Jump to October 2011 archive page: 1 ... 11 12 13 14 15 ... 18
  • Adrian Bradshaw / EPA

    A gardener pushes a lawnmower past a statue of a peasant farmer watering his crops, in Beijing, China, on October 11. Water pricing reform is under discussion by central government with a view to controlling wastage of the increasingly scarce resource.

    Evolution of the Chinese laborer

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  • Jason Lee / EPA

    Members of an honor guard stand in a line ahead of a welcome ceremony for Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on October 11.

    Honor guard heralds Sino-Russian summit

    The AP reports from BEIJING:

    Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is visiting China in a bid to boost diplomatic ties and overcome hurdles to increased trade and sales of his country's vast energy resources.

    Despite warming ties, the two countries have struggled to increase trade and agree on sales of Russian gas to fuel China's booming economy. Moscow is also unhappy with China's illegal copying of Russian fighter jets and other military hardware and recently announced the arrest of a Chinese man accused of seeking to buy military secrets. Read the full story.

  • Thai workers salvage goods from flooded factory

    Pornchai Kittiwongsakul / AFP - Getty Images

    Thai workers transport boxes by boat as they salvage goods from a flooded factory in Nonthaburi province, suburban Bangkok on October 11.

    Christophe Archambault / AFP - Getty Images

    Cars submerged in floodwaters at a Honda factory outside Ayutthaya on October 11.

    Christophe Archambault / AFP - Getty Images

    This aerial picture shows people wading through floodwaters on the main road of the ancient Thai capital of Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok, on October 11.

    Reuters reported on Sunday that nearly 200 factories in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya had been forced to close because of flooding. The death toll from the country's worst floods in decades rose to 269, according to Agence France Presse, as thousands of soldiers fanned out across affected areas as part of a huge aid operation.

    Related content on PhotoBlog:

  • Japanese inventor builds modern-day ark in anticipation of another tsunami

    Oh Hyun / Reuters

    Cosmo Power Co.'s President Shoji Tanaka stands next to the company's personal flotation device, "Noah," which is designed to survive both an earthquake and the tsunami that might follow, at a port in Hiratsuka, south of Tokyo, on October 3.

    Reuters reports from TOKYO:

    It's not quite a yellow submarine, since it's destined for travel on top of the water, not under it.

    But the round yellow pod, christened "Noah" for the maker of the ark, could mean the difference between life and death in the case of another killer earthquake and tsunami like the one that hit Japan seven months ago, said its inventor, Shoji Tanaka.

    "Noah" is about 1.2 meters -- or four feet -- in diameter, with one hatch, one glass window and two holes for drainage and ventilation. It's made out of fiber reinforced plastic, which Tanaka said is lighter but also stronger than steel.

    The company said it already has orders for 700 of the four-seater pods, mainly from families, waterfront businesses and fishermen. Read the full story.

    Oh Hyun / Reuters

    A demonstration of the "Noah" personal flotation device in Hiratsuka on October 3.

  • Annual Cooktown hog hunt in Australia

    Mark Kolbe / Getty Images

    Brett Davies and Tom Nevins drag a sow back to their truck during hunting on Silver Plains Station on Oct. 8, 2011 outside of Coen, Australia.

    Mark Kolbe / Getty Images

    A feral pig is carried away after the weigh in for the 2011 Cooktown Hog Hunt at the Top Pub on Oct. 9, 2011 in Cooktown, Australia.

    Mark Kolbe / Getty Images

    Tom Nevins and John Davies drag a dead boar back to their truck after it was caught during hunting on Silver Plains Station on Oct. 8, 2011 outside of Coen, Australia.

    Mark Kolbe / Getty Images

    A pigdog licks at the blood on it's face as it leaves the kill during hunting on Silver Plains Station on Oct. 8, 2011 outside of Coen, Australia

    Mark Kolbe / Getty Images

    Tom Nevins kills a boar as his pigdogs bail it during hunting as part of the 2011 Cooktown Hog Hunt at Silver Plains Station on Oct. 7, 2011 outside of Coen, Australia.

