Explosion of the photojournalists tue Libya Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros - Los Angeles Times

Tim Hetherington, left, is helped in a building by a rebel in Misurata hours, in Libya, before being killed. Chris Hondros, right, Misurata mission this week. (AFP/Getty Images.) (Associated Press) reports of Misurata, Libya and Los Angeles-, barely two months ago combat photographer Tim Hetherington sent a tweet of the Academy Awards, where his Afghanistan war film "restrepo" was for the best documentary trophy.

Non-"to the # Oscars with Josh Fox of @ gaslandmovie and Director of http://ow.ly/i/8Dl6 Wasteland," he asked, referring to two of his fellow nominees in the category. The tweet was accompanied by a photo of Hetherington, beaming in a tuxedo.

On Tuesday, Hetherington has sent a very different report of the shattered and besieged the Libyan city of Misurata: "bombardment by the forces of Qathafi blind." No sign of NATO. ?

These significantly dissimilar dispatches reflect both disparate but complementary Hetherington, 41, who was killed Wednesday in an explosion which seems to have been caused by mortar fire to Misurata. The town held the rebels in the West of the Libya was under siege for several weeks by forces loyal to the Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi.

The mortally wounded even mortar explosion Chris Hondros of Getty Images, a veteran photographer combat whose work appeared on the cover of the edition of the Wednesday of the Los Angeles Times and appears in the edition of today as well.

Hondros, 41, has suffered a serious head injury in the blast and taken to hospital, where he died a few hours later.

Hondros has received several awards, including the highest distinction of photography of the war, Robert Capa 2005 Gold Medal. He was finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his work in Liberia.

Two other photojournalists were injured in the explosion: Michael Brown, Corbis and Guy Martin of Panos Pictures Agency.

Doctors at the Hospital of Misurata Hikma said seven rebel fighters and a Ukrainian doctor also were killed Wednesday in the bombing, and 120 people were injured.

Hondros took photographs in Misurata Wednesday morning under the protection of a rebel militia commanded by a hunter named Salahidin. His photos capture the militia in the action she tried emptying loyal snipers to Kadafi from their hiding places.

After the transmission of images to his employers to Getty Images, he returned to the line of front with Salahidin and his men in the afternoon.

Hetherington and Hondros were part of a group of six photographers who made their way up to a dangerous band of Tripoli Street, a front line where Kadafi snipers hide in buildings of the city held the rebels.

At some point, at some of the photographers has broken with Salahidin for a more secure position, less said Guillermo Cervera, a free-lance photographer who was part of the group. They were hit by shrapnel from a mortar shell.

"We were trying to go to a safe place." It was too quiet. "He considered dangerous," said Cervera, who was a few meters more below at the time of the explosion. "I heard the sound of an explosion, and everyone was on the ground."

Rebels have photographers at the Hikma hospital.

Hetherington was pallid and bleeding from a leg bad injury, and he also was hit in the head, Cervera said.

Through his photographs, which sometimes overlapped the line between journalism and fine art photography, Hetherington has sought the perceptual gap between the chaotic events in developing countries and the most privileged worlds of Western readers. Its projects had included facilities multi-screen and downloads for the portable device.

Born in Liverpool, England, he studied literature at Oxford University and later returned to College to study photography, according to a biography on its website.

A photographer contributing to Vanity Fair, he lived for eight years in West Africa before making his first travels to Afghanistan, a few years ago.

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Belarusians are struggling to explain the explosion in the subway station - BBC News

April 12, 2011 updated 23: 19 GMT lament gathered in a Memorial by a Belarusian underground station entrance are groping to find an explanation for the massive explosion that tore a Minsk metro stationkilling 12 people and injuring more than 200, earlier this week, reports David Stern.

The Belarus is on high alert, after what officials now believe was a terrorist attack.

According to them, that a bomb exploded close to 1800 local time, at rush hour, in the Oktyabrska?a - one of the most popular of Minsk station.

The explosive device, which was filled with nails and ball bearings and was equivalent to 5 kg of TNT, was placed under a bench on the platform, they add. It may have been triggered by remote control.

The Minister of the Interior, Anatoly Kuleshov, said that the purpose of the assailants was to "kill as many people as possible."

Memorial

On Tuesday, lament gathered by the entries in the Metro station, where a spontaneous Memorial had arisen.

Each time someone would be advanced to wear a flower on one of the many rapid rise of piles, or in the light of a votive candle.

People stood as if anchored to the ground, to the Metro station

In a niche in the street, there was a more formal sanctuary - six white tables with the names of those who were killed simply printed on them. The front was a small, red platform where pushing an even larger bunch of flowers.

