Dec 20, 2013

Dec. 20 Daily Brief: President Obama’s year-end news conference, frost in London, town mayor ambushed

Kalani Gordon 0 Comment Daily Brief daily brief, Reuters

A young boy scrapes ice off his mother’s car windscreen on a frosty morning in west London, a man walks during heavy smog in the central Bosnian town of Kakanj, makeshift Christmas trees after Typhoon Haiyan destruction and more in today’s daily brief.

: Madagascar’s presidential candidate Hery Rajaonarimampianina (C) casts his ballot at a polling centre in Tsimbazaza area of the capital Antananarivo December 20, 2013. Madagascar stages a run-off presidential election on Friday, but old rifts may persist, extending a crisis begun by a coup five years ago that deterred investors and donors of aid to one of Africa’s poorest nations. (REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya)

: U.S. President Barack Obama makes a point during his year-end news conference in the White House briefing room in Washington, December 20, 2013. (REUTERS/Larry Downing)

: Sierra Deaton (C) photobombs judge Demi Lovato’s interview as Alex Kinsey (L) speaks to a television reporter backstage after the folk duo won “The X Factor ” in Los Angeles, California, December 19, 2013. Winners Kinsey and Deaton won a $1 million recording contract with Sony Music Entertainment. (REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian)

: Portraits of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov are seen at a barricade during a rally in central Kiev December 20, 2013. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich on Thursday criticised opposition leaders, who have brought tens of thousands of protesters onto the streets, for harbouring their own political ambitions and conducting “revolutionary” actions. (REUTERS/Gleb Garanich)

: Ukrainian pro-EU demonstrators stand guard on a barricade during a rally at Independence Square in central Kiev December 20, 2013. (REUTERS/Marko Djurica)

: Contestant in the “Miss World Sevilla” pageant Mercedes Molina, 19, walks in Sevillana dress on the catwalk during the pageant in the Andalusian capital of Seville December 5, 2013. Molina was one of twenty contestants but was eliminated before the final round. The winner of the pageant will go on to compete in the Miss World Spain beauty contest in 2014. Picture taken December 5, 2013. (REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo)

: Residential buildings stand next to the 165-metre (541 feet) Cesar Pelli designed Iberdrola Tower, headquarters of Spain’s largest utility company, in Bilbao December 20, 2013. Spain’s competition regulator CNMC said on Friday it was annulling the results of a quarterly auction which would have lead to a 10.5 percent hike in domestic power bills, sparking a wave of protests. (REUTERS/Vincent West)

: Street lights are silhouetted against the sky in Bilbao December 20, 2013. Spain’s competition regulator CNMC said on Friday it was annulling the results of a quarterly auction which would have lead to a 10.5 percent hike in domestic power bills, sparking a wave of protests. (REUTERS/Vincent West)

: Somali policewomen march in a passing out parade during celebrations to mark the Somali Police Force’s 70th founding anniversary in the capital Mogadishu December 20, 2013. (REUTERS/Feisal Omar)

: Police officers guard the road in front of the Penal Colony 7, where Mikhail Khodorkovsky was held at the village of Segezha, near the Finnish border, 300 km (186 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, December 20, 2013. Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, left prison on Friday after a pardon from President Vladimir Putin ended a decade in jail that many saw as the fallen oil tycoon’s punishment for daring to challenge the Kremlin. (REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva)

: Police investigators work at the crime scene after a local town mayor was ambushed in a shooting attack at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport December 20, 2013. Gunmen on Friday shot dead the town mayor and three other people at the airport in the Philippine capital, Manila, sending travellers fleeing for safety, authorities said. Ukol Talumpa was mayor of a town called Labangan, Zamboanga del Sur. Three passengers were also killed and four people were wounded, airport manager Jose Honrado said. (REUTERS/Che Cillo)

: Ruben Miraflor, 15, a survivor of Super Typhoon Haiyan, decorates a Christmas tree placed along a main street at Magallanes town in Tacloban city, central Philippines December 20, 2013. Super typhoon Haiyan reduced almost everything in its path to rubble when it swept ashore in the central Philippines on November 8, killing at least 6,069 people, leaving 1,779 missing and 4 million either homeless or with damaged homes. (REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco)

: A Palestinian boy dressed as Santa Claus holds a Palestinian flag as he stands in front of Israeli soldiers during a protest against the controversial Israeli barrier in the West Bank village of al-Masara near Bethlehem December 20, 2013. (REUTERS/Ammar Awad)

: A girl removes dust from her scarf as she works to earn money by carrying bricks at a brick factory in Lalitpur December 20, 2013. (REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar)

: A man walks during heavy smog in the central Bosnian town of Kakanj, December 20, 2013. Dense smog has blanketed various Bosnian cities in recent days and locals say that the mixture of smog and fog has made it hard to breathe, according to local media. A state of emergency was declared in the nearby town of Zenica due to the thick smog, which reports say is caused by industrial pollution, traffic fumes and smoke from household coal fires. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)

: A Palestinian man kisses the body of Jihad Hamad at a hospital morgue in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip December 20, 2013. Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian, Hamad, and wounded three others in three separate incidents of cross-border violence in the Gaza Strip on Friday, Palestinian officials said. The Israeli military, which has long said the area in Gaza along the border fence is off limits, said it was looking into the reports. (REUTERS/Mohammed Salem)

: A Palestinian boy walks past a section of the controversial Israeli barrier, in Shuafat refugee camp in the West Bank near Jerusalem November 23, 2013. Marooned behind the wall, Israel’s controversial barrier, the Shuafat refugee camp reveals the state’s uneven treatment of Arab and Jewish neighbourhoods, creating a de facto partition of Jerusalem, which is the epicentre of the Middle East conflict. Picture taken November 23, 2013. (REUTERS/Ammar Awad)

: Palm trees cast their shadows on a wall surrounding Jerusalem’s Old City as an Orthodox Jewish man walks past December 20, 2013. (REUTERS/Amir Cohen)

: Farmers argue with policemen during a rally against the government’s new property tax outside the parliament in Athens December 20, 2013. (REUTERS/John Kolesidis)

: A farmer uses a stick to hit policemen during a rally against the government’s new property tax outside the parliament in Athens December 20, 2013. (REUTERS/John Kolesidis)

: Policemen take cover as farmers throw oranges at them during a rally against the government’s new property tax outside the parliament in Athens December 20, 2013. (REUTERS/John Kolesidis)

: A supporter of ousted President Mohamed Mursi throws a tear gas canister back towards police during clashes at Nasr City district in Cairo December 20, 2013. (REUTERS/ Mohamed Abd El Ghany )

: People stand in the sun outside the Bank of England in London December 20, 2013. Standard & Poor’s confirmed Britain’s last remaining triple A credit rating on Friday, but said it could cut the top-notch ranking if the country’s economic recovery was not sustained. (REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett)

: A man walks past the Bank of England in London December 20, 2013. Standard & Poor’s confirmed Britain’s last remaining triple A credit rating on Friday, but said it could cut the top-notch ranking if the country’s economic recovery was not sustained. (REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett)

: A members of the emergency services walks in front of a bus which crashed into a tree in Kennington, south London, December 20, 2013. 23 people were injured, two seriously, in the crash according to the Metropolitan Police. (REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett)