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Last month, reports surfaced, later confirmed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has been delivering bags of cash to Karzai for a decade, in part to buy continued access and cooperation during the war. The New York Times reported that the payments had not resulted in the influence the CIA sought, and had instead fueled corruption and empowered warlords. A further report by the U.N. stated that opium cultivation across Afghanistan had increased for the third year in a row. As Western troops continue the long process of preparing for their December 2014 withdrawal, evidence of significant progress in Afghanistan remains elusive. The photos below are just a glimpse of this conflict over the past month, part of the ongoing series here on Afghanistan. An Afghan woman in a burqa walks along a road on a windy day on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 16, 2013. Afghans at the Karte Sakhi cemetery on the foot of Karte Sakhi's Shrine in the foothills of TV Mountain in Kabul, on April 26, 2013. The shrine is the second most sacred place of Shia worship in Afghanistan. A U.S. Black Hawk helicopter arrives, after a NATO helicopter crashed killing two American service members in a field near Gerakhel, eastern Afghanistan, on April 9, 2013. The U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force said the cause of the crash is under investigation but initial reporting indicates there was no enemy activity in the area at the time. |
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view Afghanistan: April 2013 as presented by: The Atlantic |
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Last Wednesday, an eight-story commercial building called Rana Plaza, in Savar, Bangladesh, collapsed suddenly with more than 3,000 garment industry workers inside. In the five days since, rescuers have been digging frantically, searching for survivors, rescuing hundreds. As of today, with the confirmed death toll nearing 400, attempts to locate any more survivors have been halted. Eight people have been arrested so far, including the owner of the illegally-constructed facility, who was apparently caught while trying to flee to India yesterday. In the days since the disaster, families displayed photographs as they gathered around the destroyed building, hundreds of their loved ones still listed as missing. Rescue workers attempt to rescue garment workers from the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, on April 28, 2013. Hope for survivors under the rubble of a building that collapsed outside the capital of Bangladesh faded on Sunday. With more than 900 people still counted as missing fears grew that the death toll could rise far beyond the latest figures. Bangladeshi garment workers help evacuate a survivor using lengths of textile as a slide to evacuate from the rubble after the building collapsed, on April 24, 2013. |
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view Rescue Efforts Halted at Collapsed Bangladesh Building as presented by: The Atlantic |
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The winners of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards have just been announced. Norwegian photographer Andrea Gjestvang was announced as the Photographer of the Year, for her series of portraits of children and youths who survived the July 2011 massacre on the island of Utoeya, outside Oslo. This year's contest attracted more than 122,000 entries from 170 countries. The photographs were judged in six different competition categories, including Professional, Open, and Student Focus. The organizers have been kind enough to share some of their winning images with In Focus, gathered below. A portrait by Andrea Gjestvang, named Photographer of the Year in the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards. The photograph comes from a project called "One day in history" - Portraits of children and youths who survived the massacre on the island of Utoeya outside Oslo (NO) on 22nd of July 2011. "I bear my scars with dignity, because I got them standing for something I believe in," says Ylva Schwenke (15). Ylva from Tromso, hid by a path called "The love path". She was shot in the shoulder, her stomach and in both of her thighs. Winner, Professional, People category. One day in history - Portraits of children and youths who survived the massacre on the island of Utoeya outside Oslo (NO) on 22nd of July 2011. "In the period after Utoeya I had a really hard time sleeping. I was afraid of the dark and suffered from dreadful nightmares. My mom and I decided that getting a dog might help me, so I got Athene. Now she sleeps on my stomach every night." Iselin Rose Borch (15) from Grong was hiding behind a rock by the pump house on the island. She was rescued by tourists in a boat. Youth Photographer of the Year - Traditions. New Year's eve traditions in Romania. |
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view Winners of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards as presented by: The Atlantic |
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Robotic probes launched by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and others are gathering information all across the solar system. We currently have spacecraft in orbit around the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Saturn, and two operational rovers on Mars. Several others are on their way to smaller bodies, and a few are heading out of the solar system entirely. Although the Space Shuttle no longer flies, astronauts are still at work aboard the International Space Station, performing experiments and sending back amazing photos. With all these eyes in the sky, I'd like to take another opportunity to put together a recent photo album of our solar system -- a set of family portraits, of sorts -- as seen by our astronauts and mechanical emissaries. This time, we have a great shot of comet Pan-STARRS between the Earth and Sun, some very sharp images from Mars rover Curiosity, a preview image of Comet ISON, potentially the "comet of the century", when it approaches in November, intriguing glimpses of Saturn and its moons, and, of course, lovely images of our home, planet Earth. ASA's Cassini spacecraft has delivered this view of Saturn, taken while the spacecraft was in Saturn's shadow, on December 18, 2012. The cameras were turned toward Saturn and the sun so that the planet and rings were backlit. This special, very-high-phase viewing geometry lets scientists study ring and atmosphere phenomena not easily seen at a lower phase. Dozens of coronal loops gyrate above several active regions of the sun, as they were rotating into view on October 17, 2012. When viewed in extreme ultraviolet light, the dancing loops of competing and connecting magnetic field lines become visible. |
