Dec. 26 Photo Brief: Boxing Day hunt, swimsuits in minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit, New Year’s firecrackers rush, Elephant Race event
Boxing Day in Britain, swimsuits in minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit, New Year’s firecrackers production rush, Elephant Race event in Nepal and more in today’s daily brief.
-
- Members of the Old Surrey Burstow and West Kent Hunt depart from Chiddingstone Castle for the annual Boxing Day hunt in Chiddingstone, south east England December 26, 2012. A ban imposed seven years ago states that foxes can be killed by a bird of prey or shot but not hunted by dogs. Hunts continue nowadays with pursuers accompanying dogs in chasing down a pre-laid scented trail. (Luke MacGregor/Reuters)
-
- A foxhound is seen near members of the Old Surrey Burstow and West Kent Hunt at Chiddingstone Castle during the annual Boxing Day hunt in Chiddingstone, south east England December 26, 2012. (Luke MacGregor/Reuters)
-
- Children run out into the yard to pour cold water on themselves during daily exercises at a kindergarten, in air temperatures of minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit in Barnaul, the capital of the Altai region, December 26, 2012. (Andrei Kasprishin/Reuters)
-
- Lyubov Valiyeva, a member of the “Cryophil” winter swimming club, plays with the snow by the bank of the Yenisei River with the air temperature at minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, December 26, 2012. (IIya Naymushin/Reuters)
-
- A worker makes firecrackers at a makeshift factory in Bocaue town, Bulacan province, north of Manila December 26, 2012. Firecracker makers are in a rush to meet the demands of pyrotechnic enthusiasts for the coming New Year revelry despite local health officials warning against the use of fireworks. At least 44 firework-related injuries were reported as early as before Christmas, local media reported. (Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)
-
- Archaeologist Anna Eirikh displays a horse figurine at Tel Motza archaeological site on the outskirts of Jerusalem December 26, 2012. Israel’s Antiquities Authority (IAA) said on Wednesday they unearthed a maze-like construction and a cache of sacred vessels some 2, 750 years old, including some unique figurines of men and horses, at the site. They said the findings are rare evidence that a religious following existed in the areas around Jerusalem at the beginning of the Judean monarchy. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)
-
- Mahouts ride on elephants as they cross the Rapti River after collecting food from Chitwan National Park at Sauraha in Chitwan, about 106 miles south of Kathmandu, December 26, 2012. Elephants and mahouts from Chitwan will participate in the Elephant Race event, which begins Wednesday and ends on Friday, where elephants will play in an exhibition soccer match and various other sports and activities. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)
-
- A volunteer cleans his face near the site of a fire, after fireworks stored in a building exploded in a densely populated area in the Isale Eko district of Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos December 26, 2012. (Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)
-
- Free Syrian Army fighters take their position at the front line during a fight with forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo December 26, 2012. (Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)
-
- Relatives of Indian policeman Subash Tomar mourn during his funeral in New Delhi on December 25, 2012. Tomar, a 47-year-old constable deployed at the India Gate monument on December 23 to control the protests calling for stricter rape laws, was beaten up by a mob and rushed to a hospital by the police. (Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images)
-
- Afghan policemen carry the dead body of a victim at a local hospital after a suicide bomb attack in Khost province December 26, 2012. A suicide bomber killed three people in an attack on a U.S. base in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the same base that is believed to be used by the CIA and which a suicide bomber attacked three years ago killing seven CIA employees. (Anwarullah/Reuters)
-
- People look at exhibits during a winter party at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum in Riga December 26, 2012. The museum, situated in a forest park area beside a lake just outside the capital, showcases collections of daily items from various ethnic groups in Latvia housed within traditional farmsteads of farmers, craftsmen and fishermen. (Ints Kalnins/Reuters)
-
- Paramilitary policemen practice during their winter training against extreme weather, in Nanjing, Jiangsu province December 26, 2012. (China Daily via Reuters)
-
- A young dog that was found abandoned in an elevator during Christmas stands at an animal shelter in Berlin on December 26, 2012. At least 16 animals were abandoned during Christmas in the German capital and found a shelter at the official animal collection center. (Joerg Carstensen/AFP/Getty Images)
-
- Swimmers wearing Sumo wrestler costumes take part in the annual Tenby Boxing Day swim in Tenby, Wales, December 26, 2012. (Rebecca Naden/Reuters)
-
