A KLM flight headed for Hyderabad in India's south skipped its destination and flew across India because the pilot was unaware the city had a brand new airport, a report said yesterday.
The confusion occurred barely hours after the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in the Hyderabad suburb of Shamshabad became operational after midnight on Saturday, with flights landing and taking off, said the Times of India.
The pilot of the KLM flight, which had taken off from Amsterdam, at first headed towards Hyderabad's old airport and was told by air traffic control the facility had been shut, the report said.
When directed to fly to the new airport, the unnamed pilot replied: "What's that?" and flew instead first to New Delhi, from where he took the plane to Mumbai after being declined permission to land, it said.
Dog prays for worldly desires
Buddhists clasp their palms together to pray for enlightenment, but Conan, a chihuahua, appears to have more worldly motivations. The dog has become a popular attraction at a Japanese temple after learning to imitate the worshippers around him.
"Conan started to pose in prayer like us whenever he wanted treats," said Joei Yoshikuni, a priest at Jigenin temple on the southern island of Okinawa. "Clasping hands is a basic action of Buddhist prayer to show appreciation. He may be showing his thanks for treats and walks," he said.
Conan, a two-year-old male with long, black hair and a brown collar, sits next to Priest Yoshikuni in front of the altar and looks right up at the statue of a Buddhist deity. When the priest starts chanting and raises his clasped hands, Conan also raises his paws and joins them at the tip of his nose.
Sarkozy's ex-wife remarries
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's ex-wife Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz got married again on Sunday night in New York before some 150 guests, many of whom flew in from Europe for three days of celebrations.
Ms Ciganer-Albeniz, 50, married Moroccan-born public relations executive Richard Attias, 48, less than two months after Mr Sarkozy wed singer and former model Carla Bruni in Paris.
Media reports referred to Sunday's event in Manhattan as a "revenge wedding" for the French President's remarrying so soon after his October divorce from Ms Ciganer-Albeniz, which ended the couple's fractious 11-year marriage.
Farewell to ballet donkey
Russia's Mariinsky ballet has said farewell to one of its longest-serving artistes: A 21-year-old female donkey named Monika.
The animal is to be pensioned off after 19 years carrying the knight's overweight servant Sancho Panza around the stage in productions of the ballet Don Quixote. The Mariinsky, previously known as the Kirov, is one of Russia's foremost ballet troupes. At her farewell party, Monika danced a waltz with one of the Mariinsky's ballerinas and was presented with retirement gifts of carrot cake, a pinafore and a kerchief. Her role will be taken over by a female donkey named Alina.
Giving buys you happiness
Money can buy happiness, but only if you spend it on someone else, researchers say. Spending as little as $5 a day on someone else could significantly boost happiness, the team at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School found.
Their experiments on more than 630 Americans showed they were measurably happier when they spent money on others - even if they thought spending the money on themselves would make them happier.
"We wanted to test our theory that how people spend their money is at least as important as how much money they earn," said Elizabeth Dunn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia. They asked their 600 volunteers first to rate their general happiness, report their annual income and detail their monthly spending including bills, gifts for themselves, gifts for others and donations to charity.
"Regardless of how much income each person made, those who spent money on others reported greater happiness, while those who spent more on themselves did not," Dr Dunn said in a statement.