March 12 Photo Brief: Harry Styles is sized up, Central Europe deals with snow, Cheltenham horse racing, Israel prepares for Obama
Harry Styles is sized up, Central Europe deals with snow, Cheltenham horse racing returns, Israel prepares for Obama and more in today’s daily brief.
- A Balinese man kicks up fire during the “Perang Api” ritual ahead of Nyepi day, which falls on Tuesday in Gianyar on the Indonesian island of Bali. Nyepi is a day of silence for self-reflection to celebrate the Balinese Hindu new year, where Hindus in Bali observe meditation and fasting, but are not allowed to work, cook, light lamps or conduct any other activities. (Reuters)
- Mandrill “Napo” yawns in his enclosure at the zoo in Dresden, eastern Germany. After the birth of his son “Tacari”, Napo’s troop counts now six monkeys. (Matthias Hiekel/Getty Images)
- In this handout image provided by Madame Tussauds, Harry Styles of One Direction poses with calipers during a figure sitting where he is measured for a wax figure creation. Madame Tussauds announced March 11, 2013 that the world famous wax attraction will immortalize the band by creating five individual wax figures of each member. The figures are being created in full cooperation with the band and will be part of a traveling exhibit that will launch in London on April 18 before traveling to New York, July 19 – October 11, and Sydney, October 24 – January 28. (Madame Tussauds via Getty Images)
- A traditional Kathakali performer puts on makeup before an event organized by India’s Kerala state Tourism Department in Bangalore. Revenue from tourism brought some 211.25 billion rupees (4 billion USD) to the southern Indian state. (Manjunath Kiran/Getty Images)
- A worker at a factory in Kfar Saba near Tel Aviv cuts fabric printed with U.S. flags ordered ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel. It was the most work the factory has had since Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visited Israel in 1977, owner Avi Marom said on Tuesday. The White House has yet to officially announce the dates for the trip, but Israeli news media have reported that Obama will arrive in Israel on March 20. (Nir Elias/Reuters)
- Radio telescope antennas of the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) project, in the Atacama desert, some 1500 km north of Santiago. The ALMA, an international partnership project of Europe, North America and East Asia with the cooperation of Chile, is presently the largest astronomical project in the world. On Wednesday March 13 will be opened 66 high precision antennas, located at 5000 of altitude in the extremely arid Atacama desert. (Martin Bernetti/Getty Images)
- Truck drivers who were involved in an accident, stand next the wreckage of vehicles on highway A45 between Giessen and Hanau near the city of Woelfersheim. More than 100 vehicles were involved in a multiple pile-up on Tuesday after they crashed on the snowy highway, police at the scene said. Several people were injured in the incident. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)
- A woman walks on a snowy road in Caen, northwestern France, during a heavy snow storm on France. Overnight Monday nearly 500 cars were blocked near Cherbourg where snowdrifts piled up 60 centimetres (almost two feet) as winds reached 100 kilometres (more than 60 miles) an hour. Twenty-six regions in northwest and northern France were put on orange alert because of heavy snowfalls, which Meteo France said were “remarkable for the season because of the expected quantity and length of time”. (Charly Triballeau/Getty Images)
- A person rides a scooter on the N118 road around Paris during a heavy snow storm. A heavy late-winter snowstorm hit northwestern Europe on March 12, paralyzing transport, knocking out power to thousands and leaving hundreds stranded in their cars (Franck Fife/Getty Images)
- Alexander Yushkov, 49, a boiler room operator in a local mining company, drives his self-made three-wheeled cross-country vehicle called “Bolivar” near the frozen Mana river in a remote taiga area, some 60 km (37 miles) southeast of Russia’s Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. Yushkov created the vehicle for off-road travel across the taiga through all possible weather conditions by modifying and reconstructing a 1971 Soviet made “Izh Planeta” motorcycle. (Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)
- More than 15,000 people march in silence in Belgrade, marking the 10th anniversary of murder of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, the first democratically elected Prime Minister in post-communist Serbia. Djindjic was shot and killed by a single sniper in broad daylight at the doorstep of a Serbian government building. (Andrej Isakovic/Getty Images)
- People help a driver to move his bus after activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) set fire to it during a nationwide strike in Dhaka. Police on Monday arrested more than 200 opposition leaders, including BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir following a violent clash in front of their party office. The BNP announced a nationwide dawn-to-dusk shutdown on Tuesday, claiming that Monday’s raid on the BNP office was an attack on the opposition 18-party rally, local media reported. (Andrew Biraj/Reuters)
- A hostess (L) poses on Tiananmen Square as they wait for delegates to return from the closing session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Thousands of delegates from across China met this week to seal a power transfer to new leaders whose first months running the Communist Party have pumped up expectations with a deluge of propaganda. (Ed Jones/Getty Images)
- Traore Madani, 62, walks waving two French flags in the “Quartier 5” district of Bamako. Since the start of the French military action in Mali, Traore Madani every day takes to the streets of Bamako to praise on French President Francois Hollande. (Kenzo Tribouillard/Getty Images)
- France’s rugby union national team captain Thierry Dusautoir (R) work out a scrummaging during a training session in Marcoussis, south of Paris, as part of the preparation for the Six Nations rugby union tournament. France will play Scotland in their 2013 Six nations rugby match in Paris. (Franck Fife/Getty Images)
- Olympic medalist swimmer Michael Phelps poses with local children at the Laureus visit to Rocinha during the 2013 Laureus World Sports Awards in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Jamie McDonald/Getty Images For Laureus)
- A horse returns from the gallops at the Cheltenham racecourse in western England. (Stefan Wermuth/Reuters)
- Poole Master falls, unseating jockey Tom Scudamore during the Specialty Handicap Steeple Chase at the Cheltenham Festival horse racing meet in Gloucestershire, western England. (Stefan Wermuth/Reuters)
- Racegoers react to the first race of the day during the Cheltenham Festival horse racing meet in Gloucestershire, western England. (Eddie Keogh/Reuters)
- North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) waves while in a boat during his visit to the Wolnae Islet Defence Detachment in the western sector of the front line, which is near Baengnyeong Island of South Korea. South Korea and U.S. forces are conducting large-scale military drills, while the North is also gearing up for a massive military exercise. North Korea has accused the U.S. of using the military drills in the South as a launch pad for a nuclear war and has said to scrap the armistice with the U.S. that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. (KCNA via Reuters)
- North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) visits the Wolnae Islet Defence Detachment in the western sector of the front line, which is near Baengnyeong Island of South Korea. (KCNA via Reuters)
- A Free Syrian Army fighter mourns at the grave of his father who was killed by what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, in a public park that has been converted into a makeshift graveyard in Deir el-Zor. (Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)
- An Israeli soldier collects wheat stalks as her comrades search for remains at the site of a helicopter crash in a field near Kibbutz Revadim in southern Israel. The Israeli air force helicopter crashed in southern Israel on Tuesday killing its two pilots, the Israeli military said. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)