April 12 Photo Brief: Fire, flooding, poverty, Merkel muffins and bird flu
Angela Merkel muffins served in Germany, poverty continues its devastating toll in India, the volcanic Mount Etna erupts in Italy, poultry production ramps up rapid testing for H7N9 in China and more in today’s daily brief.
- Muffins with a portrait of German Chancellor Angela Merkel are offered for consumption at the market place of Stendal, eastern Germany, where Merkel was expected for a visit. (Jens Wolf/AFP/Getty Images)
- Residents stand by burning houses after a fire engulfed a township in Mandalay, central Myanmar. Some 200 houses were destroyed in the fire as the regional government was investigating the cause of the disaster. (Kyaw Zay WinK/AFP/Getty Images)
- A track marshal sleeps as Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen of Finland (background) drives past during the second practice session of the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. (Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images)
- A man paddles on a boat with his wife in a flooded street during spring flood in a village of Vereshitsa near Pripyat river, some 300 km south of Minsk, Belarus. (Viktor Drachev/AFP/Getty Images)
- A car is parked near a house in a flooded street during spring flood in a village of Vereshitsa near Pripyat river, some 300 km south of Minsk. (Viktor Drachev/AFP/Getty Images)
- Goats are tied on a barricade as policemen stand guard in front of the prefecture in Lyon, as part of a protest called by the local farmers’ union FDSEA to demand higher wages. (Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images)
- France’s Pernelle Carron (bottom) and Lloyd Jones (top) perform in the Ice Dance – free dance at the World Team Trophy figure skating competition in Tokyo. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images)
- A boy carries a charred brick to build the boundary wall of his burnt hut after a fire broke out in a slum area in New Delhi. Two people including a child, died on Friday after a fire broke out in the slum area on the outskirts of Delhi gutting several huts, local media reported. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)
- Indian daily labourer, Abdul Rahman, 26, holds his 18 month old daughter, Roona Begum, suffering from Hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid inside the skull that leads to brain swelling, in front of their home in Jirania village on the outskirts of Agartala, the capital of northeastern state of Tripura. Rahman works in a brick factory earning 150 rupees (2.75 USD) a day and does not have the capability to treat his daughter. India’s rural development minister said in November 2012, that the country’s public health system had ‘collapsed’ in a blunt assessment of his government’s failure to extend a social safety net for the poor. (Arindam Dey/AFP/Getty Images)
- A graffiti artwork is pictured through a bullet hole in a panel of artwork at Caju slum, ahead of the inauguration of the Police Peacekeeping Unit (UPP) in this slum in Rio de Janeiro. The introduction of the peacekeeping programme in the region is part of the effort to crack down on crime and ensure security as the city prepares to host the 2014 World Cup soccer matches and the 2016 Olympic Games. (Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)
- A rainbow is pictured from the top of the Sacre-Coeur basilica in the Montmartre district in Paris. (Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images)
- Julian Ovenden (R), who portrays Georges/George performs during the dress rehearsal for ‘Sunday In The Park With George,’ by Stephen Sondheim, at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris. ‘Sunday in the Park with George’ is a musical with the music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine and will run from April 15 to April 25. It was inspired by the painting ‘A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’ painted between 1884 and 1886 by French artist Georges Seurat. (Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)
- This picture taken on April 10, 2013 shows a newly born two-headed pig in a village in Jiujiang, east China’s Jiangxi province. A local veterinarian said it is was suffering a rare deformity and would find it difficult to survive. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)
- A live chicken is seen under a processing production line at a slaughter house in Shanghai. Designated slaughter houses start to intensively purchase live poultry which passed official quarantine inspection at protective prices from breeders in Shanghai on Friday, in order to prevent the transmission of the H7N9 virus. The number of poultry processed in the biggest local slaughter factory rises to around 30,000 from the usual 5,000 per day. After slaughtered, the poultry will be refrigerated and wait for sale in the coming months, according to local media reports. (Stringer/Reuters)
- A round circle of smoke coming from the mouth of the Etna volcano is seen in the sky during an eruption on the southern Italian island of Sicily April 11, 2013. Mount Etna is Europe’s tallest and most active volcano. (Antonio Parrinello/Reuters)
- Italy’s volcanic Mount Etna spews lava during an eruption on the southern Italian island of Sicily April 11, 2013. Mount Etna is Europe’s tallest and most active volcano. (Antonio Parrinello/Reuters)
- Hera, a six-month-old lion cub, runs out of a cage as it is released at Lionsrock Big Cat Sanctuary April 11, 2013. Four Paws Animal Welfare Foundation transferred 4 lions and 2 tigers from a zoo in Onesti, Romania to Lionsock Big Cat Sanctuary in South Africa after the zoo was closed down. More than 100 felines from around the world like lions, tigers, cheetahs or caracals that were originally from zoos, circuses or kept in illegal captivity are hosted and cared for by Four Paws in their 1,242-hectare sanctuary. (Mihai Vasile/Four Paws/Handout/Reuters)
- Elephants spray water at tourists in celebration of the Songkran water festival in Thailand’s Ayutthaya province, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Bangkok. Songkran, the most celebrated festival of the year, marks the start of Thailand’s traditional New Year. (Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters)
- John and Joan Cusack attend the Roger Ebert Memorial Tribute at Chicago Theatre on April 11, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. (Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images)
- A picture taken on April 12, 2013 from a refueling tanker shows a Rafale military aircraft flying over the Avord Air Base, central France. (Miquel Medina/AFP/Getty Images)