August 11 Photo Brief: Perseids meteor shower, drone strike in Yemen, flamingos
A multiple exposure photo taken of a Perseids meteor shower, drone strikes continue in Yemen, flamingos on Fuente de Piedra lake and more in today’s daily brief. | Warning: Visual coverage may depict injury and/or death.
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- A multiple exposure picture taken in the early hours of August 11, 2013 shows a Perseids meteor shower in the sky, near the municipality of La Hiruela, on the mountains of the Sierra Norte de Madrid. (Dani Pozo/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A Hindu devotee gets his cheeks pierced as he takes part in an annual religious procession called “Shitla Mata” in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh August 11, 2013. Hindu devotees subject themselves to painful rituals during the religious procession to demonstrate their faith and as a penance to the deity at a temple dedicated to the goddess Shitla. (Ajay Verma/Reuters)
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- A Sudanese man sits next to his house in a flooded street on the outskirts of the capital Khartoum on August 10, 2013. Drainage is poor in the capital, where even a little rain can cause flooding but this year’s water surge was unusually severe. (Ashraf Shazly/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Poll workers wait for voters during the second round of presidential elections in Bamako August 11, 2013. Malians vote on Sunday in the second round of a presidential poll. (Joe Penney/Reuters)
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- Bodies lie at a morgue following fighting between rebel fighters and Syrian government forces on August 10, 2013 in the northern city of Raqqa, the only provincial capital in rebel hands. Syrian regime air strikes killed more than 30 people Saturday in the Latakia province, bastion of the ruling Assad clan, and the northern city of Raqqa, a monitory group said. (Alice Martins//AFP/Getty Images)
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- The son of Palestinian Huseen Awad mourns during his funeral in central Gaza Strip August 11, 2013. Israeli troops killed Awad who crossed in from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Saturday, fearing he was a security threat though he proved to be unarmed, military sources said. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)
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- People gather at the site of a drone strike on the road between Yafe and Radfan districts of the southern Yemeni province of Lahj August 11, 2013. Local officials and residents in Yemen’s southern Lahj Province said a drone destroyed a vehicle traveling on a mountain road late on Saturday evening killing its two occupants and bringing to 15 the death toll from four strikes in three days. (Stringer/Reuters)
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- A South Sudanese model prepares backstage during the second edition of Festival for Fashion and Arts for Peace, featuring three South Sudanese designers, in the capital Juba, August 10, 2013. (Andreea Campeanu/Reuters)
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- Germany’s Sostene Moguenara competes in the women’s long jump event at the 2013 IAAF World Championships at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow on August 10, 2013. (Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A picture taken on August 10, 2013 shows a flamingo on Fuente de Piedra lake during a tagging and control operation of flamingo chicks to monitor the evolution of the species. The lake, which is the most important breeding ground for flamingos in the Iberian Peninsula, is also a nature reserve and a haven for birds with over 170 different species recorded. (Jorge Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Performers take part in the opening ceremony of the 2013 IAAF World Championships at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow on August 10, 2013. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Elderly Indian wrestler Ram Gopal performs during a bout of traditional wrestling organized at the historical Loknath Vyayamsala (Fitness Center) on the occasion of Nag Panchami, in Allahabad on August 11, 2013. This Hindu festival is observed during the monsoon season with prayers and tributes to snakes. (Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A heavy metal fan dressed as Batman plays to the camera during the Bloodstock Outdoor Heavy Metal Festival on August 10, 2013 in Walton Upon Trent, Derbyshire, England. Thousands of heavy metal fans from across Britain attended the country’s biggest metal festival which features both established and unsigned bands over four days. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
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- South Koreans swim at Caribbean Bay swimming pool in South Korea’s largest amusement park Everland in Yongin on August 11, 2013. (Lee Jae-Won/Reuters)
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- This undated handout photograph released by the Taipei City Zoo on August 11, 2013 shows a newly born panda cub at the zoo in Taipei. The public will have to wait three months to catch a glimpse of the first panda born in Taiwan, officials said in July, after she was successfully delivered by parents who were gifted from China. (Taipei City Zoo/AFP/Getty Images)
RELATED
Gunmen shoot Lebanese mayor as Syria war ignites local rivalries
Reuters
10:14 a.m. EDT, August 11, 2013
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Gunmen shot the mayor of a town in Lebanon and killed two of his companions only hours after he oversaw a hostage swap with a rival clan in an area increasingly riven by sectarian divisions, security sources said on Sunday.
The attack near the border with Syria highlights how the civil war there has worsened enmity between Lebanese Shi’ite and Sunni Muslim militias that support opposing sides of the two-year-old conflict.
Mayor Ali Hujeiri, a Sunni from the town of Arsal, was shot in the majority Shi’ite town of Labweh as he returned from the hostage exchange with a rival Shi’ite clan. He was transferred to hospital and doctors said his wounds were not life-threatening.
The sources said the attack was carried out by residents of the area, but did not elaborate.
The Bekaa Valley region, where the attack happened, is religiously mixed. Some areas are controlled by the Shi’ite militant Hezbollah group which is helping President Bashar al-Assad crush the revolt. Other parts, like Arsal, are Sunni, and residents provide a safe haven for majority-Sunni Syrian rebels.
The hostages were being held in relation to an incident in June in which four of Labweh’s residents were killed by rebel fighters, the sources said.
The recapture of the Syrian border town of Qusair in June by Assad’s forces, spearheaded by Hezbollah guerrillas, led to an influx of Syrian rebel fighters and civilians into Lebanon and more violence spilling over into the Bekaa region.
Rockets fired from areas believed to be controlled by Syrian rebels have targeted the Shi’ite town of Hermel, while Syrian helicopters have crossed into Lebanon and fired at buildings in Arsal.
(Reporting by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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