A big red shoe, the Vatican’s elite Swiss Guard, Earthquake in Thailand, Israeli Independence Day | May 6
A big red shoe, the Vatican’s elite Swiss Guard, Earthquake in Thailand, Israeli Independence Day and more in today’s daily brief.
- Scottish country dancer Mairie McGillivray,16, dances on the beach at Bridgend as she poses for a photograph on the Hebridean island of Islay. Mairie will vote “yes” in the referendum and said, “I believe that Scotland isn’t governed by democratic means due to our lack of representation in Westminster and that we would be better off as an independent nation, both culturally and financially.” When Scotland’s nationalist government dropped the voting age to 16 for this year’s referendum on independence, it was widely seen as banking on teenage radicalism to ensure a break with the United Kingdom. If so, it may have miscalculated. Two opinion polls and Reuters interviews with 25 Scottish teenagers in 10 different locations suggest the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) can’t be sure of their support in the Sept. 18 referendum. Overall, polls show Scots remain doubtful about separation, although the proportion of those supporting independence has increased over the past year. (Paul Hackett/Reuters)
- Venezuelan artist Cristobal Ochoa (R) and his performance partner Jean-Paul Fowler promote the Artist Open Houses part of the Brighton Festival with street art performance “Los conos de madre” (“mother’s cones”), on the seafront in Brighton. Artists open their homes during the annual Brighton Festival, now in its 48th year, every weekend during May. Ochoa will be performing at two arts houses in Hove and other venues around the city. (Luke MacGregor/Reuters)
- A child plays on a giant high-heeled shoe displayed in the Vieux-Port in Marseille, southern France. (Anne-Christine Poujoulat/Getty Images)
- French coast rescuers support a 23-year-old Afghan trying to cross the Channel on a makeshift raft using a bedsheet as a sail off Sangatte. The man, who had started developing hypothermia, “was first disappointed and then glad at being rescued,” said Bernard Barron, the head of the coast rescue service in Calais. (Getty Images)
- A swallow feeds her babies in their nest under the ceiling of a residential house in Dongfeng township of Guiyang, Guizhou province. (Reuters)
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry kicks a soccer ball while talking on his cellphone during an airplane refuelling stop, while enroute to Washington, at Sal Island, Cape Verde. (Saul Loeb/Reuters)
- A woman with an umbrella jumps over a hole on a highway road, damaged by Monday’s earthquake in Chiang Rai, in northern Thailand. The earthquake of 6 magnitude struck northern Thailand on Monday causing some damage to buildings and roads and knocking goods off shelves in shops but there were no immediate reports of any casualties. The quake struck 17 miles (27 km) southwest of the town of Chiang Rai, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). It was felt in the Thai capital, Bangkok, and in neighbouring Myanmar. (Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)
- A Buddha statue, damaged by an earthquake, is seen at the Udomwaree temple in Chiang Rai, in northern Thailand. An earthquake of 6 magnitude struck northern Thailand on Monday causing some damage to buildings and roads and knocking goods off shelves in shops but there were no immediate reports of any casualties. (Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)
- A Buddhist monk walks in front of a Buddha statue damaged in the earthquake at the Udomwaree temple in Chiang Rai, in northern Thailand. An earthquake of 6 magnitude struck northern Thailand on Monday causing some damage to buildings and roads and knocking goods off shelves in shops but there were no immediate reports of any casualties. (Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)
- People walk past cracks on a highway a day after a 6.0-magnitude quake struck in Thailand’s northern province of Chiang Rai. An elderly woman died and 23 other people were injured after a strong earthquake shook northern Thailand, an official said on May 6, as aftershocks continued to rattle the mountainous region popular with tourists. (Getty Images)
- New recruits of the Vatican’s elite Swiss Guard stand at attention during the swearing-in ceremony at the Vatican. The Swiss Guard, founded in 1506, consist of 100 volunteers who must be of Swiss nationality, Catholic, single, at least 174 cm (5.7 ft) tall and without a beard. New recruits are sworn in every year on May 6 to commemorate the day where 147 Swiss soldiers died defending the Pope during an attack on Rome in 1527. (Tony Gentile/Reuters)
