Ernesto Benavides / AFP - Getty Images

Relatives of patients of the "Christ is Love" rehabilitation center for drug and alcohol addicts react after a fire in San Juan de Lurigancho district, in Lima, Peru, on Jan. 28. A fire swept through a drug rehabilitation center in a densely populated area of Lima Saturday, killing at least 26 people and injuring 12 others who were trapped inside.

AP reports:

"This rehabilitation center wasn't authorized. It was a house that they had taken over ... for patients with addictions and they had the habit of leaving people locked up with no medical supervision," Tejada, the health minister, said.

Authorities said they did not know how many people were inside the center at the time of the fire. They said they were looking for the center's owners and staff, some of whom apparently fled the scene.

Full story: Peru: 26 killed in fire at rehabilitation center

AP

The bodies of people who were killed in a fire lie on the ground as firefighters try to revive others after removing them from the Christ is Love center for drug and alcohol addicts in Lima, Peru, Jan. 28.

Jeff Roberson / AP

Participants in a parade to honor Iraq War veterans make their way along a downtown street Saturday, Jan. 28, in St. Louis, Mo. Thousands turned out to watch the first big welcome home parade in the United States since the last troops left Iraq in December.

AP reports:

People in the crowd waved American flags and held signs reading, "Welcome Home" and "God Bless Our Troops." Fire trucks with aerial ladders hoisted three huge American flags along the route.

Two St. Louis men launched a grass-roots effort to hold the parade after noticing there'd been no large public celebrations to welcome troops home.

Full story: St. Louis hosting 1st big parade on Iraq War's end

Sarah Conard / Reuters

Larry Connor, center, Vietnam veteran, salutes his fellow servicemen during the Welcome Home Heroes Parade in downtown St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 28.

Jeff Roberson / AP

Stephanie King holds a picture of her uncle, Col. Stephen Scott, who was killed in Iraq in 2008, as she prepares to participate in a parade to honor Iraq War veterans, Jan. 28, in St. Louis, Mo.

Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

U.S. Republican presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich shakes hands after a St. Lucie Meet and Greet event in Port St. Lucie, Fla., Jan. 28.

Oh, the handshake…

Shaking someone’s hand is a relatively intimate experience, as it can convey a decent amount of information about a person and should always be done, according to American etiquette, naked. Well, at least with a naked hand unless customs or health precautions suggest otherwise.

There’s nothing worse than a limp, too-smooth, sweaty-palmed handshake from a man that says, “I couldn’t tell a socket wrench from an Allen wrench to save my life.”

I want a handshake to be firm and have some texture … like the guy regularly does a little work outside. Maybe that’s because those are the kind of hands I grew up with in my family … my dad, my uncles, my grandfathers and my great grandfathers all either worked the land or worked construction to put themselves through school and had the rough, worn hands to prove it.

That being said, maybe not everyone is appreciative of the same sort of grip.

John Curran / AP file

Actress Elizabeth Taylor and former Navy Secretary John Warner, wave to supporters on Friday, June 2, 1978, in Richmond, Va., during Warner's campaign for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate.

I recall a story my dad tells involving two relevant topics here: his handshake and politics.

He was dragged by my mother to a political shindig for John Warner when Warner was running for U.S. Senate in Virginia in the late ‘70s, and Warner also happened to be married to Elizabeth Taylor at the time.

My dad and my mom were in the event-typical receiving line to shake hands with the couple. My mom ahead of him in all of her glory at those sorts of things, shaking and smiling while my dad did his best as the dutiful husband to grip and grin through his social pain.

Dad shook Warner’s hand first and then consciously went to ease his grasp a bit for Taylor. No sooner had he touched her hand, she began to shriek in pain. My mom shot my dad a look that could have killed as she turned various shades of crimson, while my dad looked for a table to crawl under as Taylor was tended to by her entourage. 

Come to find out, a blood vessel had freakishly burst in her hand just as she went to meet my dad’s grip, so it really wasn’t his fault, though I’m not sure how many people at the Strawberry Banks in Hampton, Va., knew it that night.

One thing is for certain, I don’t think my dad ever shook another politician or politician spouse’s hand again.

I wonder if candidates on the campaign trail remember events such as these as vividly as we do, or if they shake so many hands that a zillion palms in different cities simply add up to percentage points won or lost.

How about you? Any tales to tell of a memorable political palming?

