Feb 27 Daily Brief: Paris fashion, Shivaratri festival, Costa Concordia’s captain returns, Ukraine and Venezuela seek calm
Paris fashion, Shivaratri festival, Costa Concordia’s captain returns, Ukraine and Venezuela seek calm and more in today’s daily brief.
- A model presents a creation by Gareth Pugh during the 2014/2015 Autumn/Winter collection fashion show in Paris. (Patrick Kovarik/Getty Images)
- Children cool off at a park during a warm day in Singapore. Singapore and Malaysia are grappling with some of the driest weather they have ever seen, forcing the tiny city-state to ramp up supplies of recycled water while its neighbor rations reserves amid disruptions to farming and fisheries. (Edgar Su/Reuters)
- A disguised member of ‘Baglas puszta’ Roma is pictured during Roma Carnival, near Kaposvar, 196 kms from Budapest on February 22, 2014. The local Roma priest Laszlo Somos and his staff organize programs for about 200 Roma nationality people in the cultural center, what was built by Catholic church. All of the citizens are unemployment. (Ferenc Isza/Getty Images)
- A painted relief by Evelyn Williams entitled ‘Endless People’ is shown at Sotheby’s in London, England. Sotheby’s ‘1000 Ways of Seeing’ highlights the private collection of Stanley J Seeger who devoted much of his life to collecting a vast array of special objects. More than 1000 works will be auctioned from the collection on March 5th and 6th 2014 in London. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
- Members of the Nepalese army demonstrate their skills during Army Day celebrations, which falls on the same day as the Shivaratri festival, in Kathmandu. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)
- Journalists use flashlights while walking through the city’s drainage system towards a tunnel that comes out of one of the houses of Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman in Culiacan. Guzman, who rose from humble origins to become one of the most powerful drug barons in history, was captured on Saturday in a raid in the beachside resort and fishing center of Mazatlan, 125 miles southeast of Culiacan, just days after escaping from the clutches of Mexican troops through a tunnel and sewers. (Daniel Becerril/Reuters)
- Fireworks explode behind members of the Nepalese Army during Army Day celebrations, which falls exactly on the same day as the Shivaratri festival, in Kathmandu. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)
- A billboard with an illustration of US entertainer Ellen Degeneres, who will host this year’s Oscar Awards, overlooks Hollywood Boulevard near the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California, for the upcoming 86th Academy Awards to take place on March 2. (Joe Klamar/Getty Images)
- A model presents a creation by Indian designer Manish Arora as part of his Fall/Winter 2014-2015 women’s ready-to-wear collection during Paris Fashion Week. (Stephane Mahe/Reuters)
- An Indian boy dressed as Mahatma Gandhi begs for alms from Hindu devotees during the Maha Shivaratri festival outside the Keesaragutta Temple on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The festival of Maha Shivaratri is marked by Hindus by fasting and offering prayers in a night long vigil. (Noah Seelam/Getty Images)
- Indian children sit on an ornamental Ganesha head during a procession for Maha Shivaratri, dedicated to the Hindu god Lord Shiva, in Allahabad. Hindus mark the Maha Shivratri festival by offering special prayers and fasting to Lord Shiva, the god of destruction. (Sanjay Kanojia/Getty Images)
- An Indian Hindu devotee holds a human skull during a procession for Maha Shivaratri, dedicated to the Hindu god Lord Shiva, in Allahabad. Hindus mark the Maha Shivratri festival by offering special prayers and fasting to Lord Shiva, the god of destruction. (Sanjay Kanojia/Getty Images)
- A Hindu holy man, or sadhu, cleans his teeth using a twig at the premises of Pashupatinath Temple during the Shivaratri festival in Kathmandu. Hindu holy men from Nepal and India come to this temple to take part in the festival. Celebrated by Hindu devotees all over the world, Shivaratri is dedicated to Lord Shiva, and holy men mark the occasion by praying, smoking marijuana or smearing their bodies with ashes. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)
- Women dressed in costumes for “Weiberfastnacht” (Women’s Carnival) celebrate in front of Cologne’s Cathedral. Women’s Carnival marks the start of a week of street festivals, the highlight of the event being “Rosenmontag” (Rose Monday), the final day of the carnival where mass processions are held. (Ina Fassbender /Reuters)
- An anti-Yanukovich protester buckles her helmet as she stands guard outside the parliament building along with her comrades in Kiev. Activists gathered outside parliament in Kiev as deputies vote for a new national unity government to govern the country until elections in May. Ukraine’s protest leaders on Wednesday named the ministers they want to form a new government following the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovich. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)
