Feb. 26 Photo Brief: Midwest snowstorm, crowded Indian trains, Thailand flooding, flying trees, Whirlpool galaxy and supernova
Midwest snowstorm, crowded Indian trains, Thailand flooding, flying trees, Whirlpool galaxy, supernova and more in today’s daily brief.
- Pedestrians walk down snowswept streets after a snowstorm hit the midwest in Prairie Village, Kansas. This is the second major snowstorm the midwest has seen this week dropping a half-foot or more of snow across Missouri and Kansas and cutting power to thousands. (Julie Denesha/Getty Images)
- A cut down tree is transported away by a helicopter in Hannoversch Muenden, central Germany. Several trees that threatened to fall on railway tracks were cut down and removed by air as the surrounding steep slopes made impossible a transport by truck. (Uwe Zucchi/Getty Images)
- This NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory image shows a highly distorted supernova remnant that may contain the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy. The composite image combines X-rays from Chandra (blue and green), radio data from the Very Large Array (pink), and infrared data from the Palomar Observatory (yellow). Most supernova explosions that destroy massive stars are generally symmetrical. In the W49B supernova, however, it appears that the material near its poles was ejected at much higher speeds than that at its equator. There is also evidence that the explosion that produced W49B left behind a black hole and not a neutron star like most other supernovas. (NASA)
- The Whirlpool Galaxy, a classic spiral galaxy, is pictured in this NASA handout photo. At only 30 million light years distant and fully 60 thousand light years across, M51, also known as NGC 5194, is one of the brightest and most picturesque galaxies on the sky. This image is a digital combination of a ground-based image from the 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory and a space-based image from the Hubble Space Telescope highlighting sharp features normally too red to be seen. (NASA)
- A model presents a creation by Belgian designer Cedric Charlier as part of his Fall-Winter 2013/2014 women’s ready-to-wear fashion show during Paris fashion week. (Benoit Tessier/Reuters)
- Malian Army soldier Seydou Couilibaly, 30, poses in the northern city of Gao. French and Malian government forces reconquered on January 26 the city opf Gao, two weeks after Paris launched an offensive in the north. (Joel Sagat/Getty Images)
- A boy walks past metal doors and windows on a house in Gao. (Joe Penney/Reuters)
- A Belgian medical evacuation helicopter takes off during a demonstration for Belgian Defence Minister Pieter De Crem at the French military headquarters at a Malian air base in Gao. (Joe Penney/Reuters)
- A child sits under The Colonnade in Vatican City, Vatican. The Pontiff will hold his last weekly public audience before he retires. Pope Benedict XVI has been the leader of the Catholic Church for eight years and is the first Pope to retire since 1415. He cites ailing health as his reason for retirement and will spend the rest of his life in solitude away from public engagements (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel walk along a section of the recently-constructed fence at the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Arizona. The newest generation of fencing allows Border Patrol agents to see through the fence and is harder to scale from the Mexican side. (John Moore/Getty Images)
- Military jet fighter take part in a military exercise at Udaira military range, 140 km North of Kuwait City as part of joint GCC military exercises that took place during celebrations to mark the 52nd Independence Day of the Gulf state and the 22nd anniversary of the end of the Gulf war with the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. (Yasser Al-Zayyat/Getty Images)
- Ultra-Orthodox Jews celebrate the Jewish festival of Purim in the religious neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem. Purim marks the deliverance of the Jewish people from a genocidal plot in ancient Persia, as recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther. (Menahem Kahana/Getty Images)
- British Conservative MP Gregory Barker and his dog Otto canvas for votes on behalf of his party’s candidate for the Eastleigh by-election, Maria Hutchings, in southern England. A by-election in Eastleigh was triggered by the resignation of former Liberal Democrat Cabinet Minister Chris Huhne, who earlier this month admitted perverting the course of justice. The by-election will be held on Thursday February 28, 2013. (Adrian Dennis/Getty Images)
- A girl stands before portraits of former Chinese leaders (L – R) Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi in Beijing. On March 5 China will convene a key legislative session, state media reported, with new Communist Party chief Xi Jingping set to become president during the two-week meeting. (Ed Jones/Getty Images)
- Boys play in flood waters in a school during heavy rain fall, as floods hit parts of Thailand’s restive southern province of Narathiwat. Thailand’s southernmost provinces near the Malaysian border suffer almost daily gun and bomb attacks by shadowy insurgents fighting for greater autonomy. (Madaree Tohlala/Getty Images)
- Karadeniz Powership Fatmagul Sultan docks at the newly set wave breaker in front of Lebanon’s main electricity plant of Zouk. A member of Karadeniz Holding’s powership fleet, Fatmagul Sultan, arrived in Beirut to supply Lebanon with electricity. (Joseph Eid/Getty Images)
- Indian passengers travel on a local train in New Delhi when Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal unveiled the railway budget in parliament. The railway, the country’s largest employer with some 1.4 million people on its payroll, runs 11,000 passenger and freight trains and carries 19 million people daily. (Raveendran/Getty Images)
- Indian women travel in a crowded coach on a train at a railway station in New Delhi when Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal unveiled the railway budget in parliament. The railway, the country’s largest employer with some 1.4 million people on its payroll, runs 11,000 passenger and freight trains and carries 19 million people daily. (Manan Vatsyayana/Getty Images)
- US President Barack Obama is seen in the Oval Office as he leaves the White House in Washington, DC, en route Newport News, Virginia. Obama will paint a devastating picture of looming government budget cuts, at a fabled shipbuilding yard in Virginia that provides the US Navy’s nuclear powered aircraft carriers. The trip will intensify the president’s effort to hike pressure on Republicans to agree on tax increases to avert $85 billion in automatic spending cuts this year, which experts warn could stagger the fragile economy. The White House said the cuts, known as “the sequester” which are due to hit on March 1, would see 90,000 civilian defense workers furloughed in Virginia alone and would hurt companies in 50 states that supply shipbuilders. (Jewel Samad/Getty Images)
- An employee dressed in a panda costume talks to a customer during the soft opening of a panda-themed hotel at the foot of Emei Mountain, in southwest China’s Sichuan province. According to local media, the hotel is the first panda-themed hotel in the world and will officially open in May with room rates from 300 ($48) to 500 yuan per night. (China Daily)
- An employee dressed in a panda costume poses for a photo during the soft opening of a panda-themed hotel at the foot of Emei Mountain, in southwest China’s Sichuan province. According to local media, the hotel is the first panda-themed hotel in the world and will officially open in May with room rates from 300 ($48) to 500 yuan per night. (China Daily)
- Stephen Knapp (L) is comforted by Charles Maikish, former World Trade Center Director, as mourners and family members of victims participate in a 20th anniversary memorial for victims of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. (Keith Bedford/Reuters)