Feb. 20 Daily Brief: Violence persists in Syria, Venezuela and Ukraine, snow-ridden areas thaw out, international cricket match
A perpetually edgy city, Caracas’ murder rate has shot up in recent years to become one of the world’s worst. Both Venezuela’s official national rate of 39 deaths a year per 100,000 people and an NGO tally of double that make the country an international leader in homicides, vying with gang-plagued nations such as Honduras and El Salvador and more in today’s daily brief.
- Egypt Al-Ahly fans chant slogans in support of their team ahead of their African Super cup final football match against Tunisia’s Club Sportif Sfaxien in Cairo on February 20, 2014. (Mohamed El-Shahed/AFP/Getty Images)
- An honor guard commander shouts commands ahead of a welcome ceremony for Senegal’s President Macky Sall at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing February 20, 2014. (REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic)
- Relatives of a crime victim carry his coffin on a highway, as a tribute, prior to the victim’s burial in Caracas November 27, 2012. A perpetually edgy city, Caracas’ murder rate has shot up in recent years to become one of the world’s worst. Both Venezuela’s official national rate of 39 deaths a year per 100,000 people and an NGO tally of double that make the country an international leader in homicides, vying with gang-plagued nations such as Honduras and El Salvador. Some 100 undertakers’ businesses, legal and illegal, have sprung up around Caracas in recent years. Nor is there a lack of demand for tomb-chisellers, flower-sellers, permit-handlers and a plethora of other mini-businesses purveying to death. Picture taken November 27, 2012. (REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
- Relatives of a gunshot victim cry over his coffin during his funeral ceremony in Caracas November 27, 2012. A perpetually edgy city, Caracas’ murder rate has shot up in recent years to become one of the world’s worst. Both Venezuela’s official national rate of 39 deaths a year per 100,000 people and an NGO tally of double that make the country an international leader in homicides, vying with gang-plagued nations such as Honduras and El Salvador. Some 100 undertakers’ businesses, legal and illegal, have sprung up around Caracas in recent years. Nor is there a lack of demand for tomb-chisellers, flower-sellers, permit-handlers and a plethora of other mini-businesses purveying to death. Picture taken November 27, 2012. (REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
- The Bluebridge ferry sails out of the fog on Wellington Harbour on February 20, 2014 in Wellington, New Zealand. The thick fog closed Wellington Airport, affecting travel plans for thousands of airline passengers around the country. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
- Protesters from the New York Immigration Coalition stage a demonstration for immigration reform on February 20, 2014 in New York City. Protesters gathered near the Staten Island Ferry terminal in downtown Manhattan and called on U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), to push comprehensive immigration reform legislation and for President Barack Obama to halt deportations of undocumented immigrants. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
- Guo, a farmer in his 50s, drives his self-made scale replica of a Lamborghini past a car on a street in Zhengzhou, Henan province February 19, 2014. Guo spent 6 months and about 5,000 yuan (821 USD) to make the 2-metre-long, 1 metre-wide “Lamborghini” as a toy for his grandson. The replica, mainly made of scrapped metals and parts from electricity bicycles, bears five sets of batteries and can travel as far as 60 km (37 miles) when fully charged, local media reported. Picture taken February 19, 2014. (REUTERS/China Daily)
- Bangladesh cricketer Nasir Hossain tries to catch the ball during the second One-Day International (ODI) cricket match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on February 20, 2014. (Munir uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images)
- Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan plays a ball as Sri Lanka’s wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara (R) appeals for his dismissal unsuccessfully during their second one day international (ODI) cricket match of the series in Dhaka February 20, 2014. (REUTERS/Andrew Biraj)
- Owner Dora Kettinger talks to her dogs after an examination in a neurology clinic in Budapest February 9, 2014. Hungarian researchers conducted the first comparative dog and human brain study with developing dog training methods to make them lay motionless in MRI machines. The study was done to understand how dogs can be so remarkably good at tuning into the feelings of their owners. Picture taken February 9, 2014. (REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo)
- French farmer Sylvain Fresneau makes a phone call as he stands in front of his farm at “La Vacherie” area in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, western France, February 14, 2014. Around two hundred people, farmers and inhabitants who refuse to leave, occupy houses or expropriated land in the zoned ZAD (Deferred Development Zone) in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, that is slated for the Grand Ouest Airport (AGO). The residents of the ZAD, 1,600 hectares (3,954 acres), have formed some fifty living groups comprised of self-built homes, villages, farms and buildings that were saved from destruction, which have been renovated and are currently occupied by people who resist expulsion. Residents work in agricultural and horticultural projects, and also have collective spaces for baking bread, a pharmacy, sewing and bicycle repair. A demonstration to protest the construction of the new airport in this zone, some 30kms (19 miles) from Nantes and scheduled for 2017, will be held February 22, 2014 in Nantes. Picture taken February 14, 2014. (REUTERS/Stephane Mahe)
- A paper heart is viewed on top of a melting mound of snow as temperatures in New York City reach into the mid 40’s revealing trash that’s been buried for weeks on February 20, 2014 in New York City. After weeks of bitter cold weather and heavy snow, New York and much of the Northeast got a break from winter with sun and warming temperatures. The forecast calls for temperatures to remain warm through the weekend before falling back down next week. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
- South Korean Park Yang-gon (R), 53, and his North Korean brother Park Yang-su, who was abducted by North Korea, cry during their family reunion at the Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea, February 20, 2014. The six days of family reunions took place under the cloud of a U.N. report on human rights abuses in North Korea, which investigators have said were comparable to Nazi-era atrocities. A group of 100 South Koreans crossed the world’s most heavily fortified border on Thursday morning, a frontier that separates two countries that remain at war after their conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty. (REUTERS/Korea Pool/News)
- Boys play soccer next to a burning pile of garbage along a street filled with debris in Deir al-Zor, eastern Syria February 19, 2014. Picture taken February 19, 2014. (REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi)
- Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) talks to a group of DC school children in front of a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, on February 20, 2014 in Washington, DC. Del. Norton gave a tour of the House floor and statues of African Americans in the U.S. Capitol in recognition of Black History Month. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
- A worker digs a grave in the East Cemetery in Caracas December 27, 2013. A perpetually edgy city, Caracas’ murder rate has shot up in recent years to become one of the world’s worst. Both Venezuela’s official national rate of 39 deaths a year per 100,000 people and an NGO tally of double that make the country an international leader in homicides, vying with gang-plagued nations such as Honduras and El Salvador. Some 100 undertakers’ businesses, legal and illegal, have sprung up around Caracas in recent years. Nor is there a lack of demand for tomb-chisellers, flower-sellers, permit-handlers and a plethora of other mini-businesses purveying to death. Picture taken December 27, 2013. (REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)