March 31 Photo Brief: Easter Sunday, Nelson Mandela, Zombie Walk in Tokyo
Easter Sunday, Nelson Mandela’s condition improving, Zombie Walk in Tokyo and more in today’s daily brief.
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- A family walks past a mural depicting former South African President Nelson Mandela during different times in his life near the Regina Mundi Catholic Church in the Soweto area March 31, 2013 in Johannesburg, South Africa. A central gathering place during he anti-apartheid struggle, the church held prayers for Mandela, 94, who is in the hospital for the third time since December with lung problems. Referring to Mandela by clan name, Madiba, President Jacob Zuma said, “We appeal to the people of South Africa and the world to pray for our beloved Madiba and his family and to keep them in their thoughts.” Mandela’s lungs were damaged when he contracted tuberculosis during his 27 years in the infamous Robben Island prison. Mandela became the nation’s first democratically elected president in 1994 following the end of apartheid. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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- Afghan villagers are reflected mirror as they ride in a traditional cartalong a street in Herat on March 31, 2013. Some nine million Afghans or 36 percent of the population are living in “absolute poverty” while another 37 percent live barely above the poverty line, according to a UN report. (Aref Karimi/AFP/Getty Images)
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- People are silhouetted as the sun rises during an Easter sunrise service in Scituate, Massachusetts March 31, 2013. (Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters)
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- Pope Francis holds a candle during the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday at the St Peter’s basilica on March 30, 2013 at the Vatican. Easter Vigil, also called the Paschal Vigil is a service held in traditional Christian churches as the first official celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus. Historically, it is during this service that people are baptized and that adult catechumens are received into full communion with the Church. (Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Swiss guards stand at attention at the end of the Easter mass led by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican March 31, 2013. (Stefano Rellandini/Reuters)
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- A statue of the Risen Christ is seen during an Easter Sunday procession in Cospicua, outside Valletta March 31, 2013. (Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)
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- Runners with the November Project get ready at the starting line of an Easter Fun Run in Boston, Massachusetts March 31, 2013. (Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters)
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- People stand near a covered body lying next to the wreckage of a passenger bus after it collided with a car near the town of Naolinco, in the western Mexican state of Veracruz March 30, 2013. At least 12 people died when the bus and the car collided in a mountainous part of Veracruz on Saturday evening, local emergency services said. The accident near the town of Naolinco sent the bus tumbling down a slope some 650-1000 feet, and left at least 15 passengers injured, a local official said. (Stringer/Stringer)
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- Rescuers with excavators search for buried mine workers at the site of a landslide on March 30, 2013 in Lhasa, China. A landslide hit a mining area in Maizhokunggar County of Lhasa at about 6 a.m. on Friday, burying 83 miners. (ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)
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- A man walks at a garbage disposal site near the southern Yemeni province of Taiz March 31, 2013. (Mohamed al-Sayaghi/Reuters)
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- A supporter of Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the defeated presidential candidate of the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) reacts after the Supreme Court ruling in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, March 30, 2013. Kenyan police fired teargas on Saturday at hundreds of stone-throwing youths in the western city of Kisumu, a stronghold of Odinga, after a court threw out his challenge to the victory of rival Uhuru Kenyatta. (Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)
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- Jamaican Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt celebrates after winning the “Mano a Mano Men’s 150 metres” challenge on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro March 31, 2013. (Sergio Moraes/Reuters)
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- Indian wrestlers or “Pahalwan” compete at a wrestling ground in the old quarters of New Delhi on March 31, 2013. India’s overall Olympics record may not be much to shout about but its wrestlers have won four of the country’s 13 individual medals, including the first-ever bronze by Khashaba Jadhav in Helsinki in 1952. But the sport’s future looks bleak after the International Olympic Committee’s executive board decided last month that it should be dropped from the 2020 Games. (Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A Hindu covered in coloured powders celebrates “Holi” at a temple in Kuala Lumpur on March 31, 2013. Holi, the festival of colours where people smear each other with coloured powder and water, is celebrated by Hindus across the country. (Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Easter fire is seen on March 30, 2013 in Visselhoevede. (Daniel Reinhardt/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Seagulls fly over a harbour in Travemuende, on March 31, 2013. (Ole Spata/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A baboon yawns in the Hellabrunn zoo in Munich, Germany, on March 31, 2013. (Andreas Gebert/AFP/Getty Images)
