Michiko Ohashi (C), wearing a costume decorated with snacks, performs with other members of pop group Pottya at a fan meeting celebrating her birthday in Tokyo, Japan, October 16, 2016. Competition is cutthroat among Japan's thousands of pop idol wannabes, but a unique concept is winning fame for a band of “chubby” girls deploying their cheeky cuteness to combat prejudices against obesity. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A period of relative stability has put the Iranian capital No1 on the list of world cities that have achieved biggest improvements in liveability over the past five years, as calculated by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The “most improved” top 10 contains some unexpected names. So, eg, the fourth place: Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Latest ranking: 128; Ranking five years ago: 131; Five-year index movement: 3.8%. Here: A supporter of Ivory Coast president Alassane Ouattara campaigns in a market in the city’s Koumassi quarter. (Photo by Sia Kambou/AFP Photo)

An employee in a bookshop adjusts packaged cigarettes which have to be sold in identical olive-brown packets bearing the same typeface and largely covered with graphic health warnings, with the same style of writing so the only identifier of a brand will be the name on the packet, in Sydney on December 1, 2012. A new world-first law forcing tobacco companies to sell cigarettes in identical packets came into effect Saturday in Australia in an effort to strip any glamour from smoking and prevent young people from taking up the habit. (Photo by William West/AFP Photo)

A dachshunds is dressed in an outfit as it is shown off during the eighth annual Dachshunds Parade in Saint Petersburg, Russia on May 25, 2019. (Photo by Olga Maltseva/AFP Photo)

Ardent fisherman Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox appears to have hooked Frances Flajnik, Tempe queen of Anglers World Series, March 15, 1960. (Photo by AP Photo)

A French riot police officer is surrounded by flames, during a demonstration against the controversial labour reforms of the French government in Paris on September 15, 2016. Opponents of France's controversial labour reforms took to the streets on September 15, 2016 for the 14th time in six months in a last-ditch bid to quash the measures that lost the Socialist government crucial support on the left. Scores of flights in and out of France were cancelled as air traffic controllers went on strike to try to force the government to repeal the changes that became law in July. (Photo by Thomas Samson/AFP Photo)

A woman releases birds as people celebrate the start of the Lunar New Year in Surabaya on February 1, 2022, which ushers in the Year of the Tiger. (Photo by Juni Kriswanto/AFP Photo)

A couple dance by the Golden Horn leading to the Bosphorus Strait separating Europe and Asia, in Istanbul, Friday, May 14, 2021. (Photo by Emrah Gurel/AP Photo)