Category: Face Of The Day

A meerkat plays with a Christmas present at Hanover Zoo on December 20, 2013. Keepers at the German zoo gave the some of the animals presents containing festive treats. By Nigel Treblin/Getty Images.

A snowy owl is pictured at its zoo enclosure in Duisburg, Germany on December 19, 2013. By Horst Ossinger/AFP/Getty Images.

A helper dressed as Santa Claus holds a Fennec fox at Everland, South Korea’s largest amusement park on December 18, 2013 in Yongin, South Korea. Many Christian and non-Christian Koreans celebrate the holiday by exchanging gifts, caroling and participating in church services. South Korea is the only east Asian nation that recognises Christmas as a national holiday. By Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images. Update from a reader:

The Republic of China on Taiwan also recognizes Christmas, though it’s officially “Constitution Day” there. Madam Chiang Kai-shek was Christian and wanted to ensure that 12/25 was a holiday, so had it declared constitution day early in the history of the Republic, and it’s stuck. The oddest thing I found (I lived in Taiwan in the early ’90s) was that Christmas Eve was a huge night for dates – flowers were all sold out that day, and there was no way to get into a restaurant of any quality that night.

A man rests during a protest walk by African migrants on a highway on the way to Jerusalem in protest after abandoning a detention facility in the southern Israeli desert on December 16, 2013 near Beer Sheva, Israel. Over 100 African migrants abandoned the ‘open’ Israeli detention center, which opened last week, to march to Jerusalem to protest a law allowing authorities to keep them in open-ended detention until the resolution of their asylum requests are granted or they are deported or volunteered to leave the country. More on the controversy here. By Uriel Sinai/Getty Images.

An activist gestures during a demonstration near the Museu do Indio (Indian Museum) ‘Aldea Maracana’ (Maracana Village) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on December 16, 2013. The demonstrators, among whom there were some 30 Amazonic natives, seized the museum protesting against its scheduled demolition to continue the works in the Mario Filho ‘Maracana’ stadium ahead of the 2014 World Cup. By Tasso Marcelo/AFP/Getty Images.

For his series Generations, photographer Julian Germain captures 4 or 5 generations in one family portrait.  Writing in 2005, Tom Shakespeare praised Germain’s work:

Photography captures a single moment in time. But the work of Julian Germain succeeds in raising questions about time passing which bring together past, future and present within the single image. He has succeeded in using portraiture to explore the particular and the specific in a way that eloquently poses questions about the life of every viewer, sending us away moved and challenged. His work explores not just the individual lifespan from birth to death, but also the context of family and society, which gives meaning to personal stories.

(Photo by Julian Germain)

Say hi to the original Bond girl:

When James Bond author Ian Fleming retired to Jamaica to write, it is widely believed that he turned to a Polish-born spy as the inspiration for his first Bond girl.  This muse, born Krystyna Skarbek and later known as Christine Granville, was simply put, captivating.

She had the distinction of being Winston Churchill’s favorite spy; some of her jilted exes actually banded together to form “The Panel to Protect the Memory of Christine Granville”; and even Nazi guard dogs would instantaneously bend to her will. Granville volunteered for the British Secret Intelligence Services at the outbreak of World War II.  While carrying out missions across Europe and the Middle East, she managed to escape capture, certain death and yes, even avalanches on several occasions.

Her life was truly more daring than one that could be imagined for the screen. For example, Cairo, 1941. That summer, the city was lousy with warring factions of secret agents. Granville had just uncovered a Nazi plan to invade Russia, the largest military operation in history. Her urgent reports were quietly ignored, and much to her shock she was accused of being a double-agent (due to escalating tensions between Britain and her native Poland). She had been summoned to Cairo with her partner and lover (and I say lover, because she was married to another Polish agent for Her Majesty’s Secret Service).

Once there, they were simply ordered to await their fate at the hands of British authorities. As they languished in the Cairo summer’s heat, Axis troops were campaigning across the desert towards Egypt with alarming force. Elsewhere, nearly four million enemy soldiers surrounded the Soviet border, poised to invade.  Christine was stripped of her power as an agent.  To make matters somehow worse, her husband arrived in Cairo at her defense, setting off a potent romantic rivalry with her partner (her husband ultimately left, disgraced).

It was only after realizing their horrible mistake in ignoring Christine’s discoveries that British authorities reinstated her as an agent.  Deeply dedicated to the cause, she promptly began espionage in Syria.  For the remainder of the war, her fearless bombast, resourcefulness and undeniable charm would be legendary.

More photos of Granville here.

A man pours water on the head of a pregnant woman who nearly fainted during a food distribution of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) near a camp for internally displaced persons in Bangui on December 13, 2013. More than 600 people have been killed in the sectarian violence tearing though the Central African Republic in the past week, the UN said today. The resource-rich but poverty-stricken majority Christian country was plunged into chaos following a March coup by mainly Muslim Seleka rebels. A fresh wave of violence enveloped the country on December 5, prompting French troops to deploy in a bid to stop communal strife that had sparked global alarm and talk of a possible genocide. By Sia Kambou/AFP/Getty Images.

U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) answers questions during a press conference in Washington, DC on December 12, 2013. When asked if he would press ultra-conservative groups to tone down their criticism of a pending budget deal, Boehner said, “I don’t care what they do.” By Win McNamee/Getty Images.

An Indian gay-rights activist takes part in a protest against the Supreme Court ruling reinstating a ban on gay sex in New Delhi on December 11, 2013.  In a major setback for civil rights in the world’s biggest democracy, the court reinstated a colonial-era ban on gay sex that could see homosexuals jailed for up to ten years. By Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images.