    Mark Kolbe / Getty Images

    A boars tusks are displayed after it was killed during hunting as part of the 2011 Cooktown Hog Hunt at Silver Plains Station on Oct. 7, 2011 outside of Coen, Australia.

    Mark Kolbe / Getty Images

    A feral piglet is seen in the torch light during hunting on Silver Plains Station on Oct. 8, 2011 outside of Coen, Australia.

    Mark Kolbe / Getty Images

    Competitors throw a dead feral pig in a truck filled with feral pig carcasses during the weigh in for the 2011 Cooktown Hog Hunt at the Top Pub on Oct. 9, 2011 in Cooktown, Australia.

     

    Getty Images reports:

    Feral pigs are recognised as environmental and agricultural pests reported to have a population of up to 23.5 million over around half of Australia. The Cooktown Hog Hunt is held annually with this year's hunting window open from registration at 2pm on Friday to the end of weigh in at 2pm on Sunday afternoon. The use of specifically trained pigdogs is common with dogs used to follow then hold a pig in place for the hunter to dispatch it.

    Find out more about the annual hunt from here.

  • Natacha Pisarenko / AP

    A volunteer cleans a beach stained with fuel oil leaked from the Liberian-flagged container ship Rena in Tauranga, New Zealand, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011. The 775-foot ship, carrying 1,700 tons of fuel oil and 2,100 shipping containers on board, has been foundering since it ran aground last Wednesday on the Astrolabe Reef, about 14 miles from Tauranga Harbour.

    Oil stretches for miles, washes up on beaches after ship strikes New Zealand reef

    WELLINGTON, New ZealandSmall amounts of oil from a container ship stuck on a reef for days began washing up at a popular New Zealand beach on Monday, while work to extract oil from the vessel was called off because of weather concerns.

    The Liberia-flagged Rena struck the Astrolabe Reef about 14 miles from Tauranga Harbour early Wednesday, and has been foundering there since. The 775-foot ship has been leaking fuel, leading to fears it could cause an environmental disaster if it breaks apart.

    Read the full story here.

  • Owaise Mahmoud / AFP - Getty Images

    Egyptian Copts carry the coffins of victims of deadly clashes, during a funeral at Abassaiya on the road to Cathedral in Cairo on Oct. 11, a day after 24 people, mostly Christians, died in clashes with Egyptian security forces.

    Christians under siege in post-revolution Egypt

    AP reports:

    CAIRO — Egypt's Coptic Christians have long felt like second-class citizens in their own country.

    Now many fear that the power vacuum left after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak is giving Muslim extremists free rein to torch churches and attack Coptic homes in the worst violence against the community in decades.

  • Costa Rica hosts World Rafting Championship

    World Rafting Championship website.

    Juan Carlos Ulate / Reuters

    Norway's women's team runs the rapids in the downriver competition at the Costa Rica 2011 World Rafting Championships, in the Pacuare river in Turrialba, 50 miles east of San Jose, Oct. 10. Thirty-two countries are taking part in the World Rafting Championships.

    Ezequiel Becerra / AFP - Getty Images

    The rafting team of Finland runs a section of rapids in the Downriver event at the Rafting World Championships near Turrialba, east of the capital of San Jose, Costa Rica, on October 10.

  • 'Superhero' arrested in Seattle for assault investigation

    Joshua Trujillo / seattlepi.com via AP

    This Feb. 18, 2011 file photo shows Seattle superhero Phoenix Jones during a patrol of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Seattle's superhero, who has gained fans and a bit of fame as he works the streets of Seattle, was arrested and booked into King County Jail early Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011 for investigation of assault after an early morning incident involving pepper spray. His spokesperson says he was breaking up a fight and they have video of the incident. Police say he came up behind a group of people leaving a bar and sprayed them with pepper spray.