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney shakes hands with supporters after delivering a campaign speech about innovation on Florida's Space Coast at Astrotech Corporation, Jan. 27, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The commerical aerospace company provides satellite and spacecraft pre-launch processing and other services.

Related content:

Romney, McCain rally vets in Pensacola, Fla.

Newt Gingrich slideshow

Mitt Romney slideshow

Rick Santorum slideshow

Ron Paul slideshow

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Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters

A child writes with a chalk to celebrate the Shreepanchami festival at the Saraswati temple in Kathmandu on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012.

Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters

Boys climb the wall of the Saraswati temple to write with chalk while celebrating the Shreepanchami festival in Kathmandu.

Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters

A child writes with a chalk on the wall of the Saraswati temple.

Wikipedia: Shreepanchami festival is a Hindu festival celebrating Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, music and art. It is celebrated every year on the first day of spring. Traditionally during this festival children are taught to write their first words and most educational institutions organize special prayer for Saraswati.

The color yellow also plays an important role in this festival, in that people usually wear yellow garments, Saraswati is worshipped dressed in yellow, and yellow sweets are consumed within the families.

Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters

Boys write with chalk to celebrate the Shreepanchami festival at the Saraswati temple in Kathmandu.

Reuters

Anti-government protestors march past burning tires in Dakar on Friday, Jan. 27, 2012.

Toure Behan / AFP - Getty Images

Tires burn in a street on Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Senegal's capital Dakar, where clash broke out between police and young protesters.

AP

Protesters set fires in a street on Friday.

Reuters reports from DAKAR — Protesters hurled rocks at police who retaliated with tear gas in Senegal's capital Dakar on Friday after a top legal body said President Abdoulaye Wade had the right to run for a third term in elections next month.

Local television said one policeman died from head injuries after clashes in the capital Dakar. Reuters reporters saw youths set fire to tires in the street and overturn cars after a late-night ruling of the West African country's Constitutional Council.

Jorge Silva / Reuters

Mexican tattoo star Mary Jose Cristerna, better known as "La Mujer Vampiro" (Female Vampire), poses during a tattoo exhibition in Caracas on Friday.

Jorge Silva / Reuters

Constantino Quintero from Venezuela poses during a tattoo exhibition in Caracas on Friday.

Jorge Silva / Reuters

Emilio Gonzalez from Venezuela poses during a tattoo exhibition in Caracas on Friday.

Jorge Silva / Reuters

Victor Peralta from Uruguay poses during a tattoo exhibition in Caracas on Friday.

For more, see these posts featuring tattoos previously in PhotoBlog.

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Mario Tama / Getty Images

Opponents of the New York Police Department's controversial "stop-and-frisk" policy march on Friday in the Bronx borough of New York City. The NYPD says the stops assist crime prevention while opponents say they involve racial profiling and civil rights abuses. According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, during the first nine months of last year 514,461 city residents were stopped by the NYPD, of whom 451,469 were innocent (88 percent). Racially, 54 percent were black, 31 percent Latino and 9 percent white.

Mario Tama / Getty Images

An opponent of the New York Police Department's controversial "stop-and-frisk" policy march on Friday.

Mario Tama / Getty Images

Opponents of the New York Police Department's controversial "stop-and-frisk" policy march on Friday.

Related story: Cop admits false arrest

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Morteza Nikoubazl / Reuters

A Tehran Art University student looks at a painting by 20th century U.S. artist Jackson Pollock at Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Art on June 19, 2010. Artists like Monet, Picasso and Warhol were considered revolutionary in their day, but their works were not much appreciated by the leaders of Iran's Islamic revolution and many were kept out of view for decades. Now, one of the greatest collections of contemporary Western art -- put together under a Western-leaning monarchy in pre-revolutionary Iran -- is open to the public, with some works on display for the first time in more than 30 years.

Martha Holmes / Time Life Pictures via Getty Images

Jackson Pollock drops paint onto canvas.

Jackson Pollock is considered a revolutionary painter who helped bring recognition to the American art world through Abstract Expressionism in the 1940s. On January 28, Pollock would have turned 100 years old. He is most well known for his 'drip' paintings, that involved pouring paint onto large raw canvases on the floor. Pollock currently holds the title for the world's most expensive painting ever sold, when David Geffen sold his "No.5, 1948" for $140 million through Sotheby's in 2006.

