|
|
|
|
|
Tribal elders say the Taliban are far from defeated. The Taliban continue to wage a brutal war, taking a toll on Afghan citizens and American forces. The Department of Defense has identified 1,761 American service members who have died in the Afghan war and related operations as of Sept. 21, about 10 years since the start of the war. In visiting Afghanistan monthly in The Big Picture, we try to reflect our troops presence in the country as well as their interaction with the Afghan people. Sergeant Daniel Chavez, an Army flight medic from Rio Rancho, N.M., hold his gun aloft as fellow medic Specialist David Bibb, from Santa Fe, waves an American flag as they commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at Forward Operating Base Edi in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan on Sept 11. The United States, which had largely pulled out of Kunar province, has recently moved troops, including the 27th Infantry Regiment, back in as part of an effort to take the battle to Taliban strongholds. The mountainous region of Kunar borders Pakistan and is often a transit point for Taliban between the countries. US army Pfc Kyler King gets his head shaved by Pfc Shawn Riggins in the FOB Kuschamond. Of 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan, 33,000 will leave by mid-2012. |
|
|
view Afghanistan, September 2011 as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
|
|
|
North Korea has long been enigmatic - especially to the West. An elaborate cult of personality created around the ruling Kim family permeates both the cultural and political lives of the nation. The world's most militarized nation, it has been developing nuclear weapons and a space program. In 2002, President George Bush labeled North Korea part of an "axis of evil," primarily due to its aggressive military posture but also because of its abysmal human rights record. North Korea has long maintained close relations with the People's Republic of China and Russia. In an attempt to ameliorate the loss of investments due to international sanctions over its weapons program, North Korean officials have initiated a tourism push, focused on Chinese visitors. Still, every travel group or individual visitor is constantly accompanied by one or two "guides" who normally speak the mother language of the tourist. While some tourism has increased over the last few years, Western visitors remain scarce. The last several photos in this post are by Associated Press photographer David Guttenfelder, who offers rare glimpses of life in the shuttered country. Rolling out the red carpet for tourists is not commonly associated with the reclusive North Korean government, but that is what workers did for the departure ceremony of Mangyongbyong cruise ship in Rason City on Aug. 30. About 130 passengers departed the rundown port of Rajin, near the China-Russia border, for the scenic Mount Kumgang resort near South Korea. North Korea's state tourism bureau has teamed up with a Chinese travel company to run the country's first ever cruise. A member of a marching band has her photo taken with a woman and young boy at an event to mark the birthday of Kim Il Sung at a park in Pyongyang, North Korea. Kim is considered the founder of the nation. The regime of his son, Kim Jong Il, has marked 2012, the centenary of Kim Il Sung's birth, a banner year and has been trying to bolster its economy to support festivities. North Koreans pay their respects at a monument to Kim Il Sung at Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, North Korea. |
|
|
|
view A glimpse of North Korea as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
|
|
|
One of the most indelible memories in the collective psyche of Americans - and the world - comes from the images of the World Trade Center following the terrorist attacks on the United States, September 11, 2001. Yesterday, Americans and the world collectively remembered those who lost their lives in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania ten years after that unforgettable day. This post (edited by Leanne Burden) shows the transformation, of what became known as Ground Zero, over the last ten years. A memorial rises from the ashes of that day on September 11, 2011. A man stood in the rubble and called out, asking if anyone needed help, after the collapse of the first World Trade Center Tower on Sept. 11, 2001. More than 2,700 people were killed when Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked US passenger jets and flew them into the twin towers in New York. Workers unfolded an American flag on May, 25, 2002, on top of the last standing beam at the site of the World Trade Center disaster in New York a few days before the official end of the recovery effort. Workers laid the cornerstone of the Freedom Tower on the location of the World Trade Center on July 4, 2004. |
|
|
|
view Ground Zero: September 11, 2001 - September 11, 2011 as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
|
|
|
Brendan Bannon is a photojournalist on assignment for Polaris Images: "I first went to the Dadaab refugee camp, close to the border between Kenya and Somalia, at the end of 2006. Strangely enough, the camp was flooded then. The same parched ground recorded in my photographs was covered by 3 feet of water. Then, people were fleeing from the camp, not fleeing to the camp as they are today. Dadaab has become the largest refugee camp in the world, and Kenya’s fourth largest city: 440,000 people have gathered in makeshift shelters, made of branches and tarps. Experiencing Dadaab again last week was profoundly humbling. I was confronted with deep suffering and need. Slowing down and talking to people, I heard stories of indomitable courage and determination and of making horrible choices. Most of these people have survived 20 years of war in Somalia, two years of drought, and it’s only now that they are fleeing their homeland. They are accomplished survivors. One morning, I was talking to a family of ten. I poured a full glass of water from a pitcher and passed it to a child. He took a sip, and passed it on to his brother and so on. The last one returned it to me with enough left for the last gulp. Even in the camp, they take only what they need to survive and share the rest. What you see on the surface looks like extreme fragility, but it’s actually tremendous resilience and the extraordinary affirmation of their will to live." This post features a collection of Brendan's recent images from Dadaab refugee camp. They tell their own story. Somali refugees dig the grave of Ibrahim Issack, a six-year-old child who died of complications of severe malnutrition a month after arriving in the camp, according to his uncle Hassan Issack. "We fled Buaale and traveled for 21 days by foot. It was very tiresome. we walked through drought with no food and little water. Along the way we were robbed and women were raped." A refugee uses twigs and scraps of material to build a shelter for her family. There is no room for most new arrivals in the Dadaab camps, so the thousands of people who arrive every week must carve out a place for themselves in the surrounding desert. Doctors Without Borders estimates that by the end of 2011 there will be 500,000 people living in and around the camps, which were originally built to accommodate 90,000. A young Somali boy and his nomadic family fled Bardere, Somalia to Kenya in May 2011 because of hunger, drought and war. They traveled 32 days by foot and donkey cart relying on the kindness of people along the way for food and water. |
