Dec. 23 Photo Brief: Protests for stricter rape laws, air strike in Syria, fishing in Peru, Copahue volcano spews ash
Protests for stricter rape laws in New Dehli turn violent, air strike in Syria kills dozens at bakery, fishing in Peru, an active Copahue volcano and more in today’s daily brief.
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- Delhi police lathi charge to disperse protestors during a protest against the Indian governments reaction to recent rape incidents in India, in front of India Gate on December 23, 2012 in New Delhi, India. The gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on December 16, in Delhi, has led to people to react openly against the governments current rape laws. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
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- An Indian demonstrator shouts slogans at the police during a protest calling for better safety for women following the rape of a student last week, in front the India Gate monument in New Delhi on December 23, 2012. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A view shows blood and bread on the ground after what activists said were missiles fired by a Syrian Air Force fighter jet from forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad hit a bakery in Halfaya, near Hama December 23, 2012. Dozens of people were killed in an air strike while queuing for bread in Syria’s central Hama province on Sunday, activists said. (Samer Al-Hamwi/Shaam News Network/Handout via Reuters)
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- A detainee Syrian soldier loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is questioned by a Free Syrian Army officer at the army base at Hawa village, north Aleppo December 23, 2012. The Free Syrian Army fighters controlled the Syrian Army base at Hawa Village yesterday.(Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)
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- Syed Riaz Shah Shirazi, husband of Fehmida Shah, an anti-polio health worker and mother of six, who was killed by unknown gunmen, sits in a room at his residence on the third day of mourning after her funeral in Karachi December 20, 2012. Picture taken December 20. (Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)
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- Internally displaced Afghan boys wait for the distribution of winter assistance in Kabul December 23, 2012. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began a winter assistance programme for returnees from Pakistan and Iran, internally displaced persons and others who are at risk in the cold weather. (Omar Sobhani/Reuters)
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- A pot filled with anchovies is seen aboard a fishing boat at the Pacific Ocean, off of Peru’s northern port of Chimbote, December 14, 2012. Peru is the world’s top fishmeal exporter, producing about a third of worldwide supply. Last year it shipped abroad more than $2 billion in fishmeal and fish oil. The anchovy pulled from Peru’s Pacific Ocean is sold as fishmeal that feeds pigs in China and farmed salmon in Europe. It’s also squeezed into increasingly popular Omega-3 supplements. The government cut its quota for this summer’s anchovy season by 68 percent to 810,000 tonnes, the smallest allowance in 25 years. (Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Reuters)
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- Men weigh a slaughtered pig in the village of Novoelnia, some 106 miles southwest of Minsk, December 23, 2012. Belarussians kill their pigs for Christmas and New Year celebrations at the end of December. (Vladimir Nikolsky/Reuters)
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- Pakistani army soldiers play volleyball at their base in Wana November 27, 2012. Pakistan’s powerful army chief has made reconciling warring factions in Afghanistan a top priority, military officials and Western diplomats say, the newest and clearest sign yet that Islamabad means business in promoting peace with the Taliban. Picture taken November 27, 2012. (Faisal Mahmood/Reuters)
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- Rabobank Giant Offroad’s Niels Wubben of the Netherlands looks on with a muddy face after the men’s event at the 2012 Belgium UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup in Namur December 23, 2012. (Laurent Dubrule/Reuters)
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- Afghan men guide firefighters after a huge fire swept through a market in Kabul on December 23, 2012. (Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images)
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- View of the Copahue volcano spewing ashes from Caviahue, Neuquen province, Argentina, some 1500 km southwest of Buenos Aires on December 22, 2012. The authorities of Chile and Argentina issued yellow alerts due to the eruption of the Copahue volcano, placed in the border between both countries. (Antonio Huglich/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Tourists ride an elephant past the ruins of Cambodia’s Bayon temple in Siem Reap December 22, 2012. Picture taken December 22, 2012. (Erik De Castro/Reuters)
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- Christmas decorations are seen in front of a pond ahead of Christmas day celebrations in Colombo, December 23, 2012. (Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)
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- Sculptors build a wall of the ice fortress in a park in central Moscow on December 23, 2012. A cold wave of weather hit this week the Russian capital with temperatures reaching below 20C. (Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Iraqi boys pray for peace in Iraq and Syria during Mass a day before Christmas Eve at Chaldean Catholic Church in Amman December 23, 2012. (Ali Jarekji/Reuters)
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- Indian Sand artist Sudersan Pattnaik works on a sand sculpture with over 500 Santa Claus statues at Golden Beach in Puri on about 65 kilometres away from Bhubaneswar on December 22, 2012. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
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- People dressed up as Santa Claus enjoy a traditional Christmas bath on December 23, 2012 in Monaco. (Valery Hachev/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A Palestinian man dressed up as Santa Claus carries a Christmas tree and rings a bell as he walks along the wall of Jerusalem’s Old City, on December 23 2012, as Christians around the world prepare for Christmas celebrations. (Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Snow-covered dog Peggy looks on during snowfall in Berlin on December 22 , 2012. Meteorologists forecast snow fall in northern and eastern parts of Germany. (Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images)
Air strike kills dozens of Syrians waiting to buy bread
Erika Solomon | Reuters
3:34 p.m. EST, December 23, 2012
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Dozens of people were killed and many more wounded in a Syrian government air strike that hit a bakery where a crowd was queuing for bread on Sunday, activists said.
If confirmed, the attack on Halfaya in central Syria, which was seized by rebels last week, would be one of the deadliest air strikes of Syria’s civil war.
Videos uploaded by activists showed dozens of bloodstained corpses lying amid rubble and shrapnel. An adolescent boy with both his feet blown off lay flailing in the middle of a road.
“When I got there, I could see piles of bodies all over the ground. There were women and children,” said Samer al-Hamawi, an activist in the town. “There are also dozens of wounded people.”
Residents of Halfaya told Reuters they estimated 90 dead. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group with a network of activists across Syria, counted 60 killed.
“The number is likely to rise because there are dozens of wounded being treated in the area and nearby hospitals, among them 50 in critical condition,” it said.
Activists say more than 44,000 people have been killed in the 21 months since protests erupted against President Bashar al-Assad, inspired by the Arab Spring revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere.
Amid the latest carnage, United Nations-backed crisis mediator Lakhdar Brahimi arrived for more talks in Syria. He had to drive from neighboring Lebanon because fighting around Damascus International Airport has effectively shut it down.
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