Fireworks go off in New York Harbor to celebrate the 125th birthday of the Statue of Liberty. (Reuters)

A Delta II rocket launches with the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) spacecraft payload from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Muslim pilgrims attend Friday prayers around the Kaaba, a black cube, inside the Grand Mosque, during the annual Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. (Reuters)

Afghan youths play atop a destroyed bus in front of the palace of former Afghan King Darul Aman, which was destroyed during the civil war, in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP)

A Thai man takes pictures with his son on a bicycle which he custom built to go through floodwaters in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP)

Czech soldiers hold historical flags below the statue of the legendary warrior Jan Zizka during a ceremony at Prague’s Vitkov hill, marking the 93rd anniversary of the creation of the independent Czechoslovak state in 1918. (Reuters)

An emu makes its way through a wheat field on a farm near Chinchilla, about 250km (155 miles) west of Brisbane, Australia. (Reuters)

A woman looks at an art installation named ‘Forever Bicycles’ by dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei during a media preview of the ‘Ai Weiwei Absent’ exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan. (Reuters)

Gravestones are seen with high rise residential blocks in the background in Hong Kong. (Reuters)

Students from the Brainshire Science School dress in Halloween costumes as they parade along the main street of Paranaque, in Metro Manila. (Reuters)

British skier Julian Ball performs a jump in the Battle of Britain ski competition next to Battersea Power Station during the Freeze Festival in London. (AP)

US singer Lady Gaga arrives at a press conference in New Delhi, India. (AP)

A monkey reaches out to a carved pumpkin at the ‘Bioparco’ in Rome, Italy. (AP/Rome’s Bio-Park press office)

A Kia Sorento painted by Ghulam Sarwar. The Pakistan native has been in the U.S. for several months and has painted several cars in the colorful style of Pakistani trucks and buses. (VOA Photo/Matt Hilburn)