Holy Fire brings Jerusalem Easter to joyful climax
By Reuters, Apr 3, 2010
(Reuters) - Bells, drums, ecstatic chants and flaming candles lit from the tomb of Jesus brought Easter to a joyful climax in Jerusalem on Saturday for Palestinians and thousands of Orthodox Christian pilgrims from around the world. Read more » Video: Holy Fire of Easter, 2010
A Greek Orthodox nun holds a candle as she takes part in the Christian Orthodox Holy Fire ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old city April 3, 2010.
(Photo 1) - Christians and others gather in Manger Square, the central plaza next to the Church of the Nativity, as people ready to celebrate Christmas in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. The Church of the Nativity is built over the site where Christians believe Mary gave birth to Jesus in a stable, and laid him in an animal's feeding trough, or manger.
(2) - Altar servers wait for the arrival of The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal to attend Christmas celebrations at the Church of the Nativity in West Bank town of Bethlehem December 24, 2011.
(3) - A Christian pilgrim from Nigeria dressed as Santa Claus visits the Church of the Nativity. (4) A Man bows down inside the Church of the Nativity.
(1) - A Franciscan monk attends Christmas celebrations at the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem.
(2) - Palestinian Scouts play the bagpipes outside the church as pilgrims celebrate in Jesus' traditional birthplace
(3) - A woman sits inside The Church of the Nativity in West Bank town of Bethlehem, Dec. 24
(4) - A pilgrim prays inside the Church of Nativity, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ.
(1) - Women pose for a snapshot at the nativity scene inside the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem.
(2) - A woman sits inside The Church of the Nativity in West Bank town of Bethlehem, 24.12.2011. > More Photos from Bethlehem`Church of Nativity
Singapore welcomed young athletes from around the world in a ceremony opening the inaugural Youth Olympic Games. This is the first ever Summer Youth Olympics, an event designed to be celebrated in the same tradition of the Olympic Games - the major difference being that the competitors are all between 14 and 18 years of age. This year, 3,500 athletes from more than 200 countries are competing in 184 events in 26 sports. Collected here are some photographs of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, which will run until its closing ceremony on August 26th. (37 photos total)
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- On July 23, 2010, Greek actress Ino Menegaki lights the flame at Ancient Olympia, where the Olympics were born in 776 B.C., that will burn in Singapore.
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- The Youth Olympic Torch is transported on a Phoenix across the Singapore River at opening ceremony mark the start of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games.
This past month, much of the attention focused on Afghanistan centered on the release of thousands of classified documents from the war effort by WikiLeaks. While the consensus appears to be that nothing significantly new was revealed by the release, the picture painted by the documents remains rather bleak. NATO and the United States now have 143,000 troops in Afghanistan, set to peak at 150,000 in coming weeks as they take a counter-insurgency offensive into the insurgents' southern strongholds. Collected here are images of the country and conflict over the past month, part of an ongoing monthly series on Afghanistan.
A view of the mountain that once held giant Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in 2001 in Bamiyan, central Afghanistan, seen on June 17, 2009. In an attempt to return one small part of the country to normalcy government officials and international donors are promoting tourism to attract visitors to the Bamiyan area.
It is only the start of the monsoon season, but already Pakistan is experiencing some of the worst flooding it has seen in over 80 years. Entire villages have been washed away, an early estimate of over 1,600 deaths so far and over 2 million displaced or otherwise affected. Not only is the immediate water damage causing havoc, the floods have inundated crop-producing areas, dealing a crippling blow to the agricultural-based economy and threatening a food crisis. The Pakistani government now struggles to rescue and provide aid to millions - while still fighting with militant Islamist forces in many of the hardest-hit regions. With even more heavy rains predicted in the coming days, here are a handful of recent photographs of Pakistanis as they cope with this latest disaster. (41 photos total) / 2
- A boy hangs on to the front of a cargo truck while passing through a flooded road in Risalpur, located in Nowshera District in Pakistan July 30, 2010.