His battle with alcoholism lead him to undergo psychiatric treatment and in 1938 he spent four months in a hospital, according to a MOMA biography:

As a result he worked with two Jungian analysts, who used his drawings in the therapeutic process until 1941. This resulted in an obsessive exploration of his unconscious symbolism, mediated through the stylistic influence of Picasso, Orozco, Joan Miró and the theories of John Graham. The works he created parallel to his psychotherapy contain the elements of what became a personal iconography.

Martha Holmes / Time Life Pictures via Getty Images

Husband & wife artists Jason Pollock and Lee Krasner walking outside on Long Island with their dog in 1949.

Nature was a huge influence in his work. When he married artist Lee Krasner in 1945 and moved to a farmhouse in East Hampton, the surrounding nature provided constant inspiration. According to the National Gallery of Art:

Walking the meadows and woods near Accabonac Creek, which stood at the back of their property, Pollock found a kinship with nature that defines his great, classic work.

Today, one has only to step into the meadow behind Pollock's house to understand the overwhelming presence of nature in the dense, interwoven surfaces of his work. Pollock once defended the source of his imagery saying, "I am nature."

National Gallery of Australia via Reuters

An undated handout photograph shows Jackson Pollock's "Blue Poles, Number 11, 1952" in the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra which was purchased a quarter of century ago for A$1.3 million ($975,000) and is now estimated to be worth A$115 million ($86.25 million).

Tony Vaccaro / Getty Images, file

Lee Krasner and her husband Jackson Pollock and a couple stand around a dog and smoke in Pollock's studio at 'The Springs,' in East Hampton, New York, on August 23, 1953.

Though Pollock died tragically in a car crash in 1956 and has been gone for over 50 years, his paintings continue to spread his legacy. London's The Telegraph writes about his influence:

Before Pollock, paintings were created on easels, conceived, executed and seen from one direction only, as they had been for centuries. Not even Picasso changed that. But Pollock, wrestling with the problems of Surrealism, of how to get deeper into the internal subject of the work, began to work on the floor on unstretched canvas with very liquid paint, leaving the idea of a pre-meditated subject far behind.

Alfred Eisenstaedt / Time Life Pictures via Getty Images

Painter Jackson Pollock (seated R) sitting on the steps of painter Thomas Hart Benton's summer home with Rita Benton (sitting, in white hat) and author Coburn Gilman (standing) in 1937.

Bogdan Cristel / Reuters

Petre Andrei, 56, shovels the snow covering his car in Movilita, 45 km (28 miles) northeast of Bucharest, January 27, 2012. Romania has drafted in the army to rescue hundreds of travellers stranded by blizzards that dumped up to a metre of snow in 24 hours, derailing a train and forcing authorities to shut down motorways and ports and cancel flights. Police and ambulance crews had rescued 1,300 people by Thursday but another 900 were still stuck in their cars, a spokesman from Romania's emergency services said. Authorities have banned traffic on Romania's only two motorways until weather improves.

Robert Ghement / EPA

A Romanian young man struggles with snowdrifts, as big as his house, in order to make access ways around his hous due to the recent heavy snowfall, in the affected village of Movilita, 45 Km north-east from Bucharest, Romania, 27 January 2012. Four people froze to death in Romania, as a snowstorm descended on the central Balkans, disrupting traffic, power lines and schools, according to local media reports 26 January. Snowdrifts in north Bulgaria and south Romania reached 3 metres high in places as the storm entered its second day, forcing several municipalities to declare a state of emergency.

AP reports power outages in the region:

Authorities said 40 towns and villages in southern Romania suffered power outages. In neighboring Bulgaria more than 100 communities were left without electricity, while traffic was snarled in many areas.

Bulgaria's main Black Sea port of Varna was closed for traffic due to windstorms and heavy snowfall, port officials said. The heavy snow forced authorities to close several mountain passes as well as many schools.

This storm previously on PhotoBlog.

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The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created over 1300 amputees in the US military, according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Each one is a story of life-changing pain and rehabilitation. 

Here, PhotoBlog highlights an unusually intimate report of one such story by Tampa Bay Times photographer Kathleen Flynn. Flynn followed Justin Gaertner, a U.S. Marine lance corporal who lost both legs to an explosion in Afghanistan, through several months of recovery. Those months included surgery, 40-hour weeks of physical therapy and an emotional reunion with fellow Marines.

