August 8 Photo Brief: Eid al-Fitr, Sumatran tiger cubs, Demolition Derbies
Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Fitr, Sumatran tiger cubs born at the National Zoo in D.C., Demolition Derbies and more in today’s daily briefs.
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- Thousands of believers take part in morning prayers to celebrate the first day of Eid-al-Fitr in Moscow August 8, 2013. The Eid al-Fitr festival marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. (Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)
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- Palestinians relax inside the Hamam al-Sammara Public Baths during preparations for the Eid Al-Fitr feast in Gaza city on Aug 07, 2013. (Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A young Kashmiri woman admires her hand after it was decorated with henna at a market ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr in Srinagar on August 8, 2013. (Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A child is carried by his mother at a market on the eve of Eid al-Fitr festival in Srinagar August 8, 2013. The Eid al-Fitr festival marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. (Danish Ismail/Reuters)
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- Palestinian children hold balloons as they walk outside Jerusalem’s Old City on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan August 8, 2013. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
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- A Bangladeshi passenger (R) climbs on top of a train as other passengers (R) look on from a compartment window as they rush home to their respective villages to be with their families ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, in Dhaka on August 8, 2013. (Munir uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images)
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- In this photograph taken on August 7, 2013, an Indonesian man with his son pray after offering flowers on dried volcanic mud for family members who died during a volcano eruption in Sidoarjo in eastern Java island. Some Indonesians mark Eid al-Fitr with pilgrimages to cemeteries to remember their dead. The May 2006 disaster killed 12 people, displaced nearly 50,000 and buried 13 villages. (M. Andika/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A man sells prayer beads in an open field before the start of prayers marking the end of Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, in Lagos August 8, 2013. (Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)
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- A strike of lightning illuminates the sky behind a wind turbine above a field of sunflowers near Sieversdorf, Germany, on August 8, 2013. (Patrick Pleul/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A woman plays on the edge of a cliff on a rainy winter afternoon at Bronte beach in Sydney August 8, 2013. (Daniel Munoz/Reuters)
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- A smoldering mountainside is seen under the stars at the Silver Fire near Banning, California August 7, 2013. The fire broke out shortly after 2 p.m. near a back-country road south of Banning, about 90 miles outside Los Angeles in Riverside County, and within hours had blackened more than 5,000 acres, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlandt said. (David McNew/Reuters)
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- This handout released by ESA/Hubble on August 8, 2013, shows a two-color image and overview of the full Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), composed from two images from the Digitized Sky Survey 2. (Hubble HO viaAFP/Getty Images)
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- The National Zoo’s female Sumatran tiger Damai tends to her two new cubs in this August 8, 2013 handout still image from video. Damai, gave birth to two cubs August 5, 2013. This is Damai’s first litter of cubs, sired by the Zoo’s 12-year-old male tiger, Kavi. (Smithsonian’s National Zoo/Handout via Reuters)
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- Oracle Team USA trains for September’s America’s Cup regatta on August 7, 2013, in San Francisco. (Noah Berger/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A general view of the financial district of Pudong with the Shanghai Tower (C), which is undergoing construction scheduled to finish by the end of 2014, in Shanghai August 3, 2013. The 2,073-ft high Shanghai Tower will be the tallest skyscraper in China and the second tallest in the world. Picture taken August 3, 2013. (Shanghai Tower/Handout via Reuters)
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- Drivers compete in the Nation-Wide Demolition Derby at the New Jersey State Fair Sussex County Farm and Horse Show in Augusta, New Jersey, August 4, 2013. Originally begun in the 1950’s in the United States, Demolition Derbies have been popular at state and county fairs throughout the U.S. and have spread to western Europe and Asia. (Mike Segar/Reuters)
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- Indian medical students push barricades installed by police during a protest in New Delhi August 8, 2013. Hundreds of medical students on Thursday protested against the compulsory year-long rural posting required by the Indian government, demanding it be made voluntary, local media reported. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)
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- MadVapes store manager Robert Everhart uses an electronic cigarette at MadVapes in Charlotte, North Carolina. Electronic cigarettes are growing in popularity, but concern still lingers nationwide about their safety. e-Cig culture includes “vaping” meet-ups and an array of build-your-own products. (Diedra Laird/Charlotte Observer/MCT)
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- Afghan children play with plastic toy guns in Kabul on August 8, 2013. Civilian casualties in the Afghan war rose 23 percent in the first half of this year due to Taliban attacks and increased fighting between insurgents and government forces, the UN said last month. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images)
RELATED
Two Sumatran tiger cubs born at Washington, D.C., zoo
Reuters
12:22 p.m. EDT, August 8, 2013
(Reuters) – Two Sumatran tiger cubs have been born at the national zoo in Washington, D.C., and by Thursday they were crawling over their mother “as if her body is a jungle gym,” the zoo said on its website on Thursday.
The cubs’ birth on Monday night was heralded as a conservation success since Sumatran tigers are critically endangered in the wild, where fewer than 500 remain, according to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park website.
“All I can do is smile because the team has realized our goal of producing critically endangered tiger cubs,” said National Zoo biologist Craig Saffoe.
Their mother, Damai, a 4-year-old tiger, and father, Kavi, a 12-year-old tiger, bred several times, a zoo spokesperson said.
Keepers confirmed her pregnancy on June 21 and prepared for the cubs’ arrival after she became restless and showed signs she would soon give birth, the website said.
The newborn cubs, their eyes still shut, have spent their days being groomed and nursed by Damai, a first-time mother, the website said.
“Damai lets the cubs crawl all over her, as if her body is a jungle gym,” the website said.
The cubs mostly likely will not be on exhibit until fall, but they can be viewed online through a set of webcams in the tigers’ den.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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