With images from southern and central Russia in the news lately due to extensive wildfires, I thought it would be interesting to look back in time with this extraordinary collection of color photographs taken between 1909 and 1912. In those years, photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) undertook a photographic survey of the Russian Empire with the support of Tsar Nicholas II. He used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images. The high quality of the images, combined with the bright colors, make it difficult for viewers to believe that they are looking 100 years back in time - when these photographs were taken, neither the Russian Revolution nor World War I had yet begun. Collected here are a few of the hundreds of color images made available by the Library of Congress, which purchased the original glass plates back in 1948. (34 photos total)
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(le) - An Armenian woman in national costume poses for Prokudin-Gorskii on a hillside near Artvin (in present day Turkey), circa 1910.Google Map >.
(ri) - A general view of Sukhumi, Abkhazia and its bay, seen sometime around 1910 from Cherniavskii Mountain.Google Map >, (Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/LOC)
- A jet flies in front of the full moon in St. Petersburg, Russia on April 29, 2010. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
A photography technique that frequently catches my eye is the use of silhouette - placing a subject directly between a primary light source and the camera. The effect can be painterly or haunting or evocative. It can break a subject down to basic ideas conveyed only by line and shape, where an individual might appear iconic. In this collected recent photographs from around the world, where we can only see the outlines of the subject, our minds (and the captions) are left to fill in any details in the darkness.
- People watch from balconies over Estafeta street for the run of the Penajara ranch fighting bulls during the San Fermin fiestas on July 7, 2010, in Pamplona, Spain.
This afternoon, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker will publish his decision on whether to uphold or overturn the California voter-approved ban known as Proposition 8 (or the California Marriage Protection Act) that would insert language into the state constitution saying that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." [Update: Proposition 8 was just overturned in U.S..] Walker's ruling is one of a number of recent decisions made by voters and governments around the world affecting the ability of same-sex couples to marry legally. Around the U.S., several states are challenging the 1996 Defense of Marriage act, both Washington DC and Mexico City legalized same-sex weddings last March, and on July 15th, Argentina became the first Latin American country to recognize same-sex marriage. Collected here are a handful of recent photos of couples in several countries, all in the process of getting married. (26 photos total)
- Wedding cake and champagne is served by activists Friday, Jan. 8 2010, outside the Portuguese parliament in Lisbon, after lawmakers passed a bill allowing gay marriage.
- A satellite image of lower Manhattan shows smoke and ash rising from the site of the World Trade Center at 11:43 AM on September 12, 2001. The fires at Ground Zero continued to burn for 99 days after the attack -- a bleak reminder, day and night, of the thousands who lost their lives, and the countless millions more who lived, but whose lives were forever transformed. (Photo: Getty Images)
- A panorama made from 2 photos from the rooftop of the World Trade Center's South Tower, on September 5, 2001. The top of the North Tower can be seen on the left.
- Lights illuminated ground zero as the sun set over the Manhattan, New York, on Sept. 6, 2002. (Vincent LaForet/The New York Times) • Boston Globe: Photo Gallery
Earlier this year, Peru celebrated the 100th anniversary of the scientific discovery of the citadel of Machu Picchu. Peruvians also held a presidential election, with 49-year-old former Army Lieutenant Colonel Ollanta Humala narrowly winning in a run-off against Keiko Fujimori, daughter of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori. Humala, the first leftist president of Peru in more than 30 years, faces a number of challenges as he takes the helm of this diverse nation of some 29 million people. Peru remains a developing country, but its economy is improving and it still has considerable mineral wealth. However, citizens and activist groups remain concerned about ongoing and potential environmental damage from extracting those resources -- and miners have been striking, seeking better working conditions and a larger share of the profits. Gathered here are some recent scenes from all around the Republic of Peru. (42 photos total)
- An Andean condor flies over the Colca canyon at the Colca valley in Arequipa, south of Lima, on January 30, 2011. The Colca canyon, one of the deepest in the world, with its maximum depth of 3,386 meters (11,110 feet). It is one of the most visited sites in Peru by tourists looking for condors and Andean terraces. The canyon is the natural habitat of the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus), an endangered species that has seen worldwide effort to conserve it. (Reuters/Pilar Olivares)
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.Informations: Church of the Holy Sepulcher /Related Rom. art