- People attend a rally outside the parliament in Kiev. Deposed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych the same day said he still considers himself to be Ukraine’s head of state but asked Russia to ensure his personal security. “I still consider myself to be the legal head of the Ukrainian state,” said Yanukovych in a statement to Russian news agencies, his first comments since February 22. “I am compelled to ask the Russian Federation to ensure my personal security from the actions of extremists,” he said, adding that the latest decisions by the Ukrainian parliament “do not have legitimate character.” (Louisa Gouliamaki/Getty Images)
- A man sleeps at a barricade near the Dynamo Kiev stadium in Kiev. Ukraine put police and interior ministry troops on alert February 27 after armed men seized the government and parliament in the pro-Russian region of Crimea, interior minister Arsen Avakov said. (Louisa Gouliamaki/Getty Images)
- People march under a giant Russian flag during a pro-Russian rally in Simferopol, Crimea. Armed men seized regional government headquarters and parliament in Ukraine’s Crimea on Thursday and raised the Russian flag, alarming Kiev’s new rulers, who urged Moscow not to abuse its navy base rights on the peninsula by moving troops around. (David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters)
- A carnation in memory of those killed in recent violence is placed by a mourner in a barricade in Kiev’s Independence Square. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)
- Relatives of Jimmy Vargas, a student who died during a recent protest, weep beside his coffin during his funeral in San Cristobal, 660 km from Caracas. Five intelligence agents have been ordered arrested for suspected ties to killings during protests against President Nicolas Maduro’s government, authorities said Wednesday. Oil-rich but deeply divided Venezuela has been swept by student-led protests since February 4, posing the greatest challenge yet to Maduro’s government just under a year since he took office. (Diego Rangel/Getty Images)
- The captain of the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship Francesco Schettino (C-without helmet) stands on the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship in Giglio Port . Schettino returned to the site of the disaster for the first time as part of the trial against him. (Filippo Monteforte/Getty Images)
- A Syrian man runs for cover as smoke rises from buildings nearby following a reported bombing attack by government forces on the Hanano district of the northern city of Aleppo. (Mohammed Al-Khatieb/Getty Images)
- Eyad (R), a 12 year-old boy who lost his arm during shelling by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, tries on a prosthetic arm at Duma Charity Foundation for Prosthesis in the Duma neighborhood in Damascus. The centre produces prostheses from different materials, including remnants of weapons, plastic mannequins and water barrels, and offer the devices to people who have lost their limbs during the war. (Bassam Khabieh/Reuters)
- Children play with a suitcase in a IDP camp for the Nuer ethnic group inside the UNMISS compound in Bor, South Sudan. War crimes have been committed by all sides in conflict-wracked South Sudan, Human Rights Watch said Thursday, reporting widespread atrocities in weeks of carnage in the world’s youngest nation. Thousands have been killed and almost 900,000 forced from their homes by over two months of battles between rebel and government forces, backed by troops from neighbouring Uganda. (Jim Lopez/Getty Images)
- The legs of second placed German team, including Rene Enders, Robert Forstemann and Maximilian Levy are pictured during the ceremony in the men’s team sprint race at the 2014 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Cali. (Jaime Saldarriaga/Reuters)
- Palestinians stand inside the partially demolished house of Muataz Washaha in the West Bank village of Birzeit, near Ramallah. Israeli forces knocked down part of the house, opened fire and killed Washaha, whom they were seeking to arrest in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, after he barricaded himself inside his house, Reuters witnesses said. An Israeli military statement said that Washaha had been wanted for “suspected terror activity” and that the forces, which later found an assault rifle in the house, were operating under the premise that he was armed. (Mohamad Torokman/Reuters)
- The coffin of former Preston and England soccer player Tom Finney arrives for his funeral at Preston Minster, northern England February 27, 2014. Finney, who played in three World Cups and scored a total of 30 goals in 76 international appearances, died on February 14 at the age of 91. (Nigel Roddis//Reuters)
- U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen (R) is photographed before testifying at the Senate Banking Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Gary Cameron/Reuters)