    Here's the full story about this character.

    Seattle's self-proclaimed superhero, Phoenix Jones, claims he was trying to break up a fight in when he was arrested and charged with assault for using pepper spray. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.

  • Photographers remember Steve Jobs as a very challenging photo subject

    apple.com via Reuters

    Apple Inc co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs picture is featured on the front page of the Apple website after his passing in this screen grab October 5, 2011.

    The Photo District News blog PDNPulse has a fascinating post about the experience of several photographers shooting Steve Jobs over the years.

    The piece tells the story of the iconic photo on Apple's website (above), shot in 2006 by fashion and commercial photographer Albert Watson. Watson shot the picture with film on a 4x5 camera.

    “If you look at that shot, you can see the intensity. It was my intention that by looking at him, that you knew this guy was smart,” Watson says, adding, “I heard later that it was his favorite photograph of all time.”

    Photojournalist Ed Kashi writes:

    “He was one of the most difficult subjects I ever dealt with during my Silicon Valley years but I appreciated his awareness of identity, setting and message of the images. There was one time I had to get a picture with him and Ross Perot and when Jobs acted up Perot turned to him and like a stern parent said ‘Steve, Grow up!!’

    Related: More Kashi images of Steve Jobs

    Capturing Steve Jobs On Camera: Photographer Peter Stember Remembers

    In a Private Light: Diana Walker’s Photos of Steve Jobs

    Ed Kashi/VII

    Left: Steve Paul Jobs, founder of NeXT Inc. at the company headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. in 1988. Right: Steve Jobs and John Sculley at the Apple Annual Meeting in Hawaii in 1984.

    msnbc.com's Technolog coverage of Steve Jobs

  • Aris Messinis / AFP - Getty Images

    Libya's new regime forces fire their weapons at fighters loyal to fugitive strongman Moammar Gadhafi as a comrade plays a guitar during a battle in Sirte on Oct. 10, in a drive to control Gadhafi's hometown after a month-long siege.

    Libyan fighter brings guitar, not gun to firefight

    I did a double take when I first came across this photo. In the middle of heavy fighting in Sirte, a Libyan fighter carries a guitar with him instead of a firearm.

    This image brings up many questions, among them: what song was he singing?

  • Wheelchair Fencing World Championships in Catania, Italy

    Giuseppe Cacace / AFP - Getty Images

    Hungary's Zsuzsanna Krajnyak (L) fights with China's Wu Bai Li during the final of the Wheelchair Women's Epee category A during the 2011 World Fencing Championships in Catania on October 10, 2011. Krajnyak won 15-8 to become the new world champion.

    Marcello Paternostro / AFP - Getty Images

    France's wheelchair fencing athlete Sabrina Poignet gets ready for a fight during the 2011 World Fencing Championships in Catania on October 10, 2011. Poignet, a former member of the French army, lost her two legs in an accident in 2002. The world wheelchair fencing championships take place at the same time as the ablebodied fencing championships.

    Here's more information about the tournament. Here's a story about a British athlete competing in this tournament, the last major competition in this discipline before the next paralympics.  

  • Helping cope with grief over man's best friend

    Yves Herman / Reuters

    Patrick Pendville, founder of Animatrans, adjusts a cat statue in his shop in Brussels September 30, 2011. A Belgian company called Animatrans has been organizing funerals for pets and other animals since 1995, and recently the company has been providing more personalised services. Owners, who want to keep lasting mementos of their pets, could choose to keep their ashes or erect tombs in a dedicated cemetery for animals. Clients could also have their dead pets stuffed by a taxidermist and even request to create resin masks depicting the faces of their pets.

    Yves Herman / Reuters

    Belgian taxidermist Cathy Vertongen works on a dead cat in her workshop in Sint Levens Houtem on Oct. 7.

