Friday: The day in photos

Production crew members ready the stage for the presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain at the University of Mississippi in Oxford.  (Win McNamee / Getty Images)

Stephen Allen, head of learning and programs at the National Museum of Scotland, examines a lighthouse lens at the Edinburgh facility. The museum is helping to celebrate the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad by giving the public “behind the scenes” access to unique objects in its collection.  (Jeff J. Mitchell / Getty Images)

A Turkish woman reads the Koran, right, as others move through the courtyard of the Eyup Sultan Mosque in Istanbul during the last Friday of Ramadan.  (Ibrahim Usta / Associated Press)

A Palestinian woman reads verses of the Koran inside Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock Mosque during the last Friday prayers of Ramadan.  (Muhammed Muheisen / Associated Press)

Members of a Palestinian solidarity group protest outside parliament in Cape Town, South Africa. The small group of protesters voiced their concerns over the situation in the Mideast.  (Nic Bothma / EPA)

Iraqi boys harvest dates near Baghdad. The dates are bagged and sold for about $150 a ton.  (Ali Yussef / AFP / Getty Images)

Rescue workers try to find a man under the wreckage of a fallen minaret in Istanbul. Turkey. One person was crushed to death after the minaret fell in a storm that toppled trees and ripped off roofs.  (Bulent Kilic / AFP / Getty Images)

Pakistani soldiers parade suspected Afghan militants before the media in the troubled Bajaur region along the Afghanistan border. Pakistan is under intense pressure to eliminate sanctuaries of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in the region, but the militants have responded by intensifying suicide attacks across the country.  (Aamir Qureshi / EPA)

A baby koala clings to its mother’s back in the koala enclosure at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast of Australia.  (Dave Hunt / EPA)