The photojournalist Fernando Moreles has been awarded the second Tim Hetherington Grant, an annual visual journalism award focusing on human rights, Human Rights Watch and World Press Photo announced today.
Human Rights Watch and World Press Photo established the grant to honor the legacy of Hetherington, a photojournalist and filmmaker who was killed during fighting in Libya in April 2011. The €20,000 grant was given to Moleres for his project “Waiting for an Opportunity,” in which he is documenting the harsh realities of juvenile justice in Sierra Leone.
Moleres’ photography and video project explores the brutal conditions that children and young people endure while incarcerated in the adult prison in Pademba, Sierra Leone, and follows them in their struggle to adjust to life after their release. Many are imprisoned as children and housed with adults in inhumane conditions. They often wait years for trial without access to any legal assistance.
“Fernando Moleres’ moral and emotional commitment to his photographic subjects is clear,” saidCarroll Bogert, deputy executive director for external relations at Human Rights Watch. “Tim Hetherington would have loved this work and Human Rights Watch is thrilled to support it.”
In the course of his documentary work, Moleres was inspired to create a nongovernmental organization, Free Minor Africa, which supports the reintegration of formerly incarcerated young people into society in Sierra Leone.
Photo: Youths incarcerated in Pademba Road Prison in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
© 2011 Fernando Moleres, Panos Pictures / 2012 Tim Hetherington Grant
FLASH: North Korea fires rocket - YTN
Pretty!
Horses are dressed for the weather near Banchory, Aberdeenshire. Snow continued to fall in the region, with more freezing temperatures forecast
Breaking: The internet has been cut off and mobile phones have been disrupted in Syria, monitoring firms have said.
Networking firm Renesys said the country’s connection protocols were unreachable, “effectively removing the country from the internet”. Local reports suggested that the internet had been down since early afternoon, and that telephone lines were only working intermittently.
The Syrian government has blamed “terrorists” for the disconnection.
“The terrorists targeted the internet lines, resulting in some regions being cut off,” Syria’s minister of information told a pro-government television station. According to activists, it has been known for similar communication cuts to occur in isolated areas before military operations.
Amnesty International has described the reports as “very disturbing”.
Source: BBC News
‘Secret Santa’ storms through Sandy-battered New York handing $100 bills to strangers
A wealthy Missouri man posing as “Secret Santa” stunned New Yorkers, handing $100 bills to many in Staten Island who had lost everything to Superstorm Sandy.
The Kansas City businessman is giving away $100,000 this holiday season, and spent the day in New Jersey and New York giving away thousands. But he says money is not the issue.
“The money is not the point at all,” said the anonymous benefactor on Thursday as he walked up to surprised Staten Island residents and thrust crisp bills into their hands. “It’s about the random acts of kindness. I’m just setting an example, and if 10 per cent of the people who see me emulate what I’m doing, anybody can be a Secret Santa!” (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)
One month later, New York Daily News photojournalist Mark Bonifacio takes to the skies to see the damage wrought by superstorm Sandy in Staten Island, Queens and Manhattan, and the wreckage and cleanup efforts that remain.
Above, two homes swept into marshland on Staten Island.
The photo that has captured everyone’s attention today: Tourist photographs NYPD officer giving a new pair of boots to barefooted homeless man in Times Square.
Story: http://nbcnews.to/QsTFdU
Photo: Jennifer Foster
The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly today to upgrade the Palestinian Authority government to “nonmember observer state.” Applause broke out as the vote was announced. The U.S. and Israel were among those in opposition. Britain, Germany and the Netherlands abstained.
Photo: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, center, celebrates with members of his delegation and other supporters after today’s vote. Credit: Jason DeCrow / Associated Press
Nov. 26, 2012. Police officers are sprayed with milk by European milk farmers during a demonstration outside the European Parliament in Brussels. (Photo: Geert Vanden Wijngaert—AP)
From protests in Egypt and life in the aftermath of the Gaza conflict to Myanmar’s refugee camps and volcanic lava spilling into the ocean in Hawaii, TIME presents the best pictures of the week.