    Belgian company Animatrans has been helping pet lovers cope with their grief over the past 15 years. Their services include organizing pet funerals, cremations, taxidermy, and creating resin masks of a pet's face.

    Yves Herman / Reuters

    A resin mask depicts the face of a dead pet dog in a shop in Brussels, Belgium Sept. 30.

    Yves Herman / Reuters

    Aurelia Dekers, 86, mourns her 13-year-old cat Titine before her cremation at a crematorium in Boom Sept. 30.

    Yves Herman / Reuters

    Aurelia Dekers, 86, visits a cemetery for animals after attending the cremation of her 13-year-old cat Titine in Boom, Belgium in Sept. 30.

  • Battle for Sirte rages on in Libya

    The month-long battle fighting for Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte by all appearances seems to be intensifying.

    Reuters reports that Libyan transitional government forces captured landmark buildings in a thrust toward the center of Sirte, but were holding off an assault on its main square to allow civilians to escape the chaotic fighting.

    Mohamed Messara / EPA

    Libyan rebels fire a rocket as they enter Sirte, Libya, on Monday, Oct. 10. Fighters loyal to Libya's interim rulers withdrew from the airport in the desert town of Bani Walid amid fighting with forces loyal to fugitive leader Muammar Gaddafi. The withdrawal comes a day after the fighters claimed major advances in Sirte and Bani Walid, the last strongholds of Gadhafi.

    Majid Saeedi / Getty Images

    A Libyan rebel fighter mourns the death of a comrade on Oct. 7 in Sirte, Libya. National Transitional Council fighters say this is the final assault on Gadhafi's hometown as they capture the main hospital, University and the Ouagadougou conference center in the city.

    Aris Messinis / AFP - Getty Images

    Libyans battle fighters loyal to Moammar Gadhafi in Sirte on Monday, Oct. 10, in a drive to control Gadhafi's hometown after a month-long siege.

     Read more in our full story.

  • Chinese village unveils skyscraper taller than the Chrysler Building

    A once-sleepy village in the countryside of eastern China celebrated its 50th anniversary Saturday by unveiling an incongruous addition to its skyline: a skyscraper taller than the Chrysler Building.

    The 74-story Longxi International Hotel towers 328 meters (1,076 feet) above the village of Huaxi and cost 3 billion yuan ($472 million) to build, according to the state-owned China Daily newspaper.

    AFP - Getty Images

    An aerial photo of the Longxi International Hotel, which stands at 328 meters high and cost $472 million to build, in Huaxi, which is still classified as a village, in east China's Jiangsu province on September 24.

    "The building exudes wealth and excess," wrote The Guardian's Jonathan Watts, who was given a tour before the official opening. One of the most impressive features is a one-tonne gold statue of an ox, said to be worth $47.2 million.

    Carlos Barria / Reuters

    A woman stands next to a gold statue of an ox during the official inauguration of the Longxi hotel on Oct. 8. The one-tonne statue greets visitors at a viewing area on the 60th-floor of the tower.

    It may model itself on Dubai, but Huaxi is still officially classified as a village. Its original residents, just 2,000 families, have shared in the bonanza of its transformation. Reuters reports that they each have at least $250,000 in the bank, as well as enjoying universal health care and free education. 

    Carlos Barria / Reuters

    Officials attend the inauguration ceremony of the new skyscraper on October 8. Officials from elsewhere in China tour Huaxi to find out how this once sleepy village, with just 576 residents in the 1950s, could have become so rich.

    The rise of Huaxi, which now operates as a conglomerate with interests in steel, shipping, tobacco and textiles, has drawn tens of thousands of migrant workers, Watts reports, but their comparitively meager earnings have left them on the outside looking in.

    What remains unclear is where the hotel, with its 826 bedrooms and dining facilities for 5,000 guests, will find its patrons. Local officials confidently predict a tourist rush, but if it does not materialize then their golden ox may come to resemble nothing no much as a great white elephant in the sky.

