26 August 2015

70th annual tomato battle leaves Spanish town red

Crowds of people throw tomatoes at each other during the annual "tomatina" tomato fiesta, in the village of Bunol, 50 kilometers outside Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015. The streets of an eastern Spanish town are awash with red pulp as thousands of people pelt each other with tomatoes in the annual "Tomatina" battle that has become a major tourist attraction. At the annual fiesta in Bunol on Wednesday, trucks dumped 150 tons of ripe tomatoes for some 22,000 participants, many from abroad to throw during the hour-long morning festivities.
More than 20,000 people have pelted each other in the street with tomatoes in this year's "Tomatina" as the Spanish event celebrates its 70th birthday.

23 August 2015

Sunday marks 49 years since Lunar Orbiter 1 photo

First picture taken from the moon of Earth.
The first ever photo of Earth taken from another world was snapped on Aug. 23, 1966. The photo was taken from the Lunar Orbiter One, which captured the image from near the surface of the moon 13 days after it was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

22 August 2015

France: 3 Americans subdue gunman on high-speed train

A Thalys train of French national railway operator, SNCF, stands at the main train station in Arras, northern France, after a gunman opened fire injuring three people, Friday, Aug. 21, 2015. A spokesman for France's interior ministry says three people were wounded in a shooting on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris Friday. Speaking on French television BFM, Pierre-Henri Brandet says a suspect is in custody and the train has been evacuated in Arras, 115 miles (185 kilometers) north of Paris, where the train stopped after the attack.
A gunman opened fire on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday, wounding two people before three American passengers subdued him, according to officials and one of the Americans involved.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, speaking in Arras in northern France where the suspect was detained, said one of the American passengers was hospitalized with serious wounds.

20 August 2015

Men claim to find Nazi train loaded with treasure in Poland

This file photo from March.2012, shows a part of a subterranean system built by Nazi Germany in what is today Gluszyca-Osowka, Poland. According to Polish lore, a Nazi train loaded with gold, and weapons vanished into a mountain at the end of World War II, as the Germans fled the Soviet advance. Now two men claim they know the location of the mystery train and are demanding 10 percent of its value in exchange for revealing its location.
According to Polish lore, a Nazi train loaded with gold, artworks and weapons vanished into a mountain at the end of World War II, as the Germans fled the Soviet advance. Now two men claim they know the location of the mystery train and are demanding 10 percent of its value in exchange for revealing its location.

19 August 2015

NY governor: Topless women in Times Square breaking the law

In this photo taken on Tuesday, July 28, 2015, a tourist poses for a photo with two women clad in thongs and body paint in Times Square, in New York. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is promising to take action against women who pose nearly naked for photos in Times Square in exchange for cash.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says women posing nearly naked for photos in Times Square are breaking the law and undermining efforts to keep the tourist area family friendly.

AFTER ELECTION, SRI LANKA PM INVITES RIVALS TO WORK TOGETHER

Sri Lanka’s prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe speaks as his wife Maithree watches during a media interaction at his official residence in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015. Wickremesinghe defeated the country’s former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa in parliamentary elections, according to results released Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015, blocking a key step of his bid to return to power eight months after he lost the presidency.
Sri Lanka's prime minister on Wednesday invited all political parties in the island nation to work together after his party won the most seats in parliamentary elections and thwarted a political comeback bid by the country's former strongman president.

Officials from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party were working to gain seven more seats to give it an outright majority, and enable Wickremesinghe to be sworn in for a second term as prime minister, a position second to president in Sri Lanka.

18 August 2015

EX-STRONGMAN LEADS EARLY ELECTION RESULTS IN SRI LANKA

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, center, gestures outside a polling station after casting his vote in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, Aug. 17, 2015. Sri Lankans voted in Parliamentary elections on Monday that will decide the political future of a former strongman leader seeking a comeback eight months after being unseated in a shocking election defeat.
Sri Lanka's former strongman leader narrowly leads in early parliamentary elections results Tuesday as he awaits a verdict on his come-back bid eight months after being unseated in a shocking election loss.

Mahinda Rajapaksa's United People's Freedom Alliance has won 21 of the 225 seats in results released so far from Monday's vote, while his closest rival sitting Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party has won 20.