While Bollywood's big budget film 'Thugs of Hindostan' failed to reach meet viewers expectations, Tamil film Sarkar emerged as big hit this Diwali. The Tamil political action film has done just in this festive season by crossing the Rs 150 crore marks worldwide in less than a week. Despite of trouble faced within the realm of ruling AIADMK party in Tamil Nadu over the depiction of their late leader Jayalalithaa and her welfare schemes, the film made Rs 30 crore in Tamil Nadu on its opening day and around Rs 6.45 crore in Chennai city alone over its first four days.

Many places in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on Thursday were affected by the Bharat Bandh called to protest against the changes made in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Palestinians were able to use the Erez crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel on Monday for the first time since it was closed over a week ago due to recent protests and clashes along the frontier of the blockaded territory.

Saudi prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for five human rights activists, including a female rights defender, rights groups have said.

At least two Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, according to a Gaza Health Ministry spokesman.

Iran's Interior Ministry has blamed foreign sources for the anti-government unrest in the country, affecting its economic situation, Press TV reported on Monday. "Bulk of the protest rallies, under the guise of protests against economic woes, in Iran over the past month were originated from outside the country," Xinhua quoted Interior Ministry spokesman Salman Samani as saying. "Only a handful of people were influenced by such propaganda and attended the unlawful protests in a few cities," he added. "The main elements provoking unrest in Iran are mostly individuals or groups who do not care about the economic problems and only seek to foment chaos by taking advantage of problems like price hikes and livelihood issues," Samani said. The Iranian spokesman also said that efforts were underway to control the protests and the situation would be handled with "minimum tensions and through dialogue".

Political parties and student organisations in Tamil Nadu held protests and shouted slogans against the state and central governments on Saturday following the suicide of 17-year-old Dalit student S. Anitha, who had spearheaded the fight against the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to medical colleges.

Maharashtra's striking farmers on Sunday said they will withdraw their 12-day-old strike as the state government had accepted, in principle, a majority of their demands, including loan waiver and crop loans for the current season.

Venezuela's attorney-general confirmed on Friday that 12 people have died during opposition protests.

The demonstrators came out on Saturday night to protest against the executive order of Friday that bans citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.