An anti-terror court in Lