India recorded extremely high temperatures in various cities this year. But in the sweltering heat of India's Thar desert, where summer highs soar above 50 degrees Celsius, an architecturally striking school made with a combination of age-old techniques and modern design is an oasis of cool. The Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls' School uses the same yellow sandstone as the 12th-century fort in nearby Jaisalmer, in India's western state of Rajasthan. (Report and Pics: AFP)

A Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) of the Indian Air Force crashed in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan on Tuesday during an operational training sortie, the first such incident involving the indigenously-built jet. Pics/PTI