The Best Pictures of the Week, August 26 – September 2
The Best Pictures of the Week, August 26 – September 2
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August 28, 2011. A girl combs her hair before performing a traditional reed dance in Ludzidzini, Swaziland. Thousands of virginal girls from around the country go there with cut reeds to present to the Queen Mother in an annual eight-day ceremony. Swaziland’s King Mswati III has also used the event to choose a new wife—he currently has 13.Siphiwe Sibeko—Reuters
This week: The end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, Dadaab Refugee Camp, paint covered riot police, the Notting Hill Carnival, A Union Flag recovered from the World Trade Center site following 9/11 attacks, the Casino Royale fire in Mexico claims the lives of 52 people, Pro-Gadhafi soldiers rest in Tripoli, Burning Man, Hurricane Irene, Blackpool Tower, and the World Athletic Championships.
August 28, 2011. A girl combs her hair before performing a traditional reed dance in Ludzidzini, Swaziland. Thousands of virginal girls from around the country go there with cut reeds to present to the Queen Mother in an annual eight-day ceremony. Swaziland’s King Mswati III has also used the event to choose a new wife—he currently has 13.
Siphiwe Sibeko—ReutersAugust 28, 2011. A U.S. F-15 fighter fires flares after striking Taliban insurgents in Kunar province in Afghanistan. After Taliban forces shot down a helicopter, killing 30 American soldiers, August became the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the war in Afghanistan began a decade ago.Nikola Solic—ReutersAugust 29, 2011. A Muslim man uses binoculars to search for the moon in Thailand’s Yala province. The appearance of the new moon marks the end of fasting and spiritual cleansing during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the start of a three-day celebration known as ’Id al-Fitr, the Breaking of the Fast. Muhammad Sabri—AFP/Getty ImagesAugust 30, 2011. Thousands of Muslims gather in Tahrir Square in Cairo to pray and mark ’Id al-Fitr, the end of fasting during Ramadan. The ’Id was the first since revolutionaries demonstrating in the square deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February and triggered similar protests against dictators throughout the Arab world.Khaled Desouki—AFP/Getty ImagesAugust 29, 2011. An eco-conscious designer gives final instructions for building a environmentally friendly version of Ganesh, the Hindu god of prosperity, in Hyderabad, India. The idol is made mostly of paper cups, which will pose less of an ecological hazard when, as tradition dictates, the decorated model is submerged in the river after the celebration.Noah Seelam—AFP/Getty ImagesAugust 29, 2011. Refugees in Hagadera, Kenya, scramble to load their belongings onto trucks that will relocate them to a newly opened camp near Nairobi. About a thousand new refugees fleeing famine in Somalia continue to pour into Kenya each day. Jonathan Ernst—ReutersAugust 25, 2011. Police are pelted with paint thrown by demonstrators near the presidential palace in Santiago, Chile. A two-day strike that began as a student protest for free education mushroomed into a larger movement for reforms to labor laws and pensions and increases in corporate taxes to fund health and education.Victor R. Caivano—APAugust 24, 2011. Saphra Bernard poses during a photocall to promote the Notting Hill Carnival at City Hall in London. A record number of police will be deployed at London's Notting Hill Carnival this weekend to avoid any repeat of rioting that tore through parts of the capital two week's ago, London's Metropolitan Police force said Tuesday. Luke MacGregor—ReutersAugust 30, 2011. Somali children play with toy guns and weapons in Mogadishu at the start of the three-day Eid al-Fitr feast. Eid-al-Fitr celebrations mark the end of the fasting Muslim month of RamadanAbdurashid Abikar—AFP/Getty ImagesAugust 31, 2011. The shadow of a museum employee falls onto a Union Flag recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center in New York following the 2001 attacks, at the Imperial War Museum in Manchester, northern England. The flag will form part of an exhibition marking the tenth anniversary of 9/11, and will start on September 10, running for two years. Nigel Roddis—ReutersAugust 27, 2011. Relatives and friends of Maria Guadalupe Monsivais --one of the 52 victims of the Casino Royale fire-- mourn next to her coffin, during the wake in Monterrey, Mexico. Mexico offered a reward Friday of $2.4 million for information leading to the arrest of armed men who torched the casino on August 25, leaving 52 people to burn and choke to death in a blazing inferno. The particularly callous attack shocked a nation routinely used to grim murders and high tolls in a drugs war that has claimed more than 41,000 lives since Calderon launched a military crackdown in 2006.Ronaldo Schemidt—AFP/Getty ImagesAugust 29, 2011. Girls sit backstage before their performance at a local school in Rason city, northeast of Pyongyang.Carlos Barria—ReutersAugust 29, 2011. Policemen take pictures of the unfolding of a giant thangka, a religious silk embroidery or painting unique to Tibet, during the Shoton