May 6 Photo Brief: Gun debate continues, NSU neo-Nazi murder trial, pink dolphins on the decline
Debate over guns continues in the U.S., NSU neo-Nazi murder trial begins in Germany, pink dolphins on the decline in China and more in today’s daily brief.
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- Demonstrators struggle with riot police men outside the entrance to the courtroom at the Oberlandesgericht Muenchen court building on the first day of the NSU neo-Nazi murder trial on May 6, 2013 in Munich, Germany. The main defendant, Beate Zschaepe, is on trial for her role in assisting Uwe Boehnhardt and Uwe Mundlos in the murder of nine immigrants and one policewoman across Germany between 2000 and 2007. Four other co-defendants, including Ralf Wohlleben, Holder G., Carsten S. and Andre E., are accused of assisting the trio. (Johannes Simon/Getty Images)
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- People display placards during a demonstration in front of the White House in Washington on May 6, 2013, calling for stricter gun laws. US President Barack Obama pushed hard for tougher gun controls, and finally got a bill onto the Senate floor that would have expanded background checks for gun buyers. But while the National Rifle Association (NRA) once supported universal background checks, it fought hard against the measure, which was defeated on April 17. (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A pink assault rifle hangs among others at an exhibit booth at the George R. Brown convention center, the site for the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) annual meeting in Houston, Texas May 5, 2013. The National Rifle Association is showcasing women members and emphasizing that increasingly it’s not just men who own firearms and oppose gun-control efforts. Female membership is up, the nation’s leading advocate for gun ownership says, and its revamped website features profiles of “armed and fabulous” women and describes how women are bringing “new energy” to the NRA. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)
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- An Israeli soldier (L) prays inside a net tent pitched close to Merkava tanks deployed in the Israeli annexed Golan Heights near the border with Syria, on May 6, 2013. UN chief Ban Ki-moon has appealed for restraint after Israeli air strikes on targets near Damascus which prompted Syrian officials to warn “missiles are ready” to retaliate. (Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Activists of Hefajat-e Islam chase police officers during a clash in Narayanganj May 6, 2013. At least seven people were killed on Monday in clashes in Bangladesh between police and hardline Islamists demanding reforms that critics say would amount to the “Talibanisation” of a country that maintains secularism as state policy. (Stringer/Reuters)
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- Winter swimmers wave on a piece of drifting ice with a Chinese national flag on the Amur River, in the Chinese border city of Heihe, Heilongjiang province May 6, 2013. (China Daily/Reuters)
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- Young African migrants wait in the sand after escaping their captors in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Many of them had been held in bondage for months after being kidnapped or given false promises of finding work in Israel. (Ahmed Abu-Deraa/Los Angeles Times/MCT)
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- Members of a Russian team that looks for the lost remains of Red Army soldiers killed while fighting against Nazi Germany’s forces during World War II prepare for a reburial ceremony of the excavated soldiers remains outside Russia’s second city of St.Petersburg, on May 6 2013. The remains of 244 Red Army soldiers will be reburied tomorrow two days before the 68th anniversary of the Soviet victory over the Nazi Germany in the World War II. (Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Supporters of Boca Juniors cheer their team during their Argentine First Division football match against River Plate, at the Bombonera stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 5, 2013. (Alejandro Pagni/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Thai soldiers (L) inspect a vehicle carrying dogs in cages in Bueng Kan province near the Thai-Laos border on May 6, 2013. Hundreds of dogs crammed into cages have been seized in less than a week in Thailand’s northeast border region, officials said, amid concerns that the canines were destined for overseas dinner plates. (AFP/Getty Images)
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- Baby green sea turtles, known locally as the krape, crawl to the water from their nest on Babunsanti Beach in the Galibi nature reserve situated on the eastern edge of the Marowijne River estuary, May 5, 2013. Apart from natural threats from vultures, sand crabs and jaguars, game wardens also consider poachers to be a major danger to the survival of this endangered species of turtle as they steal their eggs to sell for consumption in the cities. (Ranu Abhelakh/Reuters)
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- This photo taken on March 17, 2012 shows a Chinese white dolphin swimming in waters off the coast of Hong Kong. Conservationists warned on May 6, 2013 that Hong Kong may lose its rare Chinese white dolphins, also known as pink dolphins for their unique color, unless it takes urgent action against pollution and other threats. Their numbers in Hong Kong waters have fallen from an estimated 158 in 2003 to just 78 in 2011, with a further decline expected when figures for 2012 are released next month, said the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society. (Laurent Fievet/AFP/Getty Images)
