Jan. 30 Photo Brief: Giggle doctors, a gaggle of Gandhis, a tiger by the tail, Gabby Giffords, canned air for China
Giggle doctors, a gaggle of Gandhis, a tiger by the tail, Gabby Giffords, canned air for China and more in today’s daily brief.
- Keepers hold a white tiger cub during an examination at the Serengeti wildlife park in Hodenhagen, central Germany. The tiger cub was born at the park in October 2012. (Julian Stratenschulte/Getty Images)
- Around 2OO “Clown Doctors” or “Giggle Doctors” of the children care foundation Theodora gather on the Federal Place during a trip to Bern, Switzerland. Hospital clowns from around the world are on a week course in Rolle, western Switzerland. The Theodora foundation was created in 1993 with the goal of relieving the suffering of hospitalized children through regular visits by professional artists called the “Clown/Giggle Doctors”. (Sebasten Bozon/Getty Images)
- One of the clows blows bubbles as around 2OO “Clown Doctors” or “Giggle Doctors” of the children care foundation Theodora gather on January 30, 2013 on the Federal Place during a trip to Bern, Switzerland. Hospital clowns from around the world are on a week course in Rolle, western Switzerland. The Theodora foundation was created in 1993 with the goal of relieving the suffering of hospitalized children through regular visits by professional artists called the “Clown/Giggle Doctors”. AFP PHOTO / SEBASTIEN BOZONSEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/Getty Images ORG XMIT:
- Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (L) delivers her opening remarks while seated next to her husband, former U.S. Navy Captain Mark Kelly, during a hearing held by the Senate Judiciary committee about guns and violence on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Larry Downing/Reuters)
- Members of the 2013 ‘Jarl Squad’ take part in the annual Up Helly Aa festival which culminates in the burning of a Viking Galley in Lerwick, Shetland Islands. Up Helly Aa celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands and has employed this theme in the festival since 1870. The event culminates with up to 1,000 ‘guizers’ (men in costume) throwing flaming torches into their Viking longboat. AFP PHOTO / ANDY BUCHANANAndy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images ORG XMIT:
- Flames engulf the dragon’s head on a viking longboat as it is set on fire during the Up Helly Aa fire festival in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Scotland. The Up Helly Aa festival, introduced by men returning from the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, takes place annually on the last Tuesday of January. (David Moir/Reuters)
- A woman rides a bike in the heavy smog with a mask on a street in Haozhou, central China’s Anhui province. Across China public frustration mounted this week as dense smog blanketed swathes of the country, with even state-run media questioning the authorities’ ability to meet their goal of building a “beautiful China”. (Getty Images)
- Buildings are shrouded in the heavy smog in Jilin, northeast China’s Jilin province. Beijing urged residents to stay indoors on January 30 as emergency measures were rolled out aimed at countering a heavy cloud of smog blanketing the Chinese capital and swathes of the country. (Getty Images)
- Chinese multimillionaire Chen Guangbiao (R) gives a can of fresh air to a man wearing a mask on a hazy day in central Beijing. China’s foulest fortnight for air pollution in memory has rekindled a tongue-in-cheek campaign by a Chinese multimillionaire with a streak of showmanship who is raising the alarm by selling canned fresh air. Chen, who made his fortune in the recycling business and is a high-profile philanthropist, on Wednesday handed out soda pop-sized cans of air, purportedly from far-flung and pristine regions of China, from Xinjiang in the far northwest to Taiwan off China’s southeast coast. (Barry Huang/Reuters)
- A worker moves coal briquettes onto a pedicab at a coal distribution business in Huaibei, central China’s Anhui province . Environmental concerns — particularly over the use of coal — have been pushed to the top of the agenda after much of the country was covered with a blanket of pollution this past month. The air quality index (AQI) from the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre reached 993 during the worst of the pollution, almost 40 times the World Health Organisation’s recommended safe limit. (Getty Images)
- A damaged British Academy of Film and Television Arts award is recycled in a furnace to make new ones at the New Pro Founderies in West Drayton, west London. The awards ceremony for the BAFTAs, formally called the EE British Academy Film Awards, takes place in London on Feb. 10. Britain’s (Luke MacGregor/Reuters)
- School children dressed as Mahatma Gandhi assemble to mark his anniversary in the southern Indian city of Chennai. Gandhi, leader of the Indian nationalist non-violent movement against British rule, was assassinated in 1948. India observes Gandhi’s death anniversary as Martyr’s day. (Babu/Reuters)
- Newly initiated ‘Naga Sadhus’ perform rituals on the bank of the Ganga River during the Maha Kumbh festival in Allahabad. During every Kumbh Mela, the diksha – ritual of initiation by a guru – program for new members takes place. (Sanjay Kanojia/Getty Images)
- 91-year-old Leonarda Shved eats at her house in the Belarus village of Priterpa, some 55 km southeast of the capital Minsk. (Victor Drachev/Getty Images)
- Protesters clash with riot police outside the Labour Ministry in Athens. Police were called in on Wednesday to dislodge around 30 Communist unionists from the labour ministry in a protest against new pension cut plans. The unionists were arrested and police used tear gas outside the building to disperse a larger group of protesters demanding their release. (Aris Messinis/Getty Images)
- An injured protester lays on the street outside the Labour Ministry in Athens. Police were called in on Wednesday to dislodge around 30 Communist unionists from the labour ministry in a protest against new pension cut plans. The unionists were arrested and police used tear gas outside the building to disperse a larger group of protesters demanding their release. (Aris Messinis/Getty Images)
- A photographer takes a photo as Germany’s team pilot Francesco Friedrich (front), Gino Gerhardi, Axel Christ and Thorsten Margis speed down the Horse Shoe Corner during the fourth training run of the four-man competition at the Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Championships 2013, in the Swiss mountain resort of St. Moritz. (Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)
- NASA astronaut Kevin Ford, Expedition 34 commander, watches a water bubble float freely between him and the camera, showing his image refracted, in the Unity node of the International Space Station. (NASA/Reuters)
- An Ivory Coast supporter reacts before their African Nations Cup (AFCON 2013) Group D soccer match against Algeria in Rustenburg. (Mike Hutchings/Reuters)
- Ukrainian nationalists, carrying torches, march in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv marking the 95th anniversary of a battle near the small city of Kruty. 300 students, cadets and schoolboys were killed, during a combat against the regular Red Army on 29 January, 1918, to protect the new-born Ukraine’s People Republic against Bolshevik aggression. (Sergei Supinsky/Getty Images)
- A policewoman stands in front of a water main break, resulting in a jet of water taller than a nine story building rocketing skywards in a geyser-like effect, in Rome. (Tony Gentile/Reuters)
- A Korea Space Launch Vehicle-I (KSLV-I) takes off from its launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, 350 km south of Seoul. South Korea succeeded in its third attempt to put a satellite into orbit, in a high-stakes test of national pride after arch-rival North Korea got there first with a rocket launch last month. (Korea Aerospace Research Institute/Getty Images)