Kathleen Flynn / St. Petersburg Times

Above: Jill Dalla Betta walks near her son Justin Gaertner as he wheels his prosthetic legs through the MATC at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington DC in June 2011. Justin trains there Monday through Friday, 40 hours a week. The workouts consist of motions using weights and treadmills. Julie Castles, Justin's physical therapist, said he is one of her most motivated guys, almost to a fault. He'll keep working when he's hurting.

Kathleen Flynn / St. Petersburg Times

Above: Cpl. Austin Carter hugs Justin Gaertner as their unit returns from Afghanistan in May 2011. From the time he was injured by an IED in late November, Justin's goal was to be up on his prosthetic legs by the time his unit returned in early May. It usually takes above-the-knee amputees eight months to a year to be up and walking on their legs. Justin did it in four months. "Being able to see my boys come off the plane was my motivation to go in twice a day, every day," he said.  "And even going on the days that I'm supposed to have off I still go in every day and PT. Physical therapy, occupational therapy, work on my arm, work on my legs." Before the plane's arrival, Gaertner said, "I'm scared they're gonna tip me over they're gonna be so happy to see me."

Kathleen Flynn / St. Petersburg Times

Above: Gaertner holds his head for a moment after a morning workout at the MATC at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington DC in June 2011. "I'm never really gonna get used to the pain," he said. "I can overcome it because I'm a Marine. But it's always gonna be there."

The full story describes Gaertner's treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. His mother stayed on campus too to help with his recovery:

She wants him to see a counselor, but Justin says there’s nothing wrong. Doctors have asked him to arrange blocks and shapes, asked if he thought someone was trying to steal his soul, asked if he wanted to kill himself. They say he has short-term memory loss, problems focusing and a quick temper. “I don’t get mad very easily,” he says, “but when I do it just kind of — it goes from nothing to a lot real quick.”

Justin does not take pain pills, says they’re for the weak. Doesn’t like sleeping pills either. Asleep, he is haunted by searing nightmares: the death of his fire team leader, the explosion beneath his best friend in the seconds before Justin lost his legs. 

Kathleen Flynn / St. Petersburg Times

Above: Gaertner gets a hug from his relative Cheri McPherson as he arrives at Tampa International Airport in May2011. "I'm really excited," she said. "I have not seen him. He's come a long way."  This is Justin's first visit home since he lost his legs to an IED in Afghanistan in November 2010. After two weeks he will return to Walter Reed to continue his therapy. Along with family and friends, Justin left the airport in a limo which took them to a VFW in Trinity where he was greeted with a party.

Full coverage at the Tampa Bay Times includes many more pictures and a video.

To see another Marine's life in the wake of war, look at this PhotoBlog post about Brian Scott Ostrom, who returned to the U.S. from Iraq with a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder.

And for more visual coverage ofAfghanistan, see our slideshow:

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Qais Usyan / AFP - Getty Images

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

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Tina Carroll / AP

A cargo ship named The Delta Mariner pauses in the water after colliding with a southwestern Kentucky bridge that partially collapsed when it was struck Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, near Aurora, Ky. The ship was traveling upriver toward the Kentucky Lock and Dam when it hit the aging steel bridge, which was built in the 1930s and handles about 2,800 vehicles a day.

Tina Carroll / AP

The Delta Mariner pauses in the water.

WPSD

Aerial photo of the The Delta Mariner, an ocean freight vessel as it sits under the collapsed 200-foot segment of the Eggner's Ferry Bridge over Kentucky Lake, Jan. 27, 2012. The Delta Mariner struck the main span of the Eggner Ferry Bridge on Thursday evening at U.S. Highway 68 and Kentucky Highway 80.

The full story reported by AP includes a description by a motorist who was on the bridge at the time:

"All of a sudden I see the road's gone and I hit the brakes," he said. "It got close."

Parker said he stopped his pickup within five feet of the missing section. Two cars behind him stopped on his bumper and he saw another car on the other side of the missing section stopped.

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Pier Paolo Cito / AP

View of the bow of the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, on Jan. 27. Costa Crociere SpA offered uninjured passengers $14,460 apiece to compensate them for lost baggage and the psychological trauma they suffered after their cruise ship ran aground and capsized off Tuscany.

