The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who are isolating at their Anmer Hall residence in Norfolk, eastern England, during the coronavirus lockdown have planned all the usual trimmings of birthday cake and some games as well as a surprise video call from her great grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Here's a presentation of some of the best photos from around the world in the month gone by.
Chirag Daruwalla, who is following in the footsteps of his famed astrologer father, the late Bejan Daruwalla, makes his predictions for the New Year.
In a daily briefing from Downing Street after his latest Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms emergency meeting with senior scientists and advisers, Boris Johnson called for people to start working from home and said the government would no longer support mass gatherings in order to focus emergency services towards the health crisis.
Nuns of the order congregated at the prayer hall keeping safe distance from each other and lit candles before a large portrait of St Teresa, still fondly called Mother Teresa. They prayed to her for the well being of the people, specially the poor for whom she had devoted her entire life.
States and Union Territories have been given the powers for delineation of Red, Green and Orange Zones as per COVID-19 situation, the MHA said. All shops, except those in containment zones and malls, will be allowed to open from Monday with staggered timings during lockdown 4.0, it said.
Athletes and officials from Muslim countries, gathered together for a shared prayer in masks.
There was no gala opening ceremony for the world's richest T20 league, and the games will be played behind closed doors
The remarks reflect the "arrogance" of the Congress, he said addressing a poll rally on the last day of campaigning for the sixth phase in Haryana's Rohtak.
One reason for the surge in cases is the spread of infection at large weddings. Weddings turned out to be super spreaders.
A total of 1,177 passengers are booked on the New Delhi-Bilaspur special train, which departed at 4 pm, while 1,122 passengers are booked on the New Delhi-Dibrugarh special train that departed at 4:45 pm.
NEET is a court-ordered examination, supposedly aimed at meritocracy. However, over the past years when the incumbent Narendra Modi government at the Centre began implementing it, it took on political and casteist colours, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Rediff readers tell us how they are celebrating Ganeshotsav.
The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Friday allowed Chhath Puja celebrations at designated sites in the city except the banks of Yamuna river.
'Our government's claim that there are no undetected cases of infection that happened within our bustling cities because of exposure to infected international travellers are not credible,' notes Rahul Jacob.
The COVID-19 test of the MPs need to be done 72 hours before the start of the session and it can be done either in their constituencies or at the Parliament complex.
While the UK's national mourning after the passing of Prince Philip last Friday will run until the morning after his funeral at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle on Saturday, the royal family is observing two weeks of mourning.
'Virtual is the new Ritual and my mind often wonders: Did it have to take a microscopic inert organism to bring families closer?'
>More young women and men want solid relationships as opposed to casual sex, reveals Able Joseph, founder of the dating app Aisle.
The government, however, will allow collective prayers to Goddess Durga where number of people should not be more than 200.
Addressing the nation in a telecast on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi advocated 7 steps for Indians to follow in the fight against coronavirus
The meeting was called for discussing the points which were raised by Governor Kalraj Mishra on Monday.
President-elect Joe Biden's low-key inauguration on January 20 will include a Pass in Review on the East Front, a presidential escort to the White House, and a virtual parade across America following his official swearing in at the United States Capitol, the Presidential Inaugural Committee has announced.
Javadekar said India took various timely initiatives, including a countrywide lockdown, and its management of COVID-19 has been better than other countries.
Accused of rape under the stringent POCSO act, Arjuna award-winning Indian hockey player Varun Kumar has withdrawn from the FIH Pro League in Bhubaneswar to explore his legal options against the allegation, which he described as a "calculated attempt to extort money" from him.
According to officials, Punjab, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Assam and Telangana wanted the lockdown to be continued, some of them wanted the powers to decide the zoning of districts -- green, orange and red -- as per the COVID-19 situation.
Mallya, who is wanted in India on alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to an estimated Rs 9,000 crore, also said all his companies have effectively ceased operations and manufacturing following the lockdown in India.
The pandemic has changed the way people see the government. It has eroded trust in the administration's ability to tackle a crisis, any crisis, observes Devangshu Datta.
Some videos of the incident surfaced on social media showing the fire with intermittent explosions taking place at the site and people running to save themselves.
Locked inside the Sports Authority of India centre in Bengaluru due to the coronavirus forced restrictions, Indian Hockey players are utilising their free time to hone their English language skills, reading books and watching their favourite movies. The Indian men and women hockey teams are practicing at SAI centre Bengaluru where no unauthorised person can enter the campus.
A four-page directive was issued by the medical wing of the Union home ministry on Tuesday stating that the next three weeks are crucial in checking the spread of the virus and lack of caution can affect the forces, around 10 lakh personnel-strong, deployed for ensuring the country's internal security and border protection.
'Sure, we are teenagers who are doing this part time, but we feel we are making some sort of an impact.'
Downing Street has said that the prime minister would not be returning to work immediately and will be based at the sprawling 1,000-acre estate in Buckinghamshire, south-east England, for a recovery period on medical advice.
We need to give a booster shot to all our frontline workers first as if they fall victim to Omicron, the health system will collapse, points out Ramesh Menon.
The state has a total of 138,836 coronavirus cases and as of Tuesday 5,489 people have died, up by 731 from Monday morning.
Several protests and mass movements across Delhi and the country were at their peak when the coronavirus threat slowly crept in, throwing normal life out of gear and pushing everyone indoors to ensure social distancing.
India's cricketing great Sachin Tendulkar termed the 2011 World Cup triumph as the "best cricketing day of my life".
Requesting people to refrain from doing any act that leads to the spread of COVID-19, the civic body, in a release, warned that violators may invite strict action under relevant sections of the Epidemic Act 1897, the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the Indian Penal Code.
Djokovic's father blamed the cancellation of the tour on Dimitrov. There is nothing to suggest that Dimitrov spread the virus to others.
Gandhi, who is currently on a tour of the Union Territory of Ladakh, covered a distance of about 130 km to reach Lamayuru where he will stay overnight before moving to Zanskar, a tehsil of Kargil district, on Wednesday. He will be in Kargil town on Thursday.