The crowd, who sometimes grew to hundreds, has been largely silent.

People stood as if anchored to the ground, to the monument fortune, their faces etched with disbelief.

"I'm in shock," said Lidiya Vintskevich, a journalism student who works at a local radio station. "I can't believe that something like this could happen in our city, we are so small."

Belarusian security, which are still known by their acronym for the Soviet era, the KGB, said that possible a composite photo of the author is now distributed.

"Man is Slavic, up to 27 years and rationale in appearance." He was dressed in a brown coat and a wool hat, "of the KGB Chairman Vadim Zaitsev said, adding that the suspect was hired to the bomb."

Assistant Attorney General of the country also stated that several people had been arrested, but gave no further details.

"No meaning".

Belarus came to political and economic pressure in recent months.

The United States and the European Union slapped sanctions on the Government of Belarus, after he took measures on the opposition of the country after the presidential elections last year.

President Lukashenko has promised to turn Belarus "inside out" to find those responsible for

President Alexander Lukashenko and other senior officials were forbidden to travel to the West.

Meanwhile, Central Bank of the country runs currency, and many analysts predict a strong devaluation of the currency, the ruble.

President Lukashenko already governs what is regarded as more strict authoritarian Europe State. Many Belarusians support him, however, in part, in gratitude for stability and law and order that it provides.

Lukashenko has promised to turn Belarus "inside out" to find those responsible.

In the comments just after the explosion, he also said that he could be an attempt to destabilize the country and that it was perhaps an "existing abroad."

Many Belarusians are nevertheless difficult to imagine who would benefit from such an attack.

"I can't imagine why anyone would do this," said Stepan, a local businessman who asked not to use his family name. "I can't imagine what they would or that they hope to achieve." There is absolutely no logic. ?

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11 killed in the explosion at the Belarus Metro station - Los Angeles Times

People help a man wounded by an explosion in a subway station in downtown Minsk. (Anton Motolko, AFP/Getty Images / April 11, 2011)A powerful blast rocked the Minsk metro during evening rush hour Monday, killing 11 passengers and injuring 126 others in a crowded downtown subway station. Right of Belarus agencies said the explosion, on a platform at the station Oktyabrska?a as a train arrived, was an act of terrorism.

The explosion shattered windows, injuring people in the train and the platform of the station, located near the presidential headquarters in the Centre of the capital of the Belarus.

"I just entered the station to pick up our daughter of my mother-in-law, when I felt a growing odour of and has seen many people rushing, some of them screaming,"Ivan Kaplun, an engineer who lives near the station. "said in a telephone interview.

Kaplun said he helped achieve a woman wounded, former body and pools of blood.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, often called the last dictator, placed flowers on the site of the explosion and rushes to his Office for an emergency meeting, after which he announced that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had offered to send a team of researchers.

"I must confess that we have been very seriously challenged," Lukashenko said in a speech televised late Monday. "It must be an adequate response and this answer must be found."

Lukashenko also expressed the desire to seek the assistance of the public to help "find these freaks".

The attack was the first in Minsk since July 3, 2008, when dozens of people were injured in a public park, as they celebrated independence day. The authors were not, although Lukashenko ordered every adult male in the digital country.

Lukashenko was re-elected in December, winning approximately 80% of the vote in a controversial election. Observers from the European Union refused to accept the results and inauguration of Lukashenko in January has been ignored by the more Western diplomats.

The tainted vote has also led to a protest from night election brutally crushed by the police, who arrested dozens of protesters, including several presidential candidates.

Lukashenko accused the West of funding opposition. "We might today be awakened in a different country," Lukashenko said during a Conference of press at the end of December, accusing the opposition of attempting to storm Government, encouraged by Western assistance and funding.

"When they say the West I absolutely do not trust them as probably they were trying to lull us… but now we see their true face."

Human rights activists warn of serious political repercussions after the explosion Monday. "Something tells me that the authorities can take advantage of the situation and repress the opposition with renewed vigour," said Valentin Stefanovich, Deputy Head of the Vyasna, a centre for human rights.

About 30 activists of the opposition, including ex-presidential candidates Nikolay Statkevich and Andrei Sannikov, are still in detention and face up to 15 years in prison despite the protests of night of the elections.

"That which is behind this mysterious barbarous and inhuman act has nothing to do with the opposition," Svetlana Kalinkina, editor of the independent newspaper "Narodnaya Volya", said in an interview with the Times. "But I am sure that the application of the Act will address the perpetrators among the opposition, as they always do."

Sergei.Loiko@LAtimes.com

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