    Carlos Barria / Reuters

    Guests attend a dinner at the new hotel before its official inauguration on October 8.

     

     

  • Coptic Christians mourn victims in Cairo

    Mohamed Omar / EPA

    Egyptian Coptic Christians hold crosses and shout slogans as they gather for the funeral of those killed in clashes the day before, in Cairo on Oct. 10.

    Mohammed Hossam / AFP - Getty Images

    Egyptians mourn a victim of deadly clashes in Cairo on Monday, Oct. 10.

    Mahmud Hams / AFP - Getty Images

    Egyptians grieve over the coffins of some of the 24 Coptic Christians killed during clashes with Egyptian security forces in Cairo on Oct. 10.

    Find out more in our full story

  • Students at the University of Tripoli adjust to a new reality

    Marco Longari / AFP - Getty Images

    Students at the University of Tripoli, formerly Al-Fateh University, gather at a volunteer's meeting on October 9. The academic year started a little late this year, after the ouster of former leader Moammar Gadhafi, but the University of Tripoli is full of enthusiastic students with new found freedoms now only missing their comrades still on the front.

    Marco Longari / AFP - Getty Images

    Students at the University of Tripoli chat in the conference hall on October 9.

    As a new academic year begins, staff and students at the University of Tripoli are adjusting to a new reality. An article in The Wall Street Journal on October 6 examined how the transition of power is affecting life at the university, where 13 professors and lecturers were among those whose names were posted on a blacklist of alleged collaborators with Moammar Gadhafi's fallen regime.

  • Indonesian forces fire on striking Freeport-McMoran miners; 1 dead

    Tjahjo Eranius / AFP - Getty Images

    Indonesian police clash with striking workers of US gold and copper mining giant company Freeport McMoran in Timika, Papua province on October 10. Police shot and killed one protester and wounded another. Papua police spokesman Wachyono said that police officers fired warning shots into the air after the striking workers, who are protesting over wages, pelted them with stones, injuring seven policemen.

    Spedy Paereng / EPA

    Striking miners employed by Freeport McMoran march during a protest in Timika, West Papua, on October 10.

    The AP reports from TIMIKA, Indonesia:

    Indonesian security forces fired on striking workers at the world's biggest gold mine Monday, killing one and injuring more than a dozen other people, officials said.

    Two container trucks heading to the mining town from a nearby port were set ablaze by striking employees, angry that mine operator, Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoran, was bringing in replacement workers by the busload and moving them into their barracks.

    Grasberg, which is the world's largest gold mine and one of the biggest copper mines, has frequently seen protests over wages that workers complain are one tenth of what Freeport pays its miners in other countries. Read the full story.

  • Floods leave hundreds dead in Cambodia and Thailand

    Samrang Pring / Reuters

    A girl sits in a bucket as her sister pushes it through floodwaters on a street in Kandal province, Cambodia, on October 10. Floods have killed 207 people in Cambodia and more than 100,000 hectares of rice paddies have been damaged, the Cambodian National Disaster Management Committee (CNDMC) announced on Monday.

    Samrang Pring / Reuters

    Schoolboys on a flooded street in Kandal province, Cambodia, on October 10. The floods have displaced more than 300,000 families, according to the CNDMC.

    Sukree Sukplang / Reuters

    An aerial view of a flooded area in Ayutthaya province, Thailand, on October 10. Thai rescue workers scrambled on Monday to prevent a humanitarian disaster as the worst flooding in half a century swamped large sections of the country, shut factories and stranded thousands of people.

    Sukree Sukplang / Reuters

    A policeman directs traffic in a flooded area of Ayutthaya province, Thailand, on October 10. About 261 people have died since late July in flood-related incidents, the Thai Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said.

    I was impressed to see the traffic cop still at his post. Read more about the floods, which have affected Vietnam and the Philippines as well as Cambodia and Thailand.

