Jan. 28 Photo Brief: Iran sends a monkey to space, relatives mourn victims in nightclub fire, an 18-inch holy man, violence in Egypt
Iran successfully launches a live monkey into space, relatives mourn victims in nightclub fire in Brazil, an 18-inch holy man in India, violence continues in Egypt and more in today’s daily brief.
- A still image from an undated video footage released on January 28, 2013 by Iran’s state-run English language Press TV shows a monkey that was launched into space. Iran said on Monday it had launched the live monkey into space, seeking to show off missile delivery systems that are alarming to the West given Tehran’s parallel advances in nuclear technology. (Press TV via Reuters)
- Relatives wait to identify victims killed in the Kiss night club fire, at the municipal gymnasium on January 27, 2013 in Santa Maria. Brazilians were mourning the victims of a nightclub blaze in a small college town that left more than 230 people dead and over 100 injured, with many still fighting for their lives. (Jefferson Bernardes/AFP/Getty Images)
- Fishermen stand on the frozen surface of the Kursiai Lagoon near Klaipeda, Lithuania, to catch smelts on January 27, 2013. Several thousands of amateur fishermen from all over Lithuania gather on the ice to catch the small fish. (Petra Malukas/AFP/Getty Images)
- Roger Barnes rescues a friend’s surfboard from a flooded home in the inner Brisbane suburb of Newmarket on January 28, 2013 as high winds and heavy rains brought by ex-tropical cyclone Oswald have hit the state of Queensland. Helicopters plucked dozens of stranded Australians to safety in dramatic rooftop rescues on January 28 as severe floods swept the northeast, killing three people and inundating thousands of homes. (Patrick Hamilton/AFP/Getty Images)
- A woman, dressed as Lady Justice, stands while protesting at the entrance of the Supreme Court of Justice before former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt’s hearing in Guatemala City, January 28, 2013. A judge will announce the decision if Rios Montt, who ruled the country from 1982-1983 during a bloody civil war, will be prosecuted on January 28 on genocide charges for the slaughter of the Maya-Ixil ethnic group in the Quiche region in 1982, local media reported. (Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters)
- Mahadev Bharti, 56, a Sadhu or a Hindu holy man who claims to stand at 18-inch (46 cm), rests inside a tent on the banks of the river Ganges during the ongoing “Kumbh Mela”, or Pitcher Festival, in the northern Indian city of Allahabad January 28, 2013. During the festival, Hindus take part in a religious gathering on the banks of the river Ganges. “Kumbh Mela” will return to Allahabad in 12 years. (Jitendra Prakash/Reuters)
- A protester sits outside the headquarters of Spanish nationalised lender Bankia, at a campsite where protesters have demonstrated for some 100 days, in Madrid January 28, 2013. Spain was forced to ask Europe for up to 100 billion euros ($132.9 billion) to help its weakest banks last year and four of the lenders it took over, including Bankia, have to cut thousands of jobs to shrink their balance sheets as a condition of their rescue. (Juan Medina/Reuters)
- A man climbs up an artificially made wall of ice near the Swiss mountain resort of Pontresina January 28, 2013. (Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)
- A Saudi man is reflected in a mirror in his flooded home after heavy rain in Tabuk, 1500 km (932 miles) from Riyadh January 28, 2013. (Mohamed Alhwaity/Reuters)
- Uais Khan, 62, shovels sand and salt into an oven at a factory in Rawalpindi January 28, 2013. Heated sand and salt are later used to cook corn overnight, before the corn are sold as a popular street food dish. (Mian Khursheed/Pakistan)
- A Free Syrian Army fighter, with an amputated hand, points his weapon towards forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad at the Menagh military airport, in Aleppo’s countryside January 25, 2013. (Mahmoud Hassano/Reuters)
- Mali’s Cheikh Ag Tiglia, Ousmane Ag Moussa, Wounou Walet Sidati, Ibrahim Ag Ahmed Salem, and Aghaly Ag Mohammedi (L-R) of the Touareg desert blues band Tamikrest, pose at the Barbican Hall before the Sahara Soul concert in London January 26, 2012. Mali’s musical community, whose singers and players have won worldwide acclaim, has been targeted by hardline Islamists bent on imposing sharia, or Islamic law. Concerts have been banned in northern cities, clubs closed, instruments smashed and burned, musicians harassed and forced to flee. Picture taken January 26, 2013. (Luke MacGregor/Reuters)
- Riot policemen beat a protester opposing Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, during clashes along Qasr Al Nil bridge, which leads to Tahrir Square in Cairo January 28, 2013. Monday was the fifth day of violence in Egypt that has killed 50 people and prompted the Islamist president to declare a state of emergency in an attempt to end a wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world’s biggest nation. (Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)
