Nobel Prize laureates Eric Maskin, Rich Roberts and Dudley Herschbach lean over behind a mini Eiffel Tower during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. (AP)

A Brazilian police sharp-shooter secures a position atop a school building in front of the Rocinha shantytown, where Rio de Janeiro’s government started the installation of the Pacifier Police Unit project. Brazilian authorities stepped up a pacification drive in Rio’s largest shantytown, nearly doubling the police presence in a hillside favela overlooking the city’s most famous beaches. (AFP)

A large U.S. flag waves in gusty winds and pedestrians cross the street under red streetlights in Newark, New Jersey. A tornado watch has been issued for parts of New Jersey, New York City and New York’s lower Hudson Valley until 7 p.m. The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center says lightning, hail and wind gusts up to 70 mph are possible. (AP)

Faithful wave Lebanese and Vatican City flags amidst confetti upon Pope Benedict XVI’s arrival in his pope mobile at the Baabda Presidential Palace near Beirut. (Reuters)

Chinese shaolin monks perform shaolin kung fu martial arts as part of a martial art exhibition at the U.N. headquarters in Vienna, Austria. (AFP)

The Mars Hand Lens Imager on NASA’s Curiosity rover, with the Martian landscape in the background (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Yemeni protesters try to break through the U.S. embassy in Sana’a during a protest over a film mocking Islam. Yemeni forces managed to drive out angry protesters while police fired warning shots to disperse thousands of people as they approached the main gate of the embassy. (AFP)

A back side wall of a local mobile phone shop is covered with old cellphones in Tokyo, Japan. (AP)

The collapsed cupola of Haiti’s National Palace crashes to the ground during its demolition in Port-au-Prince, September 12, 2012. Two and a half years after a devastating earthquake ravaged Haiti, demolition began at the National Palace. (Reuters)

A Nepalese artist has his face painted during a protest outside the Katmandu District administration office in Katmandu. The protesting artists alleged that their fellow artist Manish Harijan had received death threats from activists of Nepal-based World Hindu Federation after the aritist displayed combo images of Hindu deities and Western superheroes. (AP)

Forest fires on the Arjuna and Welirang mountains are seen from the Pecalukan village of the Pasuruhan district in Indonesia’s East Java province. (Reuters)

A woman uses a pair of scissors to cut the face of a man who was accused of theft in Tactic, in Alta Verapaz region, about 189km (117 miles) from Guatemala City. (Reuters)

(L-R) Britain’s Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Malaysia’s King Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah and his wife Queen Haminah Hamidun and Britain’s Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, pose together for a picture during an official dinner at the royal residence, the Istana Negara, in Kuala Lumpur. (AFP)

Audience watch a model during the J. Mendel Spring/Summer 2013 show at New York Fashion Week, September 12, 2012. (Reuters)

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, meets with State Department personnel in the courtyard of the State Department in Washington, after speaking at the White House concerning the recent deaths of Americans in Libya, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. (AP)