August 7 Photo Brief: Panda on ice, piano in the park, Argentine gas explosion, Thai protests
Panda on ice, piano in the park, Argentine gas explosion, Thai protests and more in today’s daily brief.
- ‘Black Jesters’ from the London Dungeon pose for pictures with a set of what the attraction describes as the world’s biggest playing cards, during a photocall in London. The cards, which are 2.1m tall and 1.5m wide, will feature in the attraction’s ‘Jestival Season’. (Andrew Cowie/Getty Images)
- A peddler sells souvenirs with images of Pope Francis and Saint Cayetano as people queue at the Sanctuary of Saint Cayetano — Argentina’s patron saint of bread and work — in Liniers, a neighbourhood in western Buenos Aires where thousands of faithfuls gathered to listen a prerecorded message of Pope Francis. Before becoming Pope and when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, cardinal Jorge Bergoglio officiated the central mass at the sanctuary on Saint Cayetano feast day. (Daniel Garcia/Getty Images)
- Indonesian Muslims hold a Rukyatul Hilal to see the new crescent moon that determines the end of Ramadan at Condro Dipo Hill in Gresik, Indonesia. There have been confirmed sightings of the new moon, which ends the holy month of Ramadan with the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr. (Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images)
- A giant panda lies on blocks of ice to cool off from the summer heat at its zoo enclosure in Wuhan, Hubei province. A record-setting summer heatwave will continue to bake most parts of south China in the upcoming three days, Xinhua News Agency reported. Temperature in Wuhan reached 37 degrees Celsuis (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit). (China Daily/Reuters)
- A girl plays piano in the park in Russia’s Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. A group of young enthusiasts bought an old Soviet-made piano, adjusted it, painted white and placed in a park for free use by all visitors. The instrument is covered with a plastic foil at night and during rains. This is the group’s first step in their project “Free city entertainments”, local media said. (Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)
- Taipei City Zoo staff stimulates their 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. (Getty Images)
- People are rowed to an overcrowded passenger boat at Sadarghat boat terminal in Dhaka. Millions of residents in Dhaka have started the exodus home from the capital city ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. (Andrew Biraj/Reuters)
- An anti-government protester clashes with riot police officers outside the parliament in Bangkok. Thailand’s parliament was due to debate a political amnesty bill on Wednesday as anti-government protesters marched to try to get it scrapped, saying it could let ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra return from exile without having to serve a jail sentence. (Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)
- Anti-government protesters march to parliament in Bangkok. Thailand’s parliament was due to debate a political amnesty bill on Wednesday as anti-government protesters marched to try to get it scrapped, saying it could let ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra return from exile without having to serve a jail sentence. (Kerek Wongsa/Reuters)
- Destroyed apartments are seen after an explosion believed to be caused by a gas leak, which tore through a 10-story building in Rosario city, in the province of Santa Fe. Local authorities have confirmed 12 people remain missing after a building collapsed yesterday killing at least 10 people and leaving more than 60 injured. (Federico Fernandez/Reuters)
- Rescue workers remove a body from among the rubble after an explosion caused by a gas leak tore through a 10-story building in Rosario city, in the province of Santa Fe. Twelve people have died, 60 injured and 15 remain missing as firefighters and rescue workers continue to search for people believed to be trapped in the area, according to local authorities. (Marcelo Masuelli/Reuters)
- A helicopter hovers over a sinking Chinese fishing vessel at sea off the coast of French Polynesia. At least four sailors have died missing after a Chinese fishing trawler sunk off the coast of Rapa island in French Polynesia, officials said. (Getty Images)
- Some 150 Buddhist monks and believers in white costumes wipe and sweep the 15-meter-tall Great Buddha statue which was built in 752 AD, at Todaiji Temple in Nara, western Japan. Monks and volunteers cleaned a year’s worth of grime from the Great Buddha for the annual sprucing up as the rirual cleaning. (Jiji Press/Getty Images)
- Residents gather at the site of a Wednesday night bomb blast in the Karachi. A bomb killed 11 people in a poor district of Pakistan’s financial hub of Karachi on Wednesday, mostly teenagers playing street football at a crowded market, officials said. (Athar Hussain/Reuters)
- Members of the public stand in front of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, as it goes up in flames, in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. A fire engulfed Kenya’s main airport on Wednesday, choking a vital travel and trade gateway to east Africa, witnesses and officials said. The cause of the fire was not yet known. (Reuters)
- A woman (C) is helped by other women to walk after she fainted on hearing of the death of her husband after a residential house collapsed at Kumarpera village on the outskirt of Agartala, capital of India’s northeastern state of Tripura. At least three people died and three were injured after a residential house collapsed on Wednesday, officials said. (Jayanta Dey/Reuters)
- Indian army soldiers patrol near the Line of Control, a ceasefire line dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, in Poonch district . India’s parliament was paralyzed on Wednesday as opposition lawmakers angrily protested over the government’s response to an ambush in which five soldiers were shot dead on the border with Pakistan in the disputed region of Kashmir. (Mukesh Gupta/Reuters)
- Damaged residential houses of the Indian army are seen after a landslide caused by heavy rains in Tihra Lines near the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala. (Reuters)
- U.N. peacekeepers patrol in their tank, past the deserted Kibati village, near Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. A 17,000-strong U.N. force, known as MONUSCO, and Congo troops have struggled over the past decade to stem a conflict involving dozens of armed groups and complicated by national and ethnic rivalries. A new 3,000-member U.N. Intervention Brigade was recently deployed to fight and disarm rebels in the east. (Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)
- Volunteers prepare the sandpit for the 14th IAAF World Championships at the Olympic stadium in Moscow. The event will be held from August 10 to 18. (Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)