June 21 Photo Brief: Summer solstice, mass yoga, deadly floods and prayers in beer bottles
The longest day of the year, smashing bottles releasing prayers to God, “Tropical Spring” protestors in Brazil, “Solstice in Times Square,” deadly flooding in India and more in today’s daily brief.
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- Solstice reveller Mad Al gestures as he joins druids, pagans and revellers celebrating the summer solstice at the megalithic monument of Stonehenge near Amesbury, England. Despite cloudy skies, thousands of revellers gathered at the 5,000 year old stone circle in Wiltshire to see the sunrise on the Summer Solstice dawn. The solstice sunrise marks the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
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- Revellers celebrate the pagan festival of ‘Summer Solstice’ at Stonehenge in Wiltshire in southern England. The festival, which dates back thousands of years, celebrates the longest day of the year when the sun is at its maximum elevation. Modern druids and people gather at the landmark Stonehenge every year to see the sun rise on the first morning of summer. (Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images)
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- People look at the horizon soon after sunrise from the rocky crest filled with astronomical markers at the megalithic observatory of Kokino during the summer solstice. The ancient astronomic observatory, located about 100 kms northeast of Skopje, dates back to more than 4,000 years ago. (Robert Atanasovski/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A long exposure picture of the Kokino megalithic observatory is seen during summer solstice celebration in Kumanovo, Macedonia. The 3,800 years old observatory was discovered in 2001 in the north-western town of Kumanovo 70 km (43 miles) north from capital Skopje and is ranked as the fourth oldest observatory in the world after Egypt’s Abu Simbel, Britain’s Stonehenge and Cambodia’s Angkor Wat according to NASA. (Ognen Teofilovski/Reuters)
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- Bottles filled with water and prayers written on paper are lined up before a prayer service of the Indumiso Yamakholwa In Zion church in the Yeoville neighborhood in Johannesburg, South Africa. After being prayed over and blessed, worshipers will smash the bottles to release the prayers to God. The worn, arid space on top of the Yeoville hill offers worshipers of various Christian denominations from South African, Botswana, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other African nations an open-air space where they can publicly practice their faith with a scenic view of downtown Johannesburg. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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- Members of the Indumiso Yamakholwa In Zion church throw glass bottles containing blessed water and a written prayer and smashing them to release the prayers to God during a ceremony in the Yeoville neighborhood in Johannesburg, South Africa. After being prayed over and blessed, worshipers will smash the bottles to release the prayers to God. The worn, arid space on top of the Yeoville hill offers worshipers of various Christian denominations from South African, Botswana, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other African nations an open-air space where they can publicly practice their faith with a scenic view of downtown Johannesburg. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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- Artists perform during a show of the UniverSoul Circus at National Harbor, Maryland on June 16, 2013. UniverSoul is the only African-American owned circus founded in Atlanta by concert and theater promoter, Cedric Walker. The show includes artists from the United States, Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, France, Vietnam, South Africa, Russia, Brazil and West Africa. (Mladen Antotov/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A demonstrator is shot by rubber bullets as anti riot police officers charge after clashes erupted during a protest against corruption and price hikes, on June 20, 2013, in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilians took to the streets again Thursday in several cities on a new day of mass nationwide protests, demanding better public services and bemoaning massive spending to stage the World Cup. (Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Thousands of people march in the center of Recife, state of Pernambuco, Brazil, on June 20, 2013, during a protest of what is now called the ‘Tropical Spring’ against corruption and price hikes. Brazilians took to the streets again on a new day of mass nationwide protests, demanding better public services and bemoaning massive spending to stage the World Cup. More than one million people have pledged via social media networks to march in 80 cities across Brazil, as the two-week-old protest movement — the biggest seen in the South American country in 20 years — showed no sign of abating. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Young sea lions play in their enclosure at the zoo in Munich, southern Germany. Four young sea lions were born in the months of May and June 2013 at the zoo in Munich which now counts15 sea lions. The pups weigh approximately 4kg and are 45 centimeters tall as they are fed four times a day. (Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A tourist records a video of people in their underwear with his mobile phone before they enter a clothing store in Madrid, Spain. A Spanish retail clothing chain said they would give clothes to people who came in their underwear as part of a promotional publicity stunt. (Sergio Perez/Reuters)
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- A woman in her underwear tries on clothes inside a clothing store in Madrid, Spain. A Spanish retail clothing chain said they would give clothes to people who came in their underwear as part of a promotional publicity stunt. (Sergio Perez/Reuters)