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- The sun sets on Botafogo bay with the Christ the Reedemer statue on the Corcovado mountain in the background in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on May 5, 2013. (Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Staff members standby before a meeting between China’s President Xi Jinping and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, May 6, 2013. (Jason Lee/Reuters)
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- Karma, a 14 month Thoroughbred, is operated on for inferior and superior check ligament desmotomy at the Weipers Equine Hospital theatre in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Glasgow on May 1, 2013 in Glasgow, Scotland. One of only two veterinary schools in Scotland, University of Glasgow School Of Veterinary Medicine was founded in 1862 by James McCall. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
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- A person wears a costume along the streets of the Penon de los Banos neighborhood in Mexico City, on May 5, 2013, commemorating the anniversary of Mexico’s victory over France in the 1862’s Battle of Puebla. (Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Children pose for a photograph under a sign indicating the direction and distance to the Lebanese capital Beirut and to Jerusalem at the Israel-Lebanon border crossing in Rosh Hanikra, on May 6, 2013. (Ahmad Gharabali/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Lucha libre wrestlers Matt Classic (bottom R) and teammate Mini Matt Classic taunt Cholitito during their fight during the Lucha VaVOOM show as part of a Cinco de Mayo celebration at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles, California May 5, 2013. Cinco de Mayo, Spanish for the fifth of May, commemorates the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)
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- A farmer harvests wheat on a field in Kathmandu May 6, 2013. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)
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- An Indian farmer takes rest after unloading mangoes at the Gaddiannaram Fruit Market, on the outskirts of Hyderabad on May 6, 2013. The ruling Indian Congress-led government has been battered by a spate of corruption scandals and is keen to revive growth before facing voters in polls due in early next year. (Noah Seelam/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A team wears inflatable dolphins during the Stilton Village Festival cheese rolling competition on May 6, 2013 in Stilton, England. Local people are currently involved in a campaign to bring Stilton cheese making back to the village. The cheese is currently made in the counties of Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
RELATED
At least 20 dead in Islamist protests in Bangladesh
Ruma Paul | Reuters
1:31 p.m. EDT, May 6, 2013
DHAKA (Reuters) – At least 20 Bangladeshis were killed on Monday in clashes between police and hardline Islamists demanding religious reforms, as violence spread beyond the capital Dhaka to other parts of the country.
The clashes began on Sunday after 200,000 Islamist supporters marched in Dhaka to press demands critics said would amount to the “Talibanisation” of a country that maintains secularism as state policy, but they were met by lines of police firing teargas and rubber bullets.
On Monday, hundreds of protesters, many wearing white Muslim skull caps and throwing stones, re-grouped and police fired teargas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse them.
Protesters set fire to vehicles, including two police cars, and stormed a police post on the outskirts of the capital, police said.
Two policemen and a member of a paramilitary force were among the 13 people killed in the capital, said police official Shah Mohammad Manzur Kader.
Five more died in the southeastern city of Chittagong after police opened fire on protesters attacking their station and two were killed in Bagerhat in the south.
On Sunday, four people were killed and hundreds injured in the clashes, according to hospital officials.
The protests are led by a group called Hefajat-e-Islam, which set the government a May 5 deadline to introduce a new blasphemy law, reinstate pledges to Allah in the constitution, ban women from mixing freely with men and make Islamic education mandatory.
The government of the overwhelming Muslim country has rejected the demands.
The clash of ideologies could plunge Bangladesh into a cycle of violence as the two main political parties, locked in decades of mutual distrust, exploit the tension between secularists and Islamists ahead of elections that are due by next January.
Bangladesh has been rocked by protests and counter-protests since January, when a tribunal set up by the government to investigate abuses during a 1971 war of independence from Pakistan sentenced to death in absentia a leader of the main Muslim party, the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Jamaat opposed Bangladeshi independence from Pakistan in the war but denies accusations that some of its leaders committed murder, rape and torture during the conflict.
The Hefajat-e-Islam emerged from the protests over the tribunal.
More than 100 people have been killed in the clashes this year, most of them Islamist party activists and members of the security forces.
The troubles have cast a shadow over economic prospects at a time when industrial accidents, such as the April 24 collapse of a garment factory complex where more than 600 people died , are raising questions about investing and buying cheap products from the country.
(Editing by Robert Birsel and Mike Collett-White; Editing by Michael Roddy)
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