Apr 1, 2014

Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani campaigns in Kabul ahead of the presidential elections on Saturday, residents of the Miyakoji area of Tamura return home for the first time since Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster more than three years ago, Jean-Marc Ayrault takes over as the new prime minister of France, and more in today’s daily brief.

: Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah shakes hands with supporters as he arrives to attend an election campaign in Herat province April 1, 2014. The Afghan presidential elections will be held on April 5. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

: Supporters of Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani cheer during an election campaign in Kabul April 1, 2014. The Afghan presidential elections will be held on April 5. (Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

: Residents ride past a burning public security kiosk during a protest against a chemical plant project, on a street in Maoming, Guangdong province, early April 1, 2014. The city in southern China which has been the site of violent protests against a proposed chemical plant said it will not go ahead with the project if a majority of residents object to it, as authorities seek to head off more unrest. (Stringer/Reuters)

: An anti-government demonstrator clashes with the National Guard in Caracas on March 29, 2014. Venezuelan security forces have cleared barricades from San Cristobal, the western city that launched the first in a wave of national anti-government protests, a military commander said Monday.The San Cristobal protest inspired demonstrations in other parts of the country against President Nicolas Maduro, demanding solutions to the country’s violence, food shortages and soaring inflation. Protesters have also demanded the release of jailed protesters. The protests have often turned violent, leaving at least 39 people dead. (Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images)

: Toshio Koyama, 72, and his wife Kimiko, 69, who evacuated from the Miyakoji area of Tamura three years ago, smile after they returned to their home in Tamura, Fukushima prefecture April 1, 2014. For the first time since Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster more than three years ago, residents of the small district 20 km (12 miles) from the wrecked plant are allowed to return home. The Miyakoji area, a northeastern city inland from the Fukushima nuclear station, has been off-limits for most residents since March 2011, when the government ordered evacuations after a devastating earthquake and tsunami triggered triple meltdowns at the power station. (Issei Kato/Reuters)

: Kimiko Koyama, 69, who evacuated from the Miyakoji area of Tamura three years ago, dusts off her house after she returned to her home with her husband Toshio, 76, in Tamura, Fukushima prefecture April 1, 2014. For the first time since Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster more than three years ago, residents of the small district 20 km (12 miles) from the wrecked plant are allowed to return home. The Miyakoji area, a northeastern city inland from the Fukushima nuclear station, has been off-limits for most residents since March 2011, when the government ordered evacuations after a devastating earthquake and tsunami triggered triple meltdowns at the power station. (Issei Kato/Reuters)

: This NASA Earth Observatory image obtained March 31, 2014 was acquired on February 14, 2014, with a Nikon D3 digital camera using a 200 millimeter lens, and provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 38 crew. It has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. As the astronauts on the International Space Station passed over the deserts of central Iran recently, they saw this pattern of parallel lines and sweeping curves. The lack of soil and vegetation in the Kavir desert (Dasht-e Kavir) allows the geological structure of the rocks to appear quite clearly. The patterns result from the gentle folding of numerous, thin layers of rock. Later erosion by wind and water cut a flat surface across the dark- and light-colored folds, not only exposing hundreds of layers but also showing the shapes of the folds. The pattern has been likened to the layers of a sliced onion. The dark water of a lake (center) fills a depression in a more easily eroded, S-shaped layer of rock. The irregular, light-toned patch just left of the lake is a sand sheet thin enough to allow the underlying rock layers to be detected. A small river snakes across the bottom of the image. In this desert landscape, there are no fields or roads to give a sense of scale. In fact, the width of the image is about 65 kilometers (105 miles). (NASA/ISS/ HANDOUT/AFP Photo

: Staff Sgt. Michael Cohan from the 141st Logistical Readiness Squadron based out of Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington, uncovers a tattered American flag and displays it after pulling on a thin red string buried in a pile of debris from the massive mudslide that struck Oso, Washington, March 31, 2014. Survivors of a mudslide that left dozens dead or missing in Washington state said they would like to turn the disaster site into a shrine for the victims once bulldozers clear away the mud and debris. Picture taken March 31, 2014. (Kevin Borden/U.S. Department of Defense/Handout/Reuters)

: A sign directs people to a bake sale to benefit victims of the Oso, Washington mudslide in Arlington, Washington March 31, 2014. The official death toll rose to 24 on Monday – up from 21 a day earlier – with 30 people still listed as unaccounted for nine days after a rain-soaked hillside collapsed above the north fork of the Stillaguamish River, northeast of Seattle. (Max Whittaker/Reuters)

: France’s outgoing Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault (L) shakes hands with newly-named Prime Minister Manuel Valls after delivering their speeches during the official handover ceremony at Hotel Matignon, the French prime minister’s official residence, in Paris April 1, 2014. (Christian Hartmann/Reuters)

: Staff of the ‘Doctors without Borders’ (‘Medecin sans frontieres’) medical aid organisation carry the body of a person killed by viral haemorrhagic fever, at a center for victims of the Ebola virus in Guekedou, on April 1, 2014. The viral haemorrhagic fever epidemic raging in Guinea is caused by several viruses which have similar symptoms — the deadliest and most feared of which is Ebola. (Seyllou/AFP/Getty Images)

: People gather against soccer violence around a makeshift memorial with flowers, candles and club scarfes at the spot in central Helsingborg, southern Sweden, on March 31, 2014, where a Djurgarden IF supporter got assaulted and died of his head injuries before the season opening Swedish league match between Helsingborg IF and Djurgarden IF held at Olympia in Helsingborg on March 30. (Bjorn Lindgren/TT/AFP/Getty Images)

: A Morpho peleides butterfly sits on the nose of a child during a photocall in the Natural History Museum’s ‘Sensational Butterflies’ outdoor butterfly house in London on March 31, 2014. (Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images)

Campaigning in Afghanistan, returning home after Fukushima, new French PM | April 1

Leave a Reply Cancel