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- People, dressed as zombies, pose for photos after the Roppongi Zombie Walk in Tokyo March 31, 2013. About 50 people dressed up as zombies early evening on Sunday, catching the attention of pedestrians on the streets of Tokyo’s downtown Roppongi district. (Yuya Shino/Reuters)
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- People, dressed as zombies, participate in the Roppongi Zombie Walk in Tokyo March 31, 2013. About 50 people dressed up as zombies early evening on Sunday, catching the attention of pedestrians on the streets of Tokyo’s downtown Roppongi district. (Yuya Shino/Reuters)
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- Jurina Oguchi, a 37-year-old office worker who is dressed as a zombie, poses for a photo before the Roppongi Zombie Walk in Tokyo March 31, 2013. About 50 people dressed up as zombies early evening on Sunday, catching the attention of pedestrians on the streets of Tokyo’s downtown Roppongi district. (Yuya Shino/Reuters)
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- People, dressed as zombies, participate in the Roppongi Zombie Walk in Tokyo March 31, 2013. About 50 people dressed up as zombies early evening on Sunday, catching the attention of pedestrians on the streets of Tokyo’s downtown Roppongi district. (Yuya Shino/Reuters)
Pope appeals for end to Korea tensions in first Easter message
Philip Pullella, Reuters
12:33 p.m. EDT, March 31, 2013
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis, appearing before more than 250,000 people for his first Easter Sunday address, called for world peace, respect for the environment and a diplomatic solution to the crisis on the Korean peninsula.
In his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message, he also appealed for a resumption of peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, an end to the civil war in Syria and political solutions to conflicts in several African countries.
The former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, who has made defense of nature an early hallmark of his pontificate, also condemned the “iniquitous exploitation of natural resources” and urged everyone to be “guardians” of creation.
Francis delivered his message from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica – the same spot from where he first appeared to the world as pope after his election on March 13 – to a crowd estimated by the Vatican at more than 250,000.
“Peace in Asia, above all on the Korean peninsula: may disagreements be overcome and a renewed spirit of reconciliation grow,” he said, speaking in Italian.
North Korea said on Saturday it was entering a “state of war” with South Korea. Tensions have been high since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered a third nuclear weapons test in February, breaching U.N. sanctions and ignoring warnings from North Korea’s sole major ally, China, not to do so.
People thronged the open jeep that carried Pope Francis around at the end of a Mass. He stopped to accept a jersey with his “Bergoglio” name on it from fans of an Argentine football club and to comfort a handicapped man.
Francis, who has brought a more simple and personal style to the papacy, said the message of Easter is that faith can help people transform their lives by letting “those desert places in our hearts bloom”.
GUARDIANS OF CREATION
“How many deserts, even today, do human beings need to cross?! Above all, the desert within, when we have no love for God or neighbor, when we fail to realize that we are guardians of all that the creator has given us and continues to give us,” he said.
Earlier, at a Mass in a square bedecked by more than 40,000 plants and flowers, he wore relatively simple white vestments, as opposed to his predecessor Benedict, who preferred elaborate robes.
The huge crowd spilled out of St. Peter’s Square and into surrounding streets. They included many who had come to see a pope counted on to rehabilitate a Church marred by scandals to do with sexual abuse of children and allegations of corruption.
“It’s a new pope and new beginning,” said Tina Hughes, 67, who came to Rome with her family from Nottingham, England to see the pope. “I think he brings something special. He connects with people. I feel good about him.”
Francis, who took his name in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, who is revered as a symbol of austerity and the importance of respecting nature, said the world was “divided by greed looking for easy gain”. He condemned human trafficking and violence linked to drug trafficking.
Easter Sunday, the day Christians believe Jesus was resurrected from the dead three days after his crucifixion, was the culmination of four hectic days of activity for the pope, during which he instituted several novelties.
On Holy Thursday, two women were included among the 12 people whose feet he washed and kissed during a traditional ceremony that had previously been open only to men.
Francis again showed on Sunday that he would carry out his papal duties his own way. The Vatican had prepared a list of brief Easter greetings for him in 65 languages – identical to those read by his predecessors – but he decided not read them, and spoke only in Italian.
Instead of moving into regal papal apartments, he is still living in the Vatican guesthouse where he stayed during the conclave that elected him as the first non-European pope in 1,300 years.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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