Russia-Crimea treaty signing, fire-breathing, more Holi celebrations | March 18
Russian President Vladimir Putin and two Crimean leaders signed the treaty making Crimea part of Russia, Indian Sikh youths performed fire-breathing, Holi celebrations marking the start of spring continued, and more in today’s daily brief.
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- Indian Sikh youths perform fire-breathing as they demonstrate Gatka martial arts skills while welcoming unseen Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leader and candidate for Amritsar’s parliamentary seat Arun Jaitley to an event in Amritsar on March 18, 2014. India, the world’s biggest democracy, announced the start of national elections on April 7 that are expected to bring Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi to power on a platform of economic revival. (Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Russian President Vladimir Putin (2nd R), Crimea’s Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov (front L), Crimean parliamentary speaker Vladimir Konstantinov (back L) and Sevastopol Mayor Alexei Chaliy shake hands after a signing ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow March 18, 2014. Putin and two Crimean leaders signed a treaty on Tuesday on making the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula a part of Russia. The signing in the Kremlin came two days after Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and join Russia in a referendum condemned by the Ukrainian government, the United States and the European Union as illegitimate. (Sergei Ilnitsky/Pool/Reuters)
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- People hold a Crimean flag in front of Lenin’s statue in the centre of Simferopol March 18, 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin, defying Ukrainian protests and Western sanctions, on Tuesday signed a treaty making Crimea part Russia but said he did not plan to seize any other regions of Ukraine. (David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters)
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- A combination photo shows (top to bottom) the arrival of the judges of the second senate, the explanation by the judges of the verdict on the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the judges leaving the courtroom at Germany’s Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) in Karlsruhe, March 18, 2014. Germany’s Constitutional Court confirmed on Tuesday the legality of the euro zone’s bailout fund, upholding a preliminary ruling from the height of the debt crisis in 2012 that gave an initial green light to the ESM. The court in Karlsruhe reiterated that the 700 billion euro ($975 billion) fund did not violate the rights of the Bundestag to decide on budgetary matters as long as the lower house of parliament had sufficient oversight powers over the ESM. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)
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- Ecuador’s Melissa Perez competes in the X South American Games (Odesur) Rhythmic Gymnastics competition in Santiago, Chile, on March 17, 2014. (Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images)
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- People take part in a colourful procession locally known as Badshah ki Sawari as part of Holi celebrations in Beawar in the desert Indian state of Rajasthan March 18, 2014. Holi, also known as the Festival of Colours, heralds the beginning of spring and is celebrated all over India. (Himanshu Sharma/Reuters)
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- A girl wearing a mask runs as boys splash coloured water on her during “Huranga” at Dauji temple, near the northern Indian city of Mathura March 18, 2014. Huranga is a game played between men and women a day after Holi, the festival of colours, during which men drench women with liquid colours and women tear off the clothes of the men. (Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters)
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- Men dance as coloured powder is sprayed on them during Holi celebrations in the northern Indian city of Allahabad March 18, 2014. Holi, also known as the Festival of Colours, heralds the beginning of spring and is celebrated all over India. (Jitendra Prakash/Reuters)
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- A restoration worker peels off loose gold foil as part of a restoration project for an 800-year-old Thousand-Hand Guanyin Buddhist statue on Mount Baoding in Chongqing municipality, March 18, 2014. The stone-carving statue, which takes up about 88 square metres on the mountain, dates back to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). Officials said the restoration project started in April 18, 2011 and would likely finish in the first half of 2015, local media reported. (Stringer/Reuters)
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- An anti-government protester holds a stone in front of a burning bus during a protest against Nicolas Maduro’s government in San Cristobal March 17, 2014. Since early February, students and hardline opposition leaders have been calling supporters onto the streets to protest against Maduro and his socialist government. (Carlos Eduardo Ramirez/Reuters)
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- Canadian Army Master Corporal Anthony Alliot (L) kisses Sarah Tooth after arriving from Afghanistan, in Ottawa March 18, 2014. Canada’s 12-year mission in Afghanistan has formally ended, according to the military. (Blair Gable/Reuters)
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- A soldier with the Afghan National Army’s (ANA) National Engineer Brigade tries to make dry land after leaping from the top of a Mabey-Johnson portable pre-fabricated bridge which his unit was learning to construct with the help of U.S. Navy Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (MCB) 28 at the ANA’s combined Fielding Center on March 18, 2014 in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Seabees are attached to the U.S. Army’s 130th Engineer Brigade are responsible for training ANA soldiers various engineering tasks at the facility. In a recent speech to his country’s parliament, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said U.S. troops can leave Afghanistan at the end of the year because his military was ready to take over responsibility for the nation’s security. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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- Students stand next to a giant mural featuring missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 displayed on the grounds of their school in Manila’s financial district of Makati on March 18, 2014, created as part of solidarity action by concerned artists for the passengers and crew of the missing plane. Three million people around the world have joined an effort led by a satellite operator to locate the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, in what may be the largest crowdsourcing project of its kind. The plane went missing early on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew aboard, spawning a massive international search across Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean that has turned up no trace of wreckage. (Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images)
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