Filippo Monteforte / AFP - Getty Images

A local man pulls his small boat as the stricken cruise liner Costa Concordia (background) lies aground in front of Giglio island on Jan. 27 after hitting underwater rocks on January 13. Official sources said the same day that here are still 18 people officially missing after the Costa Concordia cruise liner crashed off the coast of Tuscany two weeks ago, including a five-year-old girl.

Pier Paolo Cito / AP

Italian firefighters scuba divers approach the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, on Jan. 27.

Slideshow: Luxury cruise ship runs aground

DigitalGlobe

The Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers, ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy. At least 15 people died in the accident, and rescuers continue to search for others missing.

Launch slideshow

msnbc.com news services:

Passengers who were on the Costa Concordia are being offered $14,460 apiece to compensate them for their lost baggage and psychological trauma after the cruise ship ran aground and capsized off Tuscany when the captain deviated from his route.

In addition to the lump-sum indemnity, Costa, a unit of the world's biggest cruise operator, the Miami-based Carnival Corp., also said it would reimburse uninjured passengers the full costs of their cruise, their return travel expenses and any medical expenses they sustained after the grounding.

The deal does not apply to the hundreds of crew on the ship, many of whom have lost their jobs, the roughly 100 people who were injured in the chaotic evacuation or the families who lost loved ones. Sixteen bodies have already been recovered from the disaster and another 16 people who were on board are missing and presumed dead.

Read the full story.

Suhaib Salem / Reuters

Demonstrators pray in Tahrir square in Cairo during a protest demanding that the army hand over power to the civilians, on Jan. 27.

Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images

An Egyptian man reacts in Tahrir Square during Friday prayers on Jan. 27 in Cairo, Egypt. People prayed in the square just days after the tens of thousands celebrated in Cairo's Tahrir Square marking the first anniversary of the uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

AP reports:

Large marches of protesters chanting anti-military slogans streamed from mosques around Cairo to join tens of thousands massed in central Tahrir Square in a new uprising anniversary rally Friday, with many demanding an early transfer of power by the ruling military and the trial of generals for the killing of protesters.

Tensions erupted when one march of hundreds of protesters headed toward the Defense Ministry building and was met by dozens of supporters of the military who chanted "the army and people are one hand." The pro-military group formed a human chain across an intersection, but the protesters pushed through them, shouting "down with military rule."

The protests, which included mass rallies in other Egyptian cities, commemorated the first anniversary of the "Friday of Rage," one of the bloodiest days of the 18-day wave of protests a year ago that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

Read the full story.

Suhaib Salem / Reuters

Demonstrators take part in a protest demanding the army to hand power to civilians, at Tahrir square in Cairo on Jan. 27.

Suhaib Salem / Reuters

A woman holds the Egyptian flag during a protest demanding the army to hand power to civilians, at Tahrir square in Cairo on Jan. 27.

Bernd Wustneck / AFP - Getty Images

Swedish brown bear Fred is pictured at their enclosure of the Naturund Umweltpark Guestrow animal park on Jan. 27 in Guestrow, northeastern Germany. The bear just woke up from his hibernation, two weeks earlier than the year before.

Bernd Wüstneck / EPA

Swedish brown bears Fred and Frode play in their compound at the Nature and Environment Park Guestow, Germany, on Jan. 27. The eight-year-old brothers have already finished their winter sleep: about two weeks earlier that in the previous year.

See more images of cute animals on Animal Tracks.

Bela Szandelszky / AP

Holocaust survivor Eva Szirtes pays respect to relatives at a memorial wall bearing the engraved names of tens of thousands of victims of the Nazi Holocaust at the Holocaust Memorial Center, during Holocaust remembrance day in Budapest, Hungary, on Jan. 27. The remembrance day marks the day of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps 67 years ago.

Jim Hollander / EPA

A visitor to the 'Hall of Names' in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum in Jerusalem, Jan. 27. The room holds 600 portraits of individual Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust of World War II and contains binders documenting more than 4,000,000 of those people. Today marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day on this day in 1945 that the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated by Soviet forces.

John Mcconnico / AP

A man smells a flower during the Holocaust remembrance memorial in Chisinau, Moldova on Jan. 27. The remembrance day marks the day of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps 67 years ago.

AP reports:

It's a huge question for observant Jews: How can one still believe in a merciful God after suffering through the worst genocide in history?

