Alexander F. Yuan / AP
Chinese tourists take photos on a rebuilt part of the Great Wall in Luanping, in northern China's Hebei province, Friday, Dec. 14, 2012.
Arno Balzarini / EPA
Ice and snow changes our environment, as winter engulfs our world.
AP
People react as they gather to mourn for the victims of 1937 Nanjing Massacre at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall in Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu province on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012.
The Associated Press reports — Air raid sirens rang again in Nanjing on Thursday to mark 75 years after a bloody invasion by the Japanese imperial army that remains as one of the most sensitive friction points in the shared history of two Asian powers.
On December 13, 1937, the Chinese city fell to Japanese forces; what followed was a massacre of war prisoners, soldiers and citizens, known in the West as the "Rape of Nanking." China maintains as many as 300,000 people died; Japan says the toll was far less.
AP
People gather at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall on Dec. 13, 2012.
Peter Parks / AFP - Getty Images
A Nanjing massacre survivor, center, cries after placing flowers on a wall with the names of victims at the Memorial Museum in Nanjing on December 13, 2012.
Peter Parks / AFP - Getty Images
Chinese military personnel attend a ceremony at the Memorial Museum in Nanjing on December 13, 2012.
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Rolex Dela Pena / EPA
Philippine Navy personnel load coffins on to the BRP Laguna, which is set to transport relief supplies to typhoon-affected areas, from a navy base in Cavite City, south of Manila, on Tuesday.
The United Nations has appealed for $65 million in emergency aid for millions of victims of Typhoon Bopha in the southern Philippines, where at least 714 people were killed as muddy floodwaters washed out entire villages.
-- European Pressphoto Agency
Rolex Dela Pena / EPA
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Scavengers picking up useful construction waste from a garbage dump in Hefei, in central China's Anhui province on December 9, 2012.
China's wealth gap has widened to a level where it is among the world's most unequal nations, a Chinese academic institute said in a survey, as huge numbers of poor are left behind by the economic boom.
-- Agence France-Presse
Erik De Castro / Reuters
Typhoon survivors sit at the entrance of a tent Sunday with the coffin of a relative who was killed by a falling tree during Typhoon Bopha, in Montevista town, Compostela Valley, southern Philippines.
DAVAO CITY, Philippines -- The Philippine government and Maoist rebels have declared truces in two southern provinces devastated by a typhoon last week as the army concentrates on relief and many rebels recover from the disaster, a commander said Monday.
Typhoon Bopha killed 647 people and caused crop damage worth $210 million.
The most intense storm to hit the Philippines this year wiped out about 90 percent of three coastal towns in Davao Oriental province and buried an entire town in neighboring Compostela Valley province under mud.
Communist New People's Army guerrillas are active in those two worst-hit provinces, which are on Mindanao island.
Mission shift
Maj. Gen. Ariel Bernardo, an army division commander, said he had ordered troops to shift from combat to relief operations, and to help deliver food and rebuild communities.
PhotoBlog: Aerial photos reveal damage from Typhoon Bopha
"We heard the rebels had declared an informal cease-fire, we welcome that because we can all concentrate on helping typhoon victims," Bernardo told Reuters.
"I believe many of these rebels were also affected and could be in the shelter areas," he added.
The death toll stood at 647 on Monday, with nearly 800 missing and more than 1,000 injured, the national disaster agency said in its latest tally. About 100 fishermen were feared lost between Mindanao and Indonesia's Sulawesi island.
Typhoon heads back toward Philippines after killing nearly 600
The Philippines' social welfare department and the United Nations are appealing for help as humanitarian agencies bring in food, water, medicines and shelter material for more than 5.4 million people affected by the storm.
Typhoon Bopha is weakening but the damage in the Philippines is mounting. The death toll has reached 420 and hundreds remain missing. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
Insurgency
New People's Army guerrillas have been battling government forces in various parts of the Philippines for decades.
The government signed a peace deal with the country's biggest Muslim rebel group, which also operates in the south, in October.
Bernardo said troops had cleared roads of debris and mud and restored links to cut-off communities to allow in food and other supplies.
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Television pictures showed entire coastal areas in Davao Oriental leveled to the ground.
About 20 typhoons hit the Philippines every year, often causing death and destruction. Almost exactly a year ago, typhoon Washi killed nearly 1,500 people in Mindanao, but most storms make landfall further north.
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AP
Workers lay the foundation for a residential complex around a solitary tomb site in Taiyuan, China's Shanxi province, Dec. 6.
AP
Workers lay the foundation for a residential complex around a solitary tomb site in Taiyuan, China, Dec. 6.
Jon Woo / Reuters
An ancestral tomb, 33 feet high and about 30 square feet, on the construction site of a building in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, in China on Dec. 6.
AP
Workers lay the foundation for a residential complex around a solitary tomb site in Taiyuan, China, Dec. 6.
Developers bought a cemetery and paid villagers to relocate the remains of their loved ones. All except one. The grave has not been moved as the family is waiting for an auspicious date to do so and a reason from the developer for choosing this site, according to the owner of the tomb. The developers are now offering to pay nearly $160,000 to have it moved. The building is scheduled to be completed by April 2013, but for now, construction continues around the gravesite. Last week a home in Zhejiang province, that had been sitting in the middle of a newly built highway as the owners held out for more money, was finally demolished.
China Daily / Reuters
Excavators are used to demolish a house standing alone in the middle of a recently-built road in Wenling in China's Zhejiang province on Dec. 1, 2012.
Authorities have demolished a five-story home that stood incongruously in the middle of a new main road and had become the latest symbol of resistance by Chinese homeowners against officials accused of offering unfair compensation.
Xiayangzhang village chief Chen Xuecai told The Associated Press the house was bulldozed Saturday after its owners, duck farmer Luo Baogen and his wife, agreed to accept compensation of 260,000 yuan ($41,000). Full story.
China Daily / Reuters
The house on Nov. 24.
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Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Sabita Rani, 35, sits in her kitchen in Savar, Bangladesh, Nov. 30, 2012. Rani, an operator at the Tazreen Fashions garment factory, escaped the fire that killed more than 100 workers on Nov. 24. According to Rani, the factory manager did not let workers escape after hearing the fire bell, but Rani jumped from the third floor to save herself after her colleagues managed to break a window.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Tahera Begum, 25, lies inside her room in Savar, Bangladesh, Nov. 30. Begum is an operator at the Tazreen Fashions garment factory. Begum became mentally ill and lost her memory after escaping a factory fire on Nov. 24, according to Begum's husband.
The Daily Star has written about Begum here
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Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Harun-or-Rashid, 24, sits with his wife Reshma, left, 20, inside their room in Savar, Bangladesh, Nov. 30. Harun and Reshma escaped the Tazreen Fashions garment factory fire that killed more than 100 workers on Nov. 24. According to Reshma, the factory's workers rarely performed fire drills. Reshma broke her right leg after jumping from the third floor to escape the fire. Harun said they will leave their job and return to their hometown in Munshiganj.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Ale Noor, 35, sits inside her room in Savar, Bangladesh, Nov. 30. Noor is an operator at the Tazreen Fashions garment factory. According to Noor, she broke her left leg after jumping from the fourth floor to escape a factory fire on Nov. 24. Noor earns 3,000 Taka, about $37, per month, but says the factory's workers have had to protest to receive pay each month as the factory's management never paid salaries on time.
Issei Kato / Reuters
Mongolian-born grand sumo champion Yokozuna Asashoryu performs a ring-entering ritual at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on January 6, 2010 . With a history spanning centuries, sumo once graced the Imperial courts of Japan and wrestlers were held in the highest regard. Those days are long gone. Today, sumo struggles to fill stadiums and attract new fans.
TOKYO -- Aspiring sumo wrestler Mainoumi once convinced doctors to inject silicone into his scalp to meet height requirements for the ancient Japanese sport. Such sacrifice is a rarity now in a sport beset by scandals and with popularity at an all-time low.
With a history spanning centuries, sumo once graced the imperial courts of Japan and wrestlers were held in the highest regard. Sponsors lavished gifts on the hulking giants and to join the ranks of the sumo was considered a worthy occupation.
Those days are long gone, however.
Tarnished by scandals involving drug use, bout-fixing, violence and alleged links to Japanese organized crime, sumo struggles to fill stadiums and attract new fans.
Such is its decline that last month only one person applied to take the sport's entrance exam.
This brought the total number of applicants for the year to just 56, the lowest since the current system of staging six major tournaments a year was introduced in 1958.
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That compares to a peak of 223 in 1992 when muscle-bound Japanese brothers Takanohana and Wakanohana fired up the sport with their dynamic fighting styles.
"We should be wracking our brains to find solutions," said Shoji Kagamiyama, head of a sumo training gym.
"At this rate there will be more wrestlers quitting sumo than coming in. If that trend continues there will be none left. New wrestlers are our most precious commodity."
Last year sumo racked up debts of almost $50 million following a match-fixing sting and widespread arrests which led to a television black-out and a government ticking off.
The sport also drew outrage across Japan when a former gym boss was sentenced to six years in prison after a 17-year-old wrestler was beaten to death.
Last year, a gym chief was given a severe dressing down for beating three young wrestlers with a golf club for breaking curfew and not wearing traditional kimono outside.
"We don't know the reason why the numbers are dropping," a Japan Sumo Association (JSA) official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
"You would have to ask (applicants) why, or if the problems have had anything to do with their decision."
The situation is the latest manifestation of a long, slow decline. Public interest in the once-packed tournaments has been falling steadily over the past decade, with both crowds and television viewing figures down.
'Turning point'
Even without the scandals, sumo's popularity has been eaten away by 'cooler' sports. Sumo's Spartan lifestyle and warrior code appears lost on a modern Japan obsessed with glitz and celebrity.
While baseball continues to rule the roost, there is a growing challenge from soccer, whose 'cool factor' has rocketed since the 2002 World Cup co-hosted by Japan and South Korea, stealing still further fans.
Sumo wrestling wracked by jumbo-size scandals
Sumo also lacks home-grown heroes such as baseball's Ichiro Suzuki, who has broken Major League Baseball records for fun over the past 12 years, or soccer's Shinji Kagawa, who sealed a big-money transfer to Manchester United earlier this year.
"There's no question that sumo is at a turning point," said Eiji Takase, editor-in-chief of "Sumo" magazine.
"Compared to many professional sports the pay is relatively low and children think other athletes, like soccer players, are much cooler."
Newly promoted yokozuna (grand champion) Harumafuji, the third successive Mongolian to reach the elite rank, suggested that sumo may be too hardcore for today's pampered youth.
"Sumo is a strict sport," he told reporters. "Of course there are people who feel there is no need to put themselves through such hardship in an age of convenience."
Bathhouse brawls
The JSA has loosened its height and weight requirements in a bid to lure more applicants, but it could be too little, too late unless they can unearth some local role models.
Some observers feel that many of the problems relating to sumo's image can be traced back to Asashoryu's rise to top dog in 2003.
The Mongolian firebrand's brawls with rivals in bathhouses were out of place with the sport's warrior code, and he tested the JSA's patience further when he was caught playing soccer in a Wayne Rooney shirt after handing in a sick note for a back injury.
Asashoryu's fist-pumping, scowling and growling in the ring were also deemed a serious breach of protocol.
But criticism of Asashoryu ignored the fact he kept sumo afloat almost single-handedly in terms of publicity and ticket sales.
PhotoBlog: Sumo wrestling draws crowd in Brazil
"It's hard to imagine Japanese kids jumping into sumo following foreign wrestlers," said Arai, alluding to the fact that there hasn't been a native Japanese yokozuna since 2003.
"Sumo needs a Japanese star."
Takase agrees that this would help, but also advocates taking pride in the cultural rituals unique to the sport and even returning to basics.
"For example, wrestlers don't need to be so heavy - thinner is better. This makes for faster wrestlers and more interesting bouts, like with Mainoumi," he said.
"If they abandon the rituals and just fight and go home, all it becomes is a fight. It's because it has this spirit that it's sumo - it needs to go back to that."
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Beawiharta / Reuters
Students walk across a new bridge as they cross a river to get to school at Sanghiang Tanjung village in Lebak regency, Indonesia's Banten village on November 29, 2012.
Children in Indonesia are taking a perilous route to school using a broken suspension bridge. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.
A perilous daily journey undertaken by a group of Indonesian schoolchildren just got a whole lot easier.
In January, PhotoBlog reported on the dangerous river crossing the children faced after a bridge collapsed. Ten months on, Reuters reports that a new bridge has opened.
Epi Sopian, the head of Sanghiang Tanjung village, said the bridge had been built with the assistance of non-governmental organizations and the country's largest steel producer, PT Krakatau Steel.
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Beawiharta / Reuters
Then and now: A combination photo shows children crossing the old collapsed bridge (top) on January 29, 2012, and students using the new bridge (below) on November 29, 2012.
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Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP - Getty Images, file
Trainees get lessons at the Santa Claus Academy in November last year.
TOKYO — Magic tricks and straight answers are all part of being Santa in Japan — at least according to Tokyo's Santa Claus Academy, which trains St. Nicks in a country with little Christmas tradition.
On a recent weekend, 88 Santa wannabes packed the school in Tokyo's fashionable Roppongi district for a crash course in how to behave as "Santa-san," as the man in red is known in Japan.
"There are many children who don't believe in Santa Claus anymore," said Masaki Azuma, head of the school. "So I said to myself, 'Let's bring Santa Claus back.'"
The morning session began with Azuma training students in the mindset of being Santa Claus, such as not to reply to anything unless addressed as "Santa-san," along with teaching them magic tricks, which Azuma recommends as a good ice-breaker for often shy tots.
No chimney?
The rest of the session was devoted to answering the difficult questions that children have a habit of posing, such as "My house doesn't have a chimney and we also have a security system, so how will you be able to come in and deliver my present?"
The academy's answer is that Santa, whose job is to deliver presents no matter what, will find a way. Also, the home security system should recognize him and let him in.
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Despite nearing 70, Azuma has vowed to press on with his school, believing it has a key role to fulfill.
"Even as times change, Santa Claus is a figure that needs to live in the hearts of everyone," he said.
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Mohammad Ali / EPA
A boy on his way to school rides a bicycle across planks on an aqueduct that separates Plempungan Village and Suro Village in Karanganyar, central Java, Indonesia, on Nov. 26. As rickety as it looks, residents prefer to use the old aqueduct as a shortcut. The alternative route requires walking 3.5 miles.
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