- New recruits of the Vatican’s elite Swiss Guard march during the swearing-in ceremony at the Vatican. The Swiss Guard, founded in 1506, consist of 100 volunteers who must be of Swiss nationality, Catholic, single, at least 174 cm (5.7 ft) tall and without a beard. New recruits are sworn in every year on May 6 to commemorate the day where 147 Swiss soldiers died defending the Pope during an attack on Rome in 1527. (Tony Gentile/Reuters)
- Russian soldiers march during a rehearsal of the Victory Day Parade in Moscow. The parade will take place on the Red Square in Moscow on May 9 to commemorate the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/Getty Images)
- A pro-Russian militant holds a Kalashnikov as he guards a barricade outside the city hall in downtown Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine a day after heavy fightings between pro-Russian militiants and Ukranian troops killed at least 34 people near the eastern Ukranian city of Slavyansk. The death toll from a military offensive in a flashpoint town in east Ukraine rose to at least 34, officials said on May 6, amid fresh warnings of civil war and the shutdown of a major airport in the region. (Genya Savilov/Getty Images)
- Pro-Russian fighters take position by railway tracks a day after heavy fightings between pro-Russian militiants and Ukranian troops killed at least 34 people near the eastern Ukranian city of Slavyansk. The death toll from a military offensive in a flashpoint town in east Ukraine rose to at least 34, officials said on May 6, amid fresh warnings of civil war and the shutdown of a major airport in the region. (VasilyMaximov/Getty Images)
- An Israeli boy plays with an M-16 rifle during a traditional military weapon display to mark the 66th anniversary of Israel’s Independence at the West Bank settlement of Efrat near the biblical city of Bethlehem. Israelis are marking Independence Day, celebrating the 66th year since the founding of the Jewish State in 1948 according to the Jewish calendar. (Gali Tibbon/Getty Images)
- A general view shows the Israeli air force museum in Beersheba from an Israeli Air Force plane during an aerial show as part of celebrations for Israel’s Independence Day to mark the 66th anniversary of the creation of the state. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)
- A soldier walks among graves of Vietnamese soldiers killed during the Dien Bien Phu battle at the official military cemetery in the northwestern town of Dien Bien Phu. Vietnam is getting ready to celebrate the 60th anniversary, on May 7, of its victory over France at the Dien Bien Phu battle in 1954. (Hoang Dinh Nam/Getty Images)
- Rex Chan, 5, receives make up before taking part in a Bun Festival parade at Hong Kong’s Cheung Chau island. The festival celebrates the islanders’ deliverance from famine many centuries ago and is meant to placate ghosts and restless spirits. (Bobby Yip/Reuters)
- Soldier-builders of KPA Units 966, 462, 101, 489, who took part in building the workers’ hostel of Kim Jong Suk Pyongyang Textile Mill, applaud during a photo session with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang. (KCNA/Reuters)
- Afghan members of civil society organizations light candles during a memorial service for the victims of the landslide at Aab Bareek village, in Bamiyan province. Rescue teams abandoned the search for survivors May 3 after a landslide buried a hillside village in northern Afghanistan with at least 300 people killed and 700 families left homeless in the mountains. (Kamran Shefayee/Getty Images)
- A Buddhist monk and protesters put lotus flowers on a barricade set up by police officers during a demonstration near the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in central Phnom Penh. The protesters demanded the release of 23 detainees who have been jailed since January 3, when military police opened fire on workers striking over low pay, killing four people. (Samrang Pring/Reuters)
- Afghan women arrive at the site of a landslide, after the dead body of a woman was found, at the Argo district in Badakhshan province. (Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)
- A man reads a newspaper as he sits on the window of a temporary shelter for homeless people in New Delhi. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)
- A Hindu boy peeps out from a window grille in an ashram in Ayodhya in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. (Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters)