinian boy tends to his horse at the central market in Gaza City on November 19, 2012. Food prices have started to rise due to lack of fresh supplies due to ongoing unrest with Israel, as scarce produce is met with more demands by the residents of the Palestinian coastal enclave. (Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Israeli soldiers sleep next to armoured personnel carriers (APC) at an Israeli army deployment area near the Israel-Gaza Strip border as they prepare for a potential ground operation in the Palestinian coastal enclave on November 19, 2012. (Menahem Kahama/AFP/Getty Images)
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- An Israeli soldier holds Torah scrolls as he conducts morning prayers at an Israeli army deployment area near the Israel-Gaza Strip border in preparation for a potential ground operation in the Palestinian coastal enclave on November 19, 2012. (Menahem Kahama/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Pakistani Islamic seminary students shout slogans during a protest against the killing of students in Islamabad on November 19, 2012 as they also condemned the Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. At least five seminary students were killed and six others injured in a shooting at a roadside tea stall in Pakistan’s largest city Karachi on November 10, police said. (Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A Cambodian protester shouts slogans in front of anti-riot policemen blocking a road during a protest in Phnom Penh on November 19, 2012 as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit begins meetings. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images)
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- This picture taken on November 17, 2012 shows workers cleaning up the heavily polluted Nanming River in Guiyang, southwest China’s Guizhou province. China will start assessing the “social risk” of major projects, its environmental protection minister said November 12, after anti-pollution protests forced a series of industrial ventures to be cancelled. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu, whose wife and other relatives were among the 57 people killed in the Philippines’ worst political massare, looks at pictures of the suspects at the Maguindanao Massacre during a press conference at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Manila on November 19, 2012. (Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Somali men carry wood to make charcoal in the village of Jalelo, Hargeisa on October 31, 2012. In Somalia, hundreds of thousands of nomads, the majority of the population, cut down trees for charcoal risking to turn into desert the land of this already impoverished country in the Horn of Africa. (Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Naturists run the 3 km Marathon during the first Brazilian Naturist Olympics in Guaratingueta, about 200 km east of Sao Paulo, Brazil on Novemeber 18, 2012. For 3 days, around 60 members of the Brazilian Federation of Naturism have competed in 30 disciplines. (Yasuyoshi Chibaya/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A visitor looks at the Rita Mae West room by Spanish artist Salvador Dali during a media visit to the exhibition “Dali” at the Centre Pompidou modern art museum, also known as Beaubourg, in Paris November 19, 2012. (Benoit Tessier/Reuters)
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- A baboon yawns in his enclosure while sitting in the sun at the Hellabrunn zoo in Munich November 19, 2012. (Michael Dalder/Reuters)
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- Hostess Brands Inc, the maker of the iconic Twinkies snack cake, will square off in a bankruptcy court against an agent of the U.S. Justice Department, who says the wind-down plan is too generous to management, on November 19, 2012. November 16 file photo. (Bret Hartman/Reuters)
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- Several ingredients are needed to bake your perfect Thanksgiving Day, including softened butter, garlic, lemon zest, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. Photo taken November 13, 2012. (Jarrad Henderson/Detroit Free Press/MCT)
Buyers, including Tastykake’s parent, get in position for Hostess
Liquidation hearing today for make of Twinkies, Ho Hos
Reuters
12:51 p.m. EST, November 19, 2012
Flowers Foods Inc. said on Monday that it has amended and extended its $500 million loan facility, giving it greater financial flexibility just as its bankrupt rival Hostess Brands Inc. entertains bidders for its brands.
Flowers, maker of Nature’s Own bread and Tastykake snack cakes, is seen as a potential suitor for some of Hostess’ brands, which include Twinkies snack cakes and Wonder Bread.
Flowers shares rose 6 percent to $23.66 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Hostess is heading to U.S. bankruptcy court on Monday for a hearing related to its plan to go out of business after failing to get wage and benefit concessions from thousands of striking bakery workers.
Hostess Chief Executive Gregory Rayburn told Bloomberg TV on Monday that he expects Hostess will find buyers for its brands. Interest has come from private equity group Metropolous & Co., the owner of Pabst Brewing Co.
“Our family would love to purchase these iconic brands,” Daren Metropolous, a principal of the private equity firm, said Friday. “We are actively pursuing this deal, as no doubt strategics will also.”
Flowers did not say whether the amendment to its credit facility was related to a bid for Hostess or any of its brands. A Flowers spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the company’s possible interest in Hostess.
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