|
|
|
view Dadaab Refugee Camp as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
|
|
|
With just a year until the 2012 Summer Olympics, athletes are immersed in intensive training around the world. Reuters photographer Jason Lee documented members of China's Yunzhinan Swimming Club as they prepared for the Paralympics, which will be held in London in August, after the Olympics. Olympic-style games for disabled athletes were organized for the first time during the 1960 Summer Games in Rome. Qian Hongyan, 16, from the Yunzhinan Swimming Club for the handicapped, climbs onto a platform during a daily training session at a swimming centre in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan province, July 30, 2011. About 30 disabled athletes from the club aged 10 to 22 are training for the London 2012 Paralympic Games. The club was founded in August 2007. Hao Weixing, 18, from the Yunzhinan Swimming Club for the handicapped, practices his backstroke technique. Yang Ping (left), 22, from the Yunzhinan Swimming Club for the handicapped, puts on swimming goggle for her teammate Xu Qing. |
|
|
|
view Training for the 2012 games as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
|
|
|
Muslims around the globe have begun their holiest month of the year by giving up food, drink, smoking and other physical needs from dawn till dusk each day. In many communities, large dinner gatherings are held each evening to break the fast. The month also marks a time for Muslims to reexamine their lives through the prism of Islamic teachings. A Somali refugee girl reads the holy Koran at the Liban integrated academy at the Ifo refugee camp in Dadaab, near the Kenya-Somalia border August 2. The United Nations estimates that more than 3.7 million people in Somalia, among them 800,000 children, are on the brink of starvation. The famine in the Horn of Africa is spreading and may soon engulf as many as six more regions of the lawless nation of Somalia, the U.N. humanitarian aid chief said on Monday. The sun sets behind Al-hussein Mosque on the first day of Ramadan in Amman, Jordan Aug. 1. Religious authorities in most of the Middle East declared Monday the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a period devoted to dawn-to-dusk fasting, prayers and spiritual introspection. A Pakistani Muslim prepares food stuff for 'Iftar' a time to break their fast, on the first day of holy fasting month of Ramadan at a mosque August 2 in Karachi. Muslims across the world are observing the holy fasting month of Ramadan, where they refrain from eating, drinking and smoking from dawn to dusk. |
|
|
|
view Ramadan Begins as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
|
|
|
After a month of heavy rain saturated mountainsides, a fresh deluge sent landslides sweeping into Seoul last week, killing 59 people. Ten were still reported missing. In a strange compounding of the misery, the landslides and flash flooding washed away landmines buried near an air defense unit in Seoul. Soldiers were searching for those landmines as well as North Korean landmines washed away near the border. A total of 76 landslides of different severity struck after the most intense rainstorm in Korea in the last century. Ten university students lost their lives while volunteering at a summer camp for kids when a landslide struck in Chuncheon. "If it keeps raining like this, no country in the world can endure this," South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said. Rescue workers remove a body from a collapsed house after a landslide caused by heavy rainfall. Damaged cars pile up after a landslide and heavy rainfall in Seoul July 27, 2011. Wild weather has battered the peninsula, causing widespread flooding and transport delays, while the share price of insurers fell on fears that damage costs would run into millions of dollars. |
|
|
|
view South Korean Deluge as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
|
|
|
One of the worst droughts in a century, compounded by high food prices and unremitting political strife, is spawning an immense humanitarian crisis on the Horn of Africa. Thousands of Somalis are fleeing their homeland each week; most of those who survive the brutal journey end up in refugee camps in neighboring Kenya. Aid agencies are calling it the worst drought in 60 years. Although centered on Somalia, which lacks a functioning government and suffers from constant battles with Islamic rebels, the crisis has also affected people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. Reports suggest parts of Somalia may already be on the verge of famine, a repeat of the emergency situation two decades ago. Resources are woefully inadequate. "Desperate hunger is looming across the Horn of Africa and threatening the lives of millions who are struggling to survive in the face of rising food prices and conflict," World Food Programme executive director Josette Sheeran said in a release. In the Dadaab refugee camp, water is among the most precious of commodities to Somali refugees, who have fled a crushing drought and political strife in their homeland. A malnourished child is held in her grandmother's arms at Wajir District hospital, Wajir town, Kenya, on July 6. The worst drought in the Horn of Africa has sparked a severe food crisis and high malnutrition rates, with parts of Kenya and Somalia experiencing pre-famine conditions, the United Nations has said. More than 10 million people are now affected in drought-stricken areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda and the situation is deteriorating. Two-year-old Aden Salaad peers at his mother as she bathes him in a tub at a Doctors Without Borders clinic, where Aden is receiving treatment for malnutrition, in Dagahaley Camp, outside Dadaab, Kenya, on July 11. |
|
|
|
view Horn Of Africa: On The Brink Of A Humanitarian Crisis as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
|
|
|