As the world marks Holocaust Remembrance Day on Friday, members of Israel's most devout group will remember the victims with prayer, study of scripture and a deep conviction in a grand plan that is beyond their earthly comprehension.

Many notable survivors, including Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, have famously questioned where God was during the Holocaust. But survivors from the insular ultra-Orthodox community say they felt a divine presence even in the worst places imaginable.

Read the full story.

Novak Djokovic defeated Andy Murray after an epic five-set marathon that former Grand Slam finalist John Lloyd, commentating for the BBC, described as "one of the best matches I've ever seen."

Djokovic, who won 6-3, 3-6, 6-7, 6-1, 7-5 in just under five hours, will face Rafael Nadal in Sunday's Australian Open final. Read more at NBC Sports.

Daniel Munoz / Reuters

Novak Djokovic celebrates after defeating Andy Murray in their men's singles semi-final match at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Jan. 27, 2012.

Tim Wimborne / Reuters

Djokovic embraces Murray at the end of the match.

Paul Crock / AFP - Getty Images

Novak Djokovic hits a return.

Greg Wood / AFP - Getty Images

Andy Murray celebrates winning the third set.

Toby Melville / Reuters

Clive Brunskill / Getty Images

Novak Djokovic of Serbia plays a backhand.

Tatyana Zenkovich / EPA

A woman works at a felt boot factory in Smilovichi, Belarus, on Jan. 16, 2012.

EPA reports:

The Smilovichi Felting Factory was founded in 1928, when Smilovichi was a small Jewish settlement of craftsmen.  Five of those craftsmen organized a small artel, which produced warm boots called ‘valenki’ for cold weather. Later the artel was transformed into the enterprise 'Red Star', which was to supply Germany during the Second World War, when Belarus was occupied by the Nazis.

Tatyana Zenkovich / EPA

Hota Kanapskaya, 73, has been working at the factory for 53 years.

The raw sheep’s wool is imported from Dagestan, Central Asia and Belgium, with only five per cent produced domestically. The production of the factory is exported to Russia, the Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Baltic States and to the countries of Western Europe. About 800 pairs of felt boots can be produced every day at the factory, which makes about 200,000 pairs of ‘valenki’ per year.

Tatyana Zenkovich / EPA

The boots begin to take shape.

Slideshow: Winter wonderland

Patrick Semansky / AP

Winter has arrived in the Northern hemisphere. Take in the sights from North America, Europe and Asia.

Launch slideshow

Reuters

Members of a smuggling group stand near boxes in a tent as they prepare to move during an alcohol-smuggling operation from Iraq to Iran, at the border near Sulaimaniya, Iraq, on Jan. 26, 2012.

Reuters

Border security forces have repeatedly clashed with smugglers who use the remote, rugged landscape to facilitate their operations.

See pictures of another smuggling route into Iran - across the Strait of Hormuz - in an earlier post on PhotoBlog.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Guatemala's former strongman Efrain Rios Montt, who faces genocide charges, stands amid policemen during a break at a courtroom in Guatemala City on Jan. 26, 2012.

Reuters reports from GUATEMALA CITY: 

Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt will face trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity as the Central American nation seeks to close files on a brutal 36-year civil war.

A judge found sufficient evidence that linked Rios Montt, who ruled during a particularly bloody period in 1982 and 1983, to the killing of more than 1,700 indigenous people in one counterinsurgency effort. Read the full story.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Relatives of genocide victims watch Efrain Rios Montt in the courtroom during a hearing related to the accusations of genocide.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

A banner with portraits of people who disappeared during Montt's reign.

Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP

(left) President Barack Obama talks with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer after arriving at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport on Wednesday. (right) Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer points during an intense conversation with President Barack Obama.

Earlier today we published a photograph by photojournalist Haraz Ghanbari from the Associated Press showing Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and President Barack Obama engaged in an apparently tense exchange on an airport tarmac shortly after Air Force One touched down outside Phoenix on Wednesday.

Eduardo Suñol, Sr. Executive Producer for TelemundoNews, caught up to Ghanbari by phone this afternoon and asked him to recount what he had witnessed on Wednesday.

It was one of those shots that takes a second to grab and stays around forever. Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer pointing her finger at President Obama’s face, like the teacher reprimanding the student who didn’t turn his homework on time.

The picture was taken by Haraz Ghanbari, a seven year veteran photographer of the Associated Press who had just stepped off Air Force One and was standing 50 feet away by the plane’s left wing.