Festival at Drepung Monastery on the outskirts of Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region.Jacky Chen—ReutersAugust 29, 2011. Pro-Gadhafi soldiers rest in a school converted into a prison in Tripoli, Libya, Monday.Alexandre Meneghini—APSeptember 1, 2011. A worker standing on inflated rubber tubes collects water chestnuts from the banks of river Yamuna in New Delhi. Water chestnut are locally known as "Singada" and are eaten raw, boiled or are grounded into flour after they are dried. Parivartan Sharma—ReutersAug 31,2011. An Iranian girl passing by the muslim worshipers at Imam zadeh Helal ebne Ali shrine in Aran o BidGol during Eid-al-Fitr festival. Aran o BidGol is a city in Isfahan province, located about 250 KM south of Tehran, Iran . The Eid-al-Fitr festival marks the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Maryam Rahmanian—UPI/LANDOVAugust 31, 2011. Burning Man participant Karen Wennberg of Sante Fe, New Mexico, pauses after writing a personal message on "The Temple of Transition" during the Burning Man 2011 "Rites of Passage" arts and music festival in the Black Rock desert of Nevada. More than 50,000 people from all over the world have gathered at the 25th edition of the sold-out festival. Jim Bourg—Reuters Aug. 30, 2011. An Indian villager throws a fishing net into the River Brahmaputra at Suwalkuchi, west of Gauhati, India.Anupam Nath—APAugust 28, 2011. The day after Hurricane Irene swept through Ocean City, Md., a hotel worker removes chairs that were submerged in the hotel pool to shelter them from the storm’s sustained 40-m.p.h. (65 km/h) winds. The resort town was evacuated, but storm preparations kept flooding and wind damage to a minimum.Karl Merton Ferron—Baltimore Sun/MCT/Zuma PressAugust 31, 2011. Policemen and residents run as waves from a tidal bore surge past a barrier on the banks of Qiantang River in Haining, Zhejiang province. As Typhoon Nanmadol approaches eastern China, the tides and waves in Qiantang River recorded its highest level in 10 years.China Daily/ReutersAugust 31, 2011. A man sits grieving next to the body of his eleven-year-old brother after his body was recovered from the site of a car bomb blast in Quetta A suspected suicide car bomb attack killed 10 people in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan as the country celebrated the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr. Naseer Ahmed—ReutersAugust 31, 2011. Girls pray next to a cemetery after Eid al-Fitr prayers marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Dakar, Senegal. Finbarr O'Reilly—ReutersSeptember 2, 2011. Will Claye of the U.S. competes during the men's long jump final at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. Mark Blinch—ReutersSeptember 1, 2011. Workmen put the finishing touches to a giant art work on Blackpool promenade viewed fron the top of the refurbished Blackpool Tower in Blackpool, England. Christopher Furlong—Getty ImagesSeptember 1, 2011. A visitor tries out the new glass Skywalk at the top of the refurbished Blackpool Tower in Blackpool, England. After a GBP £20 million refurbishment, the iconic seaside Blackpool Tower opened to the general public. The observation deck at the top of the tower becomes the Blackpool Tower Eye and features a skywalk made of glass overlooking the sea and the promenade. Christopher Furlong—Getty ImagesAugust 31, 2011. A view through a shield shows informal settlers blocking anti-riot policemen during a clash as riot policemen try to go ahead with the demolition of their shanties in Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City, metro Manila. Hundreds of families living on government property in Commonwealth Avenue are being evicted to pave the way for the development of prime properties, local media reported. Metro Manila has the highest number of informal settlers in the country, with an estimated 300,000 families living on empty private- and government-owned lots, said local media.
Romeo Ranoco—ReutersAug. 31, 2011. Libyans gather for an Eid Al-Fitr holiday celebration in Tripoli's Martyrs' Square, formerly known as Green Square, in Libya. Moises Saman—Redux/The New York Times)August 30, 2011. U.S. Army Sgt. Don Stolle launches a Raven surveillance drone into the air from the Afghan government district center in Achin, Afghanistan. The military uses the small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to transmit live video back and watch for possible Taliban movements near U.S. forces on the ground. The craft, controled remotely like a model airplane, can fly for up to 1 1/2 hours and a distance of about 6 miles on its electronic motor before being brought back and relaunched with a fresh battery. John Moore—Getty ImagesAugust 30, 2011. National Guard Blackhawk helicopters equipped with Bambi buckets drop water on the marsh fire in New Orleans East.
Times-Picayune /LandovAugust 26, 2011. A resident of Greece is surrounded by smoke from a forest fire near Thessaloniki. Many Greeks are enraged over what they view as poor government preparation for wildfires near Athens that have already destroyed 30,000 acres (about 12,000 hectares) of forests and olive crops and forced hundreds to evacuate.Sakis Mitrolidis—AFP/Getty Images
