Nov. 20 Photo Brief: Toxic fashion show, Shiite self-flagellation, Afghanistan’s surplus of orphans and drug users
Greenpeace holds a “Toxic Thread” fashion show in China, Shiite Muslims in Kashmir remember the slaying of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson, 1 million orphans in Afghanistan, 60,000 drug users in the Afghan capital city of Kabul and more in today’s daily brief.
- Ice, a 5-month-old North American Puma female cub, plays with her handler at the Royev Ruchey zoo in a surburb of Russia’s Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. (Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)
- Ice, a 5-month-old North American Puma female cub, plays in the snow at the Royev Ruchey zoo in a surburb of Russia’s Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. (Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)
- A Hindu holy man, or sadhu, walks along his ashram, a place of retreat, at the premises of the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)
- A trader displays the teeth of a donkey during an annual donkey fair at Vautha, 49 km (30 miles) south from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. The five-day long donkey fair is believed to be Asia’s largest, where more than 19,000 donkeys belonging to gypsies are brought for trade. (Amit Dave/Reuters)
- Indian Hindu devotees perform rituals during Chhat Puja while standing in the river in Kolkata. Devotees pay obeisance to both the rising and the setting sun during the Chhath festival when people express their thanks and seek the blessings of the forces of nature, mainly the Sun and the River. (Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images)
- Hindu devotees stand in the waters of river Yamuna to offer prayers to the Sun god during the Hindu religious festival ‘Chhat Puja’ at dawn in New Delhi. Hindu devotees worship the Sun god and fast all day for the betterment of their family and society during the festival. (Mansi Thapliyal/Reuters)
- A model’s shadow is cast onto a curtain before the start of a fashion show organised by environmental group Greenpeace titled ‘Toxic Threads – The Big Fashion Stitch-Up’ in Beijing. According to a recent Greenpeace study, major global fashion labels are using toxic chemicals in the production of their clothing, which occurs mainly in China, that leads to environmental degradation. (David Gray/Reuters)
- A model carrying an intravenous bag walks along a make-shift catwalk during a fashion show organised by environmental group Greenpeace titled ‘Toxic Threads – The Big Fashion Stitch-Up,’ in Beijing. (David Gray/Reuters)
- Greenpeace activists protest in front of Zara’s store in Budapest. High street fashion brands are selling clothing contaminated with hazardous chemicals that break down to form hormone-disrupring or even cancer-causing chemicals when released into the emviroment, according to report released today by Greenpece International. (Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images)
- A model poses on a make-shift catwalk during a fashion show organised by environmental group Greenpeace titled ‘Toxic Threads – The Big Fashion Stitch-Up,’ in Beijing. (David Gray/Reuters)
- Belgium’s artists perform as they join demonstrators on a protest outside the office of Fadila Laanan, Minister of Culture and Audiovisual of Belgium’s Federation Wallonia-Brussels, in Brussels. According to the demonstrators, they are protesting against the unfair social status and working conditions of artists. (Laurent Dubrule/Reuters)
- Taslima Akhter sits with her six-month-old daughter Fatema among the burnt remains of homes in a slum after a fire at Hazaribagh area in Dhaka. Thousands of people were still living under the open sky after a deadly fire, which killed at least 14 people and burnt 500 thatched houses at a slum in Dhaka on Sunday, local media reported. (Andrew Biraj/Reuters)
- French General Eric Hautecloque Raysz (R) gives the symbolic key of the base to his Afghan counterpart General Mohammad Zaman Waziri during a handover ceremony between the French army and the ANA (Afghan National Army) at the forward operational base of Nijrab, as part of the withdrawal of French troops. French combat troops are due to pull out of Afghanistan by the end of the year. (Eric Gaillard/Reuters)
- Wooden masks are offered to tourists at a handicrafts market in Chichicastenango municipality, Quiche department, 167 km west of Guatemala City. Ceremonies will be in different sites of Guatemala to celebrate the end of the Mayan cycle known as Bak’tun 13 and the start of the new Maya Era on December 21. The Mayan calendar has 18 months of 20 days each plus a sacred month, ‘Wayeb,’ of five days. ‘B’aktun’ is the larget unit in the time cycle system, and is about 400 years. The broader era spans 13 B’aktun, or about 5,200 years. (Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images)
- Kashmiri Shiite Muslims step on a US flag painted on the street during a religious procession held on the fourth day of Ashura, which remembers the slaying of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson in southern Iraq in the seventh century, in Srinagar. During the Shiite Muslim holy month of Muharram, large processions are formed and the devotees parade the streets holding banners and carrying models of the mausoleum of Hazrat Imam Hussain and his people, who fell at Karbala. (Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty Images)
- A child swings blades as other Kashmiri Shiite Muslims perform a ritual of self-flagellation with knives during a religious procession held on the fourth day of Ashura, which remembers the slaying of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson in southern Iraq in the seventh century, in Srinagar. Shias show their grief and sorrow by inflicting wounds on their own bodies with sharp metal tied to chain to depict the sufferings of the martyrs. (Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty Images)
- A bloodied Kashmiri Shiite Muslim looks on after performing a ritual of self-flagellation with knives during a religious procession held on the fourth day of Ashura, which remembers the slaying of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson in southern Iraq in the seventh century, in Srinagar. (Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty Images)
- A camel herder arrives with his livestock for the annual Pushkar Camel Fair in Pushkar. The annual five-day camel and livestock fair, held in the town of Pushkar in the state of Rajasthan is one of the world’s largest camel fairs, and apart from buying and selling of livestock it has become an important tourist attraction. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
- Afghan orphans lineup at an orphanage in Kandahar on November 19, 2012. Two decades of war in Afghanistan has left some one million orphans and abandoned children across the country. (Mamoon DurraniMamoon Durrani/AFP/Getty Images)
- Afghan orphans sit in lines at an orphanage in Kandahar on November 19, 2012. (Mamoon DurraniMamoon Durrani/AFP/Getty Images)
- Afghan men take drugs alongside the Kabul river in Kabul. Afghan officials and experts cite a figure of 60,000 drug users in the capital city of Kabul which has an estimated total population of five million. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images
- An Afghan drug user walks along the Kabul river in Kabul. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images
- Claire Robertson from Scottish Ballet, poses dressed as the Good Snow Flake inside a life size snow globe on Buchanan Street during a promotion for Scottish Balletâs festive production of The Nutcracker in Glasgow, Scotland. The Nutcracker opens at the Theatre Royal on December the 8th, the production delves deep into the darker reaches of Hoffmannâs original tale in a fresh and vivid retelling of the famous Christmas story. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
- Power Rangers Megaforce perform at Day One of the 86th Anniversary Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Rehearsals at Macy’s Herald Square on November 19, 2012 in New York City. (Taylor Hill/Getty Images)