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- Members of the public view a beached whale art installation by ‘Captain Boomer’ a collective of Belgian artists, as it lies on the lawns at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, southeast London. The 17 metre long fibreglass whale aims to draw attention to London’s whaling history and the increasing number of whales and dolphins spotted around the UK coastline. (Will Oliver/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A beached whale art installation by ‘Captain Boomer’ a collective of Belgian artists lies on the lawns at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, southeast London. The 17 metre long fibreglass whale aims to draw attention to London’s whaling history and the increasing number of whales and dolphins spotted around the UK coastline. (Will Oliver/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Workers clean the facade of the ArtScience Museum as the Pollutants Standard Index (PSI) hit 401 at local time 12pm (0400 GMT), as the Singapore skyline is blanketed by haze. PSI levels above 300 are considered to be “hazardous” levels, according to Singapore’s National Environment Agency. Haze from fires in Indonesia blanketing Singapore could persist for weeks or longer, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Thursday, as the smoke drove air quality to “hazardous” levels and disrupted business and travel in the region. (Edgar Su/Reuters)
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- A male elephant is lowered onto a truck by the Kenyan Wildlife Service after being sedated on the edge of the Ol Pejeta conservancy in central Kenya. Nine “rogue” elephants that have been destroying crops in the area will be translocated from the conservancy to the larger Kora National Reserve in order to ease the human-wildlife conflict over land. (Phil Moore/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Kenyan Wildlife Service officers load a sedated male elephant onto a container on the edge of the Ol Pejeta conservancy in central Kenya. Nine “rogue” elephants that have been destroying crops in the area will be translocated from the conservancy to the larger Kora National Reserve in order to ease the human-wildlife conflict over land. (Phil Moore/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Participants practice yoga as part of a series of mass yoga classes set on Times Square to celebrate the summer solstice, in New York. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)
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- People take part in a group yoga practice on the morning of the summer solstice in New York’s Times Square. The “Solstice in Times Square” event on Friday brought out thousands of participants to celebrate the year’s longest day in New York. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)
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- Crew members of Simon Bolivar training ship, Venezuelan navy’s flagship, wave goodbye from the spars before departure from the port of Havana, Cuba. (Desmond Boylan/Reuters)
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- The Simon Bolivar training ship, from the Venezuelan navy’s flagship, leaves Havana’s port next to the lighthouse of colonial-era fortress ‘El Morro Cabana.’ (Desmond Boylan/Reuters)
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- The installation “Zauberlehrling” (Sorcererís Apprentice) by German artist Inges Idee is pictured at a preview of the second EMSCHERKUST exhibition in Oberhausen, Germany. The Art Summer of the Ruhr metropolis will be held between June 22 and October 6, 2013 along the banks of the Emscher River, between the participating cities of Duisburg, Dinslaken, Oberhausen, Essen, Bottrop, and Gelsenkirchen. (Ina Fassbender/Reuters)
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- A combination photo shows the flooded A3 highway (top) near the eastern Bavarian city of Deggendorf, Germany on June 7, 2013, and the same area of the A3 highway with a traffic jam caused by heat damage to the surface material of the road June 21, 2013. (Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)
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- Indian children, who were evacuvated due to rising waters, sit outside makeshift shelters on the banks of the Yamuna River in New Delhi. Nearly 5,000 people in the city have been evacuated from low-lying areas like Usmanpur, Yamuna Bazar, Bhajanpura, Shastri Park and Tibetan Market, and shifted to over 900 relief camps set up by the city government. (Noah Seelam/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A survivor pleads with a soldier to allow him to board an army helicopter, during rescue operations at Badrinath in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India. Early monsoon rains have swollen the Ganges, India’s longest river, swept away houses, killed at least 138 people and left tens of thousands stranded, local newspapers reported. (Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)
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- A resident gestures while searching for his belongings amid the debris of a collapsed residential building in Mumbra, in Thane district, on the outskirts of Mumbai, India. At least nine people were killed and 14 injured when the building collapsed in the early hours on Friday, local media reported. (Vivek Prakash/Reuters)
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- A road roller crushes smuggled elephant tusks, that had been confiscated, at the Parks and Wildlife center in Quezon City, Metro Manila. The Philippine government destroyed on Friday at least five tonnes of smuggled elephant tusks, making the Philippines the first country in Asia to conduct physical destruction of massive ivory stockpiles in support of government efforts to stamp out illegal wildlife trade, a statement from Department of Environment and Natural Resources said. (Erik De Castro/Reuters)
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