- Youths holds Cuban flags during a torch march in celebration of the 160th birth anniversary of Cuba’s independence hero Jose Marti, at Havana University January 27, 2013. Thousands of members from the Cuban Communist Youth Union (UJC) and student organizations participated in the march. (Enrique De La Osa/Reuters)
- Indonesian Misriati stands next to the Pluit dam, that is full of garbage in Jakarta on January 28, 2013. (Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images)
- An improvised explosive device (IED) detonates underneath a vehicle during a patrol outside Command Outpost AJK (short for Azim-Jan-Kariz, a near-by village) in Maiwand District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, January 28, 2013. No one was killed in the attack. (Andrew Burton/Reuters)
- People walk under umbrellas in a snow-covered park during snowfall in Bucharest January 28, 2013. (Bogdan Cristel/Reuters)
Violence flares in Egypt after emergency law imposed
Edmund Blair and Shaimaa Fayed
Reuters
12:56 p.m. EST, January 28, 2013
CAIRO (Reuters) – A man was shot dead on Monday in a fifth day of violence that has killed 50 Egyptians and prompted the Islamist president to declare a state of emergency in an attempt to end a wave of unrest sweeping the biggest Arab nation.
Emergency rule announced by President Mohamed Mursi on Sunday covers the cities of Port Said, Ismailia and Suez. The army has already been deployed in two of those cities and ministers agreed a measure to let soldiers arrest civilians.
A cabinet source told Reuters any trials would be in civilian courts, but the step is likely to anger protesters who accuse Mursi of using high-handed tactics of the kind they fought against to oust his military predecessor Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt’s politics have become deeply polarized since those heady days two years ago, when protesters were making the running in the Arab Spring revolutions that sent shockwaves through the region and Islamists and liberals lined up together.
Although Islamists have won parliamentary and presidential elections, the disparate opposition has since united against Mursi. Late last year he moved to expand his powers and pushed a constitution with a perceived Islamist bias through a referendum. The moves were punctuated by street violence.
Mursi’s national dialogue meeting on Monday to help end the crisis was spurned by his main opponents.
They say Mursi hijacked the revolution, listens only to his Islamist allies and broke a promise to be a president for all Egyptians. Islamists say their rivals want to overthrow by undemocratic means Egypt’s first freely elected leader.
Thousands of anti-Mursi protesters were out on the streets again in Cairo and elsewhere on Monday, the second anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in the revolution which erupted on January 25, 2011 and ended Mubarak’s iron rule 18 days later.
“The people want to bring down the regime,” they chanted Alexandria. “Leave means go, and don’t say no!” they shouted.
VOLLEYS OF TEARGAS
Propelled to the presidency in a June election by the Muslim Brotherhood, Mursi has lurched through a series of political crises and violent demonstrations, complicating his task of shoring up the economy and of preparing for a parliamentary election to cement the new democracy in a few months.
Instability in Egypt has raised concerns in Western capitals, where officials worry about the direction of a key regional player that has a peace deal with Israel.
In Cairo on Monday, police fired volleys of teargas at stone-throwing protesters near Tahrir Square, cauldron of the anti-Mubarak uprising. A car was torched on a nearby bridge.
A 46-year-old bystander was killed by a gunshot early on Monday, a security source said. It was not clear who fired.
“We want to bring down the regime and end the state that is run by the Muslim Brotherhood,” said Ibrahim Eissa, a 26-year-old cook, protecting his face from teargas wafting towards him.
The political unrest has been exacerbated by street violence linked to death penalties imposed on soccer supporters convicted of involvement in stadium rioting in Port Said a year ago.
As part of emergency measures, a daily curfew will be imposed on the three canal cities from 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) to 6 a.m. (0400 GMT). Residents have said they will defy it.
The president announced the measures on television on Sunday: “The protection of the nation is the responsibility of everyone. We will confront any threat to its security with force and firmness within the remit of the law,” Mursi said, angering many of his opponents when he wagged his finger at the camera.
He offered condolences to families of victims. But his invitation to Islamist allies and their opponents to hold a national dialogue was spurned by the main opposition National Salvation Front coalition. Those who accepted were mostly Mursi’s supporters or sympathizers.