Dec. 21 Daily Brief: Ugly Sweater Run at National Harbor, smoking in a coal mine, getting married during Kiev protests
Santa’s rowing boats on the Venice canal, Pope Francis visits a pediatric hospital, clashes in Germany and more in today’s daily breif.
- Runners dance at the finish line of the Ugly Sweater Run at National Harbor in Fort Washington, Maryland December 21, 2013. (REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan)
- Runners dance at the finish line of the Ugly Sweater Run at National Harbor in Fort Washington, Maryland December 21, 2013. (REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan)
- A dog wears a Christmas sweater at the Ugly Sweater Run at National Harbor in Fort Washington, Maryland December 21, 2013. (REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan)
- Jaime Padgett (L) of Centreville, Virginia sings karaoke during the Ugly Sweater Run at National Harbor in Fort Washington, Maryland December 21, 2013. (REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan)
- Jaime Padgett (L) of Centreville, Virginia sings karaoke during the Ugly Sweater Run at National Harbor in Fort Washington, Maryland December 21, 2013. (REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan)
- A Bangladeshi vendor sells balloons during an ongoing blockade organised by Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) activists and its Islamist allies in Dhaka on December 21, 2013. Bangladesh’s main opposition party called for a 83-hour blockade, rejecting plans for a January 5 election and plunging the nation into fresh political turmoil. (Munir uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images)
- Clad in Santa Claus costumes, volunteers hand Christmas gifts to an elderly woman, who is sheltering from Narahamachi after the accident of a nulcear power plant, in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, on December 21, 2013. Some 100 volunteers delivered Christmas gifts to cheer people living at temporary housings. (Toru Yamanka/AFP/Getty Images)
- A demonstrator takes part in a protest against a public transport fare hike announced for January 2014 by Rio de Janeiro’s Mayor Eduardo Paes, in the streets of the Brazilian city, on December 20, 2013. (Tasso Carcelo/AFP/Getty Images )
- A Balinese surfer dressed in a Santa Claus outfit trains orphan children before they surf on Kuta beach near Denpasar on Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali on December 21, 2013. The popular resort island, a pocket of Hindu culture in a country with the biggest Muslim population in the world, receives thousands of tourists every year over the Christmas season. (Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP/Getty Images)
- Pakistani labourers work at an iron factory in Karachi on December 21, 2013. Pakistan’s has a labour force of 57.2 million, making it the ninth largest country in terms of available human workforce. (Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images )
- Austria’s Gregor Schlierenzauer soars through the air during the FIS World Cup event in Engelberg, central Switzerland, on December 21, 2013. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)
- A young child smiles in the rain with his makeshift rain coat and plastic bag in Antananarivo on December 21, 2013 a day after the presidential elections. Madagascar’s presidential candidates both claimed victory Saturday in run-off polls, each accusing the other of rigging the run-off as results started to trickle in. (Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images)
- A Chadian soldier with rocket-propelled grenade launcher stands guard at their base near the International Airport in Bangui on December 21, 2013. More than 30 people including a Chadian peacekeeper have been killed in a fresh outbreak of brutal sectarian violence in the Central African Republic capital, sources said yesterday. (Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images)
- Norway’s Anders Bardal soars through the air to place third in the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup competition in Engelberg, central Switzerland, on December 21, 2013. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)
- A just married couple dances on Independence Square as opposition protesters continue to occupy Kiev’s central square on December 21, 2013. EU chair Lithuania hit out at Kiev on December 20, saying the European Union remained open to signing a partnership accord with Ukraine but “not necessarily” with Viktor Yanukovych’s government. The Ukrainian government last month unexpectedly halted work on key political and free trade agreements with the European Union, sparking the largest demonstrations since the pro-democracy Orange Revolution in 2004. (Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images)
- Emirati Mohammed Rakan Bin Harwon Al-Qubassiy (L) hands his falcon to a boy at the Liwa desert, 220 kms west of Abu Dhabi, on the sidelines of the Mazayin Dhafra Camel Festival on December 21, 2013. The festival, which attracts participants from around the Gulf region, includes a camel beauty contest, a display of UAE handcrafts and other activities aimed at promoting the country’s folklore. (Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images)
- South Sudanese women queue for water being distributed from a UN resevoir at the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) compound in Juba on December 21, 2013 where tension remains high fueling an exodus of both local and foreign residents from the south Sudanese capital. Brutal fighting in South Sudan has reopened deep-rooted ethnic divisions, forcing tens of thousands of terrified residents to seek shelter at UN bases or flee in fear of attacks. United Nations peacekeepers are currently sheltering over 35,000 civilians in various bases across the country, many belonging to the minority ethnic group in their respective areas. (Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images)
- A Bosnian miner smokes a cigarette after getting out of the coal mine “Sretno” (Good Luck), near the central Bosnian town of Breza December 20, 2013. Miners’ Day falls on December 21 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Picture taken December 20, 2013. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)
- German police use water cannons to clear a street following clashes in front of the ‘Rote Flora’ cultural centre during a demonstration in Hamburg, December 21, 2013. Pro ‘Rote Flora’ demonstrators protested to protect the cultural centre from being closed. (REUTERS/Morris Mac Matzen)
- People dressed in Santa Claus costumes row boats on the Venice canal December 21, 2013. (REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri )
- Pope Francis greets the crowd as he arrives for a visit at the Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital in Rome December 21, 2013. (REUTERSAlessandro Bianchi)
- An unidentified LS3 team member shoves an LS 3 (Legged Squad Support System) robot that was galloping off course, back on track during a high-speed demonstration in Homestead, Florida December 20, 2013. The device is designed to accompany soldiers and Marines any place they go on foot, helping to carry their gear. The south Florida city is hosting an international Robotics Challenge Trials this weekend, organized by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The competition, for the creation of robots that can respond to natural and man-made disasters, was created following the 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan. After the disaster the Pentagon sent robots designed to disarm improvised explosive devices in Iraq to try to help fix problems at the destroyed reactor in areas highly contaminated by radioactive releases where humans could not work. (REUTERS/Andrew Innerarity)
- A view shows a fire rises after attack on gas pipelines that feed electricity generating stations near Damascus December 21, 2013, in this handout picture released by Syria’s national news agency SANA. State news agency SANA quoted the government’s Oil minister as blaming the outage on a “terrorist” attack on gas pipelines that feed electricity generating stations in in Damascus and southern Syria. He said repairs were under way. (REUTERS/Sana)
- Fatima Khan, mother of the British surgeon who died in a Syrian prison, reacts after seeing the body of her son Abbas Khan in the Hotel-Dieu de France Hospital in Beirut December 21, 2013. The British surgeon who was arrested last November within 48 hours of arriving in Syria to offer his services as an emergency doctor has died in jail, his family said on Tuesday. The family of Abbas Khan, 32, an orthopaedic surgeon from south London who had planned to volunteer in rebel-held Aleppo, was told he would be released this week, his brother Afroze Khan told the BBC. But when his mother went to visit him in prison in Damascus on Monday she was told he had died, he said. (REUTERS/Hasan Shaaban)
- The Monument to Berehynia, one of Kiev’s landmarks, is pictured through a fire as pro-EU demonstrators warm themselves during a rally at Independence Square in central Kiev December 21, 2013. European Union leaders said on Friday the door to a closer partnership with Ukraine remained open but not necessarily for the current Ukrainian leadership, which chose a bailout from Russia in preference to a trade deal with Brussels. (REUTERS/Marko Djurica)