President Obama delivers toys, Copa Sudamericana 2014 and protests in Hong Kong | Dec. 11
The day in pictures around the world.
- U.S. President Barack Obama, with bags slung over his shoulders, delivers toys and gifts donated by Executive Office of the President staff to the Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, DC. For 67 years the Toys for Tots program has worked with local communities to collect and distribute toys and gifts for less fortunate children throughout the United States. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
- Debutantes help another prepare while waiting to enter their debutante ball in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The gala was held in a posh tennis club and organized by the Pacifying Police Unit (UPP) from the Babilonia and Chapeu Mangueira communities, or favelas. Volunteers prepared makeup, hair styling and loaned dresses in an effort to build goodwill between favela residents and the community’s police force. Eleven girls from the favelas, aged around 15-years-old, attended the ball along with police officers, family members and supporters. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
- Argentina’s River Plate supporters cheer for their team during the Copa Sudamericana 2014 second leg final football match against Colombia’s Atletico Nacional at the Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images)
- A Monaco’s carabinieri walks past the Monaco Palace December 11, 2014. Princess Charlene of Monaco gave birth on Wednesday to twins, a boy and a girl, the royal couple’s first children, an aide to the royals said. According to Monaco’s Constitution the boy, named Jacques, will be first-in-line to the throne, and not his twin sister, Gabriella. (Eric Gaillard/Reuters)
- Fishermen from India stand behind bars in a cell, after being detained in Pakistani waters, at a police station in Karachi December 11, 2014. Pakistan maritime authorities arrested 58 Indian fishermen and took into custody their ten boats for illegal fishing in the country’s territorial waters, police said on Thursday. The fishermen, who were arrested on Wednesday, had been handed over to Docks Police Station in the southern port city of Karachi for necessary legal action. (Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)
- Frost covers the mask and part of the hat of a soldier of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) as he stand guard near the border of China and Russia in Heihe, Heilongjiang province. The local temperature reached -32 degrees Centigrade (-25.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday. (Stringer/Reuters)
- Palestinian women take part in a demonstration is support of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, on December 11, 2014 in Gaza City. Israel’s parliament has passed a law that could block the release in any future peace negotiations of Palestinian prisoners convicted of murder, a spokesman said. (Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)
- A woman holds a yellow umbrella — a symbol of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong — next to graffiti that reads “Our Revenge” inside a blockaded tunnel on a highway in the Central district of Hong Kong, hours before police were expected to move in to clear pro-democracy protesters on December 11, 2014. Hong Kong authorities are preparing for the final clearance of the city’s main pro-democracy protest site after more than two months, reports said, with an injunction paving the way for bailiffs to swoop. (Alex Ogle/AFP/Getty Images)
- A demonstrator is taken away by police officers at an area previously blocked by pro-democracy supporters, outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong, December 11, 2014. Hong Kong authorities started on Thursday clearing the main pro-democracy protest site that has choked roads into the city’s most economically and politically important district for more than two months as part of a campaign to demand free elections.(Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)
- A demonstrator is taken away by police officers at an area previously blocked by pro-democracy supporters, outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong, December 11, 2014. Hong Kong authorities started on Thursday clearing the main pro-democracy protest site that has choked roads into the city’s most economically and politically important district for more than two months as part of a campaign to demand free elections. (Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)
- Pedestrians crowd a street decorated with christmas lights in the centre of Madrid . (Dani Pozo/AFP/Getty Images)
- A Palestinian boy plays in the rubble of a house destroyed during the 50 days of conflict between Israel and Hamas last summer, in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, on December 11, 2014. (Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)
- An undercover police officer, who had been marching with anti-police demonstrators, aims his gun at protesters after some in the crowd attacked him and his partner in Oakland, California. Police said more than 100 demonstrators marched in Berkeley, California, which has a history of social activism. Under cloudy skies, turnout was smaller than earlier in the week, when demonstrators in the area threw rocks at police and shut down a major freeway. (Noah Berger/Reuters)
- School children evacuate a school during an earthquake and avalanche drill in Ancash. World greenhouse gas emissions are rising fast and it may be years before they start falling, prompting glaciologists to urge Peru to act fast to protect towns and villages in danger. In Lima, nearly 200 governments are meeting this week to thrash out a rough draft of a deal to cut carbon emissions in a bid to ward off more warming. The deal is due to be agreed in Paris in late 2015. (Mariana Bazo/Reuters)
- A man uses a pail of water to help out firefighters as they try to put out a fire that broke out at a slum area in Manila December 11, 2014. Around 200 houses were gutted by the fire in the early morning of Thursday, which left an estimated 500 families homeless and one firefighter injured, local media reported. (Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)
- A surfer drops in on a large wave at Praia do Norte, in Nazare December 11, 2014. Praia do Norte beach has gained popularity with big wave surfers since Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara broke a world record for the largest wave surfed here in 2011. (Rafael Marchante/Reuters)
- A general view of lake Laguna 513, at more than 13,000 feet above sea level in front of the Hualcan glacier in Huascaran natural reserve in Ancash. Scientists warn that if a giant chunk of ice from the Hualcan glacier breaks off it could trigger a tsunami-like wave in Laguna 513 and send a lethal torrent of water cascading down the valley. In Lima, nearly 200 governments are meeting this week to thrash out a rough draft of a deal to cut carbon emissions in a bid to ward off more warming. The deal is due to be agreed in Paris in late 2015. (Mariana Bazo/Reuters)
- A man grills fish to sell, in front of his house in the fishermen’s village in El Max in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. El Max, where hundreds of boats dart through the canals, has been called the “Venice of Egypt” for its waterways and relaxed atmosphere. Its fishermen, however, worry about how they will make ends meet on meagre earnings they say are being reduced further by polluted waters that are making fishing more difficult. While the government has tried to fix the state’s bloated finances by cutting subsidies and reining in spending, some argue the reforms hurt Egypt’s most vulnerable who have long relied on a generous system of fuel and food subsidies to supplement low incomes. (Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)
- Spectators wait the start of a cinema screening at a Kinostar De Lux Multiplex in Khimki outside Moscow on December 11, 2014. Furniture retailer IKEA has replaced standard seats with twin beds in one of the cinema hall. The hall now goes by the name: It awakes love. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images)
- Models display creations during the fall 2015 fashion show by French fashion brand Dior in Tokyo on December 11, 2014. (Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images)
- Eurasian eagle-owls (Bubo Bubo) sit in a cage at the Brinzal aviary, an owl-rescue charity based in a Madrid park, part of their convalescence following an ailment. (Gerard Juliena/AFP/Getty Images)