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view Around the Solar System as presented by: The Atlantic |
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Salt, an essential element for all animal life, is abundant here on Earth, but it still requires extraction from stone deposits or salty waters. The process of mining that salt can produce beautiful landscapes, including deep, stable caverns, multicolored pools of water, and geometric carvings. Some of these locations have even become tourist destinations, serving as concert halls, museums, and health spas touting the benefits of halotherapy. Collected here are images of salt mines across the world, above and below ground. A saltwater pond in Nemocon's salt mine in Nemocon, Cundinamarca, Colombia on November 22, 2012. The mine, 80 meters deep, with over 500 years of history, has become a new tourist destination in Colombia. One of the colorful brine pools that are part of a lithium salt pilot plant on the Uyuni salt lake, which holds the world's largest reserve of lithium, located at 3,656 meters (11,995 ft) above sea level in southwestern Bolivia. A woman walks across salt flats being cultivated for the white crystals near the village of Ngaye-Ngaye, 10 km (6 mi) south of Senegal's northern town of Saint Louis, on April 9, 2007. Some 3,000 people, mostly women, spend long hours under the blinding sun scraping up salt with sticks and their hands, earning the equivalent of a dollar or two per day. |
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view The Strange Beauty of Salt Mines as presented by: The Atlantic |
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Hours after the FBI released images of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, a response to a robbery in nearby Cambridge led to the fatal shooting of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer. The shooting became a carjacking, then later a dangerous chase reportedly involving dozens of gunshots and explosive devices, ending up in neighboring Watertown. Authorities reported the shooting suspects were indeed the same men sought in the Boston Marathon bombing, identifying them as brothers Tamerlan Tsarnaev "Suspect #1" and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev "Suspect #2", both Kyrgyz nationals living in Cambridge. They later stated that Tamerlan, age 26, had been shot and killed, but younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was still at large. The manhunt intensified as the night went on, and the entire Boston area woke to find itself on lockdown, with public transportation shut down and citizens advised to stay indoors. Shortly before 7 p.m., shots were heard in Watertown, as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was discovered hiding in a boat in the backyard of a residence. A brief standoff ended with the live capture of Dzhokhar, who is now in custody, 22 hours after the start of the manhunt, four days after the bombing. |
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view Manhunt Underway, Boston Under Lockdown as presented by: The Atlantic |
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While investigators work to discover who placed the bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, people in Boston and around the world are paying tribute to the victims. Mourners have come together for candlelight vigils, running groups have staged memorial runs, and individuals have spent time in prayer or reflection. Collected here are images of some of these memorials, from Boston to Belgrade to Beijing. Local residents attend a candlelight vigil in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, on April 16, 2013 where eight-year-old Boston Marathon explosion victim Martin Richard lived. A Little League baseball player, Martin lived in a blue Victorian house in working-class Dorchester - a Boston neighborhood dotted with "Kids at Play" traffic signs and budding trees - with his parents Bill and Denise, sister Jane, 7, and brother Henry, 10. Martin's mother and sister were seriously injured. Members of the New York Yankees and the umpires bow their heads during a moment of silence for those killed in a bomb blast at the Boston Marathon on April 15, before their MLB Interleague game with the Arizona Diamondbacks at Yankee Stadium in New York. A building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is lit up in red, white and blue as a tribute to those who were killed or injured in the explosions at the Boston Marathon in Cambridge, Massachusetts. |
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view Memorials and Tributes for Boston as presented by: The Atlantic |
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Several explosions erupted near the finish line of the Boston Marathon today, in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. Police are reporting 2 deaths and at least 23 hurt, as authorities begin their investigation. A Boston police officer clears Boylston Street following an explosion at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. Two explosions shattered the euphoria at the finish line on Monday, sending authorities out on the course to carry off the injured while the stragglers were rerouted away from the smoking site of the blasts. A man is loaded into an ambulance after he was injured by one of two bombs exploded during the 117th Boston Marathon near Copley Square. Medical workers aid injured people at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon following an explosion in Boston. |
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view Photos of the Boston Marathon Bombing as presented by: The Atlantic |
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