From safe selfies to wife carrying championships, here's this week of wacky stories from around the world.
Cruise ship Diamond Princess, carrying 3,711 people, arrived at the Japanese coast early last week and was quarantined after a passenger who de-boarded last month in Hong Kong was found to be the carrier of the novel virus on the ship. Around 60 people tested positive of the virus on Monday, taking the total number of those infected on the ship to 130.
Driven from its self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State is down but not out. Where once they confronted armies, the extremist Islamist group's adherents have now staged hit-and-run raids and suicide attacks. In some cases, the group has claimed responsibility for atrocities, including the bombings of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed at least 253 people. Its involvement is not always proven, but even if the link is ideological rather than operational, Islamic State still poses a security threat in many countries.
Thunderstorms and dust storms are 'very likely' on Tuesday too, the weather office warned.
The cases reported on Wednesday include a couple and their two-year-old daughter in Rajasthan who had recently returned from Italy. The patients belong to Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu and had returned from Italy on March 8.
Interestingly, PM Modi had thanked his UAE counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum for offering the support to the rain-battered state on August 18.
Officials from the ministries of defence, railways, sports, culture, interior, foreign office and commerce will discuss this issue on Monday, according to a report.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Humsafar will be launched as overnight inter-city service on high-demand routes
Equipped with facilities like water purifiers, mobile phone charging points and fire extinguishers among others, the first Antyodaya Express is slated to be pressed into service from Mumbai for Tatanagar this month.
The government is also planning to replace the current ageing Air India One or Boeing 747 with Boeing 777s. Arup Roychoudhury and Archis Mohan report.
'Governments, democratically elected governments, are custodians for a short- specified time.' 'Parents don't let baby sitters decide the course of their child's future.'
Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Hossein Zolfaghari told Iran's state TV the apparently male attackers wore women's attire.
Thousands of firemen, NDRF and IAF personnel along with forest officials are working together to douse the flames.
Sing is expected to bluntly ask Pakistan to stop sponsoring acts of terror in India.
Keisuke Honda announced his retirement from international football following Japan's elimination from the World Cup at the hands of Belgium on Monday night.
Hamid Nihal Ansari was awarded imprisonment by a Pakistani military court in December 2015 after being slapped with charges of espionage and involvement in anti-state activities on him.
Unfazed by sanctions imposed by the government, Mumbai 2008 attacks mastermind Hafeez Saeed-led militant outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawah has launched an ambulance service in Karachi in southern port city of Pakistan.
Saeed's three-month detention period was to expire on Sunday night.
Thousands of flag-waving Thai protesters stormed more government buildings as they intensified their mass political rally against embattled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for a fourth day on Wednesday, plunging the polarised nation deeper into crisis.
The ones chosen for operation, management and development through a public-private partnership model are Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati.
Conglomerate has become the first corporate house in India's history to adopt a historical monument, in a Rs 250 mn contract spanning five years.
At least 56 seminaries and facilities being run by JuD and its wing FIF in Pakistan's southern Sindh province have been taken over by authorities.
Putin asks to send the puppy which will be trained to replace Diesel, the French police dog that died during St Denis raid.
Pakistan electronic media regulatory authority which comes the federal information ministry on November 2 had asked all broadcasters to refrain from covering 72 banned groups including LeT, JuD and FIF under UN restriction.
On day 3 of his visit to Singapore, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a busy schedule. Here are glimpses from PM's Singapore visit.
The uncertainty over Pakistan's participation in the World Twenty20 finally ended on Friday after the country's cricket team received government clearance to travel to India following assurances of security from the host nation.
Here's a glimpse at what happened around the world last week.
Indian Navy chief Admiral D K Joshi resigned on Wednesday evening after owning moral responsibility for the series of mishaps plaguing submarines in the military.
The confiscation of properties of JuD and FIF comes after Pakistan formally placed them in the list of banned organisations on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday lashed out at previous governments, saying they seemed to hate development and "looted" public money to win elections.
'If development, investment, employment, implementation, credibility and commitment are ensured, security will automatically improve and subversive and militant elements will lose ground and be neutralised by the people themselves,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
Pakistan's participation in the high-profile World Twenty20 cricket event continued to be shrouded in suspense with the country's government refusing to clear the team's departure unless India provides written assurance of security.
A squad of about 300 special Central Industrial Security Force commandos has taken over the security of a large Tata Steel manufacturing facility in coastal Odisha, making it the 7th private sector concern in the country to get armed cover by the paramilitary force to ward off terror threats.
Pakistan on Saturday said the trial in the Mumbai attacks case would be carried forward based on the information brought by a judicial commission that had visited India recently.
By weakening Sharif, the corps commanders could have a final say in important matters like relations with India, dealing with Taliban militants, interacting with Americans and once again achieving strategic depth in post-NATO Afghanistan. Which is why they may be behind the unrest in Pakistan led by Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri, says Shahzad Raza.