  • Pride (and a fall) at the World Gymnastics Championships

    Everett Kennedy Brown / EPA

    Mexico's Luis Sosa Abarca on the parallel bars during the Men's Qualifications of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, on October 10.

    Adam Pretty / Getty Images

    Mikhail Koudinov of New Zealand competes on the vault during day four of the Gymnastics World Championships on October 10.

    Kazuhiro Nogi / AFP - Getty Images

    Fabian Gonzalez of Spain falls from the pommel horse in the men's team event of the qualification round at the World Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo on October 10.

    Read the latest news from the Gymnastics World Championships in Tokyo at UniversalSports.com, which also offers live on-demand coverage of the event.

  • Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

    Egyptian Christians clash with soldiers and riot police during a protest against an attack on a church in southern Egypt, in Cairo Oct. 9. At least 24 people were killed in Cairo on Sunday when Christians, some carrying crosses and pictures of Jesus, clashed with military police in the latest sectarian flare-up in a country in political turmoil.

    Christians clash with military police in Cairo, at least 24 killed

    msnbc.com news services report:

    The Christian protesters said their demonstration began as a peaceful attempt to sit in at the television building. But then, they said, they came under attack by thugs in plainclothes who rained stones down on them and fired pellets.

    "The protest was peaceful. We wanted to hold a sit-in, as usual," said Essam Khalili, a protester wearing a white shirt with a cross on it. "Thugs attacked us and a military vehicle jumped over a sidewalk and ran over at least 10 people. I saw them."

    Wael Roufail, another protester, corroborated the account. "I saw the vehicle running over the protesters. Then they opened fired at us," he said.

    Khalili said protesters set fire to army vehicles when they saw them hitting the protesters.

    Ahmed Yahia, a Muslim resident who lives near the TV building, said he saw the military vehicle plow into protesters. "I saw a man's head split into two halves and a second body flattened when the armored vehicle ran over it. When some Muslims saw the blood they joined the Christians against the army," he said.

    Read the full story here.

  • Tannen Maury / EPA

    Milwaukee Brewers batter Yuniesky Betancourt hits a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth inning of game one of the National League Championship Series at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisc., Oct. 9. The winner of the best-of-seven series will go on to face either the Texas Rangers or the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.

    Betancourt, Fielder hit home runs in Brewers' victory over Cardinals, 9-6

    AP reports:

    Betancourt - who batted .252 in the regular season with 13 homers - then sent a 2-1 pitch from Dotel deep to left, where it flew into the Brewers' bullpen and was fielded on the fly by Milwaukee bullpen catcher Marcus Hanel. Hanel pumped his fist, Betancourt circled the bases and the crowd continued its inning-long eruption.

    Read the full story here.

  • Joe Klamar / AFP - Getty Images

    Visitors look at the artwork "Guns", giant replicas of handguns, an installation by Czech artist David Cerny in the courtyard of the Artbanka Museum of Young Art on Oct. 8, in Prague.

    Museum goers view "Guns" by David Cerny in Prague

    David Cerny's work is generally considered to be controversial. This story from ArtDaily.org discusses the return of another one of the artist's discussion stirring pieces to Prague.

  • Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

    Thais wade through the waters on a downtown street as flooding causes havoc Oct. 9, 2011 in Ayutthaya, Thailand. Around 200 factories closed in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya because of flooding, which is posing a threat to Bangkok as well. Over 260 people have died in flood-related incidents since late July. Some areas of the country are experiencing the worst flooding in 50 years, mainly in the center, north and northeast.

    Thai floods close factories, threaten Bangkok

    Reuters reports:

    Nearly 200 factories, including one run by Japanese car maker Honda Motor Co Ltd, closed in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya because of flooding, which could threaten Bangkok this week, officials said on Sunday.

    About 261 people have died since late July in flood-related incidents, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said. Some 2.3 million people have been affected in the worst flooding to hit parts of Thailand in 50 years, mainly in the center, north and northeast.

    Read more here.

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