- Japan’s new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (front, C) and his cabinet members pose for photo session after their first cabinet meeting at the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo on December 26, 2012. Abe was elected Japan’s prime minister by the lower house of parliament after he swept to power on a hawkish platform of getting tough on diplomatic issues while fixing the economy. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images)
-
- This picture taken on December 25, 2012 shows umbrellas hanging over a commercial street in Fuzhou, south China’s Fujian province. China will make increasing domestic demand a top priority in 2013, state media said on December 16 following a key conference that sets the country’s economic goals. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
-
- This picture taken on December 25, 2012 shows a building being demolished in Haikou, south China’s Hainan province. For the past two years, China has sought to control residential property prices with measures including restrictions on second and third home purchases, higher minimum downpayments, and annual taxes in some cities on multiple and non-locally-owned homes. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
-
- Naftali Bennett Head of HaBayit HaYehudi Party, the Jewish Home party, sits in his car during a campaign tour on December 26, 2012 in Tel Aviv, Israel. The religious Jewish Home party (HaBayit HaYehudi) led by Naftali Bennett, are mounting a strong challenge for the right wing vote from Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party as Israel heads for a general election on January 22. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
-
- Women carry milk in aluminium pitchers to pour it into the Bay of Bengal as gesture of respect to the victims of the 2004 tsunami during the eighth anniversary of the disaster, at Marina beach in the southern Indian city of Chennai December 26, 2012. Hundreds of memorial events were held across Asia on Wednesday in memory of the towering waves that crashed ashore with little warning on December 26, 2004, killing 226,000 people in 13 countries. (Babu/Reuters)
-
- Young Sri Lankan Buddhist monks look on from the beach at Peraliya village in southern Sri Lanka on December 26, 2012, on the eighth anniversary of the Asian tsunami. Some 31,000 people on the island died during the 2004 Asian tsunami and one million were initially left homeless. (Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty Images)=
-
- A woman studies a life size reproduction the painting entitled ‘De Nachtwacht’ (The Night Watch) by the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn at Magna Plaza shopping center in Amsterdam December 26, 2012. Reproductions of all 325 paintings by Rembrandt will on permanent display at the shopping center. (Michael Kooren/Reuters)
Syrian officials head to Moscow for talks on crisis proposals
Erika Solomon and Laila Bassam | Reuters
9:13 a.m. EST, December 26, 2012
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian foreign ministry officials headed to Moscow on Wednesday to discuss proposals for ending Syria’s 21-month-old crisis apparently made by international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, Syrian and Lebanese sources said.
Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Makdad and another aide will sound out Russian officials on the details of meetings with Brahimi in Damascus this week, a Syrian security source said.
A Lebanese official close to President Bashar al-Assad’s government said Syrian officials were upbeat after talks with the U.N.-Arab League envoy, who met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moualem on Tuesday and Assad himself the day before.
“There is a new mood now and something good is happening,” the official said, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue. “Of course now they (Syrian officials) want to meet with their allies to discuss these new developments.”
More than 44,000 Syrians have died in the revolt against four decades of Assad family rule, a conflict that began with peaceful protests but which has descended into civil war.
Brahimi is in Syria for a week of talks with government officials and some dissidents, but has so far said nothing about any new proposals or developments.
Earlier in December, he held tripartite meetings between Russia, Syria’s main arms supplier and an Assad ally, and the United States, which has thrown its weight behind the opposition. While both sides said they wanted a political settlement, neither changed their stance on Assad.
Brahimi’s previous proposal centered on a transitional government which left open Assad’s future role, something which became a sticking point between the government, the opposition and foreign powers backing different sides.
Opposition leaders have been wary of recent diplomatic efforts, including those led by Brahimi.
Moaz Alkhatib, the head of the opposition’s National Coalition, argued against any deal that did not require Assad’s removal and said the group had repeatedly made this clear.
“We have told every official we have met: the government and its president cannot stay on in power, with or without their powers. This is unacceptable to Syrians,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Monday.
“The coalition leadership has told Lakhdar Brahimi directly that this type of solution is rejected.”
(Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
Baltimore neighborhoods
Baltimore street photographers
Year in review
Freddie Gray: protests, aftermath
24 hours with...
A. Aubrey Bodine
Viewing Baltimore from above