Nobel Peace Prize winner and Burmese pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi received the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal during her 18-day cross-country tour of the United States. Above, Suu Kyi meets with members of the U.S. Senate leadership at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 19.
On Monday, Sept. 17, the San Francisco-based magazine Mother Jones released a secretly taped video of Republican presidential candidate and former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney speaking at a private fundraiser. The widely distributed video includes Romney's comment that "47 percent" of the American people, who he says are voting for U.S. President Barack Obama, are "dependent upon government," and "believe that they are victims." Above, Romney addresses the audience at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's 33rd annual national convention on Sept. 17 in Los Angeles, California.
While anti-Japan protests over the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku islands continue to take place across China, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta arrived in Beijing on the second stop of a three-nation tour to Japan, China, and New Zealand. Here, Panetta is pictured receiving an award after he addresses cadets at the PLA Engineering Academy of Armored Forces on Sept. 19 in Beijing.
Protests have taken place across China over the past two weeks in a dispute over the contested Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, worrying Western leaders concerned with maintaining regional stability. Above, Chinese protestors stage an anti-Japan rally outside the Japanese embassy on Sept. 18 in Beijing, China.
At least 11 people were injured as police fired live rounds and tear gas to break up a crowd of over 1,000 students attempting to reach the U.S. embassy in Islamabad during protests against the notorious anti-Islamic movie The Innocence of Muslims on Sept. 20. Here, a Pakistani Muslim protester throws a tear gas shell back towards police during one of the protests.
Bangladeshi men row during a traditional boat race on the Buriganga river in Dhaka on Sept. 19.
Nepalese Hindu women recite prayers as they sit on the banks of the Bagmati River during the Rishi Panchami festival in Kathmandu on Sept. 20. Rishi Panchami marks the end of the three-day long Teej festival, in which married women fast and pray to Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction, for the good health of their husbands, while unmarried women wish for handsome husbands and happy conjugal lives.
An Israeli Arab farmer harvests cabernet sauvignon grapes for the Bazelet Hagolan Winery on Sept. 20 at Kidmat Tzvi in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Bazelet Hagolan is one of some 300 mostly Israeli kosher wineries, which are currently at the height of their harvest season.
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman swings a chicken over her family during the Kaparot ceremony on Sept. 20 in Bnei Brak, Israel. The Jewish ritual is supposed to transfer the sins of the past year to a chicken and is performed before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is the most important day in the Jewish calendar and begins this year at sunset on Sept. 25.
As critical talks on further rescue funding continue, Greece is battling increasing pressure from eurozone leaders and International Monetary Fund officials to implement new pay cuts. Here, people are pictured passing by a graffiti-covered wall outside Athens Academy on Sept. 20.
Since the Syrian unrest erupted in mid-March 2011, the conflict has already killed 20,000 people and forced 250,000 to flee into neighbouring countries, according to U.N. figures. Above, Syrian refugee children wait on Sept. 18 for Lakhdar Brahimi, the international peace envoy for Syria, to arrive at the Altinozu camp in Hatay city, located on the Turkish-Syrian border.
Police were forced to separate independent and state-employed miners in Bolivia on Monday, Sept. 18 as the clashing miners set off sticks of dynamite. Above, miners from private cooperatives gather after marching in La Paz to protest against the government of President Evo Morales.
A petitioner holds a U.S. flag during a naturalization ceremony on Sept. 17 at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The ceremony was held at the archives in honor of the 225th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution.
A woman wears a mask at the Occupy Wall Street protest on Sept. 17, the one year anniversary of the movement in New York.
Customers try on traditional Bavarian lederhosen at Herbert Lipah's "Lederhosen Mania" costume shop near Munich, Germany, on Sept. 18, four days before the opening of the three-week long Oktoberfest beer festival.
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands delivers a speech from her throne in the Hague on Sept. 18, which is Prince's Day, the presentation of the coming financial year.
A powerful storm killed five people and injured 81 in Paraguay as it blew across the southern part of South America this week. Above, waves break against Montevideo's promenade as strong gusts of wind batter the Uruguayan coast on Sept. 19.
NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, with the space shuttle Endeavour mated on top, takes off from the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at NASA Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 19 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The SCA, a modified Boeing 747 jetliner, flew Endeavour to Los Angeles where it will be placed on public display at the California Science Center. This is the final ferry flight scheduled in the Space Shuttle Program era.
