Qasim Khan waged the unlikeliest of battles with Pakistani authorities Thursday over the right to charge hundreds of curious visitors the equivalent of 22 cents each to see a roughly 40-foot whale shark he bought from a fisherman.

Khan is in the business of buying fish, albeit usually much smaller ones, and jumped at the chance on Tuesday to pay about $2,200 for the 20-ton behemoth, which was discovered dead in the Arabian Sea off the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.

A young Saudi journalist is facing calls for his execution after tweeting remarks about the Prophet Mohammed, and the kingdom's top clerics are demanding his trial after denouncing him as an "apostate."

On the occasion of the Muslim prophet's birthday last week, 23-year-old Hamza Kashgari tweeted: "I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don't understand about you."

A young couple from Nottinghamshire who scooped up £45 million in the EuroMillions lottery said Thursday they planned to spend some of their winnings on their wedding after their "lucky day".

Cassey Carrington and Matt Topham, both 22 and from Stapleford, won £45,160,170.50 in Tuesday's rollover draw after playing online with just £5.

A 35-year-old woman walked through a field in northern Mozambique, near where a group of teenage boys were undergoing their ritual circumcision into adulthood.

Accusing her of trespassing on sacred ground forbidden to women, the traditional leader meted out his punishment: He ordered 17 of his young initiates to gang rape her.

Pilloried by neighbors, laughed at in freak shows and spurned by the women he admired from afar, Chandra Bahadur Dangi has always seen his tiny stature as a curse.

But the 72-year-old Nepali, who claims to stand at just 56 centimeters (22 inches), is on the brink of life change as significant as a lottery win as experts prepare to test his claim to be the shortest man in history.

Large New York hotels plan to equip their housekeepers and staff with portable alarms so they get help quickly in case of trouble, officials said Wednesday.

Any staff member who must enter guests rooms, such as maids, waiters and mini-bar attendants, will be given the "panic buttons" within the next year, said Lisa Linden, spokeswoman for the Hotel Association of New York.

A leopard dragged away and devoured a 14-year-old girl in western Nepal in what is thought to be the fifth deadly attack by the same animal in just two months, police said on Thursday.

The youngster was cutting grass in the forest near her home in Baitadi district, on the border with India, when she was attacked by the animal, said Bishnu Bahadur Karki, a local deputy superintendent of police.

Have you been looking for love in all the wrong places?

Move over, eHarmony and Match.com, and head to your local animal shelter to Meet Your Match. The color-coded program evaluates shelter pets and the people looking to adopt them in an effort to match personalities, energy levels and needs.

A home-filmed video showing a four-year-old Chinese boy being forced by his parents to run almost naked through the snow in bitterly cold New York has gone viral and sparked an online uproar.

The father was trying to train his son to be strong, his personal assistant told Agence France Presse, but the footage has sparked debate about "Chinese" tough parenting -- as famously illustrated by Chinese American "Tiger Mother" author Amy Chua.

Three state ministers from southern India, including one holding a portfolio for women and child development, quit on Wednesday after being accused of watching porn in the local assembly.

The ministers from the ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were filmed by television cameras watching graphic footage on their mobile phones on Tuesday while other lawmakers in the house were debating legislation.