April 17 Photo Brief: Pope Francis swaps caps, counterfeit benjamins, military exercises, cyclists tackle the Wall of Huy, Thatcher funeral
Pope Francis swaps caps with a stranger, counterfeit benjamins in Peru, military exercises in Taiwan and South Korea, cyclists tackle the Wall of Huy, Britain turns out for Margaret Thatcher’s funeral and more in today’s daily brief.
- Motorists drive with their lights during a heavy sandstorm in Yecheng county, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The sandstorm affected several cities including Kashi, Hetian and Kezhou. (Getty Images)
- A pack of riders climbs the “Wall of Huy” during the Fleche Wallonne Classic cycling race in Huy. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters)
- The pack climbs the Mur de Huy during the 77th edition of the ‘La Fleche Wallonne’ cycling race, 205km from Binche to Huy. (Eric Lalmand/Getty Images)
- Spanish cyclist Daniel Moreno Fernandez rides to the finish line to win the 77th edition of the Fleche Wallonne one-day cycling race, 205 km from Binche to Huy. The 31-year-old – whose team leader Joaquim Rodriguez won last year – beat two Colombians Sergio Henao and Carlos Alberto Betancur to the line in the 205km race. (Lionel Boneventure/Getty Images)
- A boy rides his bicycle on a flooded street in Sanaa, Yemen. (Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)
- People push a mini-bus stuck on a flooded street after an engine malfunction in Sanaa, Yemen. (Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)
- Pope Francis swaps his skullcap with another one given to him by a faithful as he arrives to lead the weekly audience in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (Tony Gentile/Reuters)
- Ninety-seven-year-old Mercedes Rosa Ruiz Mejia (front L) from Nicaragua joins over 5,000 other immigrants waving U.S. flags after taking the oath of citizenship during a naturalization ceremony to become new citizens of the U.S. in Los Angeles. President Barack Obama on Tuesday embraced a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s immigration system put forward by a bipartisan group of senators, saying it was “largely consistent” with his own principles for immigration reform. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)
- A visitor looks at two-year-old hippo Valecek walking outside a swimming pool at the recently open enclosure in Prague Zoo. (Petr Josek/Reuters)
- A Pakistani earthquake survivor carries a goat among the rubble of collapsed mud houses in the Mashkail area of southwestern Baluchistan province. Pakistani troops scrambled to aid the remote victims of an earthquake centred in nearby Iran, as the United States offered assistance and a strong aftershock jolted the region. The epicentre of the 7.8 magnitude quake on April 16, lay in southeast Iran but all 40 deaths reported so far have been across the border in Pakistan’s dirt-poor province of Baluchistan, where hundreds of mud-built homes suffered damage. (Banaras Khan/Getty Images)
- Rockets are launched from the Thunderbolt 2000, a Taiwan-made multi-rocket launcher system, during a military drill in western Penghu islands. Taiwan’s defense ministry on April 17 staged its biggest live-fire military exercise since 2008, aimed at reviewing the island’s defence capability against a simulated Chinese invasion. (Sam Yeh/Getty Images)
- South Korean soldiers walk through smoke as they take part in an anti-terror and security drill at the Integrated Government Complex in Sejong, south of Seoul. North Korea issued new threats against South Korea on Tuesday, vowing “sledge-hammer blows” of retaliation if South Korea did not apologize for anti-North Korean protests the previous day when the North was celebrating the birth of its founding leader. (Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)
- An Afghan soldier belonging to the Field Artillery Division of the Afghan National Army (ANA), Kandak 6, checks the barrel of the D30 Howitzer gun prior to a test fire during a training session of ANA soldiers at Forward Base Honaker Miracle at Watahpur District in Kunar province. Budget cuts and war fatigue in Western capitals mean the 100,000 soldiers left serving in NATO’s International Security Assistance Force are packing up and taking off as the mission prepares to close next year. (Manjunath Kiran/Getty Images)
- Counterfeit U.S. dollar notes are displayed during a media conference in Lima. Approximately 10 million U.S. dollars and 12 million Peruvian Nuevos Soles counterfeit bills were found by the police in an illegal laboratory, the police department said. (Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Reuters)
- The coffin of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher is carried as it arrives for her funeral service at St Paul’s Cathedral, in London. Thatcher, who was Conservative prime minister between 1979 and 1990, died on April 8 at the age of 87. (Stefan Wermuth/Reuters)
- The Bearer Party made up of personnel from the three branches of the military carry the coffin of British former prime minister Margaret Thatcher out of St Paul’s Cathedral at the end of her ceremonial funeral in central London. The funeral of Margaret Thatcher took place on April 17, with Queen Elizabeth II leading mourners from around the world in bidding farewell to one of Britain’s most influential and divisive prime ministers. (Gareth Fuller/Getty Images)
- Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and Britain’s Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, leave St Paul’s Cathedral at the end of the ceremonial funeral of British former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in central London. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
- Britain’s Queen Elizabeth (front L) and Mark Thatcher (R), son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, watch as her coffin arrives in St Paul’s Cathedral for the funeral service, in London. (Paul Edwards/Reuters)
- The coffin of British former prime minister Margaret Thatcher is carried on a gun carriage drawn by the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery during her ceremonial funeral in central London. The funeral of Margaret Thatcher took place on April 17, with Queen Elizabeth II leading mourners from around the world in bidding farewell to one of Britain’s most influential and divisive prime ministers. (Paul Ellis/Getty Images)