“She had a letter on her hands and through my camera lens I could read it said `Mr. President”, Ghanbari told Telemundo News. “I have never seen anybody given a letter to the president at the bottom of the steps”, he said.

While all the other photographers took off for `the ropes’- an area assigned to the guests, and onlookers on the tarmac- Ghanbari stayed around sensing something might unravel.

“Typically those conversations last 30 seconds”, he said. “They’ll say, `Hey Mr. President, Welcome!’ or whatever. But I had my radar up. I knew her stance on immigration and his stance on immigration, so I thought this could be interesting. I just stayed there with my camera.”

President Obama got off the plane, ran downstairs and after shaking the governor’s hand the exchange began.

Ghanbari, with his Cannon Mark IV camera on hand, says he couldn’t hear what they were saying to each other, but concluded it was an “animated conversation”.

“I saw Governor Brewer with her finger up like she was making an emphasis on something”, he said. “Then I took the picture. It took like a second to take”. 

Photos by Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

Lilly Earp, 8, changes the diaper of her five-week-old sister Emily, Jan. 25, 2012, in their apartment at Hope Gardens Family Center, a homeless shelter for women and children, run by Union Rescue Mission on 77 acres of countryside on the outskirts of Los Angeles, Calif.

By Lucy Nicholson, Reuters photojournalist

Lilly Earp changes the diaper on her 5-week-old baby sister Emily with the confidence another child would have cradling a doll. She's only 8, but she already shows the street smarts of an older child as she helps her mother. It helps to be resourceful when you're homeless.

Her mother, Doreen Earp, 38, who is originally from Germany, and her three children ended up on the street after her relationship with Emily’s father fell apart. They stayed in a hotel for a month, then with people from their church and eventually ended up with no roof over their heads.

Children attend an after-school class at Hope Gardens Family Center. One in 45 children, totalling 1.6 million, is homeless, the highest number in United States' history, according to a 2011 study by the National Center on Family Homelessness.

A child's drawing is seen on the wall of the center.

Today, they're lucky to be among the 150 or so homeless women and children living at Hope Gardens on the outskirts of LA. It's a place where those at the end of the line are given a life line.

The shelter for families is an oasis compared to where most of LA's massive street population lives on a grim patch of downtown's Skid Row. While homeless services are concentrated downtown, it's no place for a child.

Doreen Earp, 38, of Germany looks at her five-week-old daughter Emily in their apartment at Hope Gardens Family Center.

The number of homeless children is at an all-time high in the United States. One in 45 children, totaling 1.6 million, is currently homeless, according to a 2011 study by the National Center on Family Homelessness. California is ranked the fifth highest state in the nation for its percentage of homeless children. An increasing number of children are dependent on poverty-stricken single moms.

The Earps are amongst 45 mothers, 96 children, and 24 elderly women being helped by Hope Gardens, a homeless shelter for women and children, run by Union Rescue Mission on 77 acres (0.31 square km) of countryside on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

Elizabeth Lepe, 26, (left to right) Nancy Jimenez, 35, and Sheriill Stubblefield, 31, laugh during a therapy session at Hope Gardens Family Center.

The mothers are given therapy, and classes in life skills, parenting, financial planning, and encouraged to apply for further education, so they can get more than minimum wage jobs. They can stay at the center for up to three years if they’re in college.

All the children attend after-school classes, and the teenagers are taught about domestic violence, job interviews, how to have healthy relationships, and how to communicate better.

Kids grow up fast when they lose the safety and comforts of home.

Earp's 10-year-old daughter Lindzy overhears a woman telling her mother that she is going to an NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meeting. Lindzy persists in quizzing her mother about what that means. After hearing her explain it as simply a class, the girl retorts: “I know what NA is. I just wanted to see what you would say.”

These moments of maturity are eclipsed by the normal trappings of childhood at the shelter – the games and toys that replace those the children lost with their homes.

Doreen nurses her newborn as her older daughters run and shriek in the playground with other children. Birds chirp in the surrounding pine trees. A stream gurgles into a koi pond.

“They’re able to be kids here,” she says.

Lindzy Earp (2nd right), 10, plays in the playground at Hope Gardens Family Center.

See more of Lucy Nicholson's picture story about Hope Gardens and an earlier set of photos of an after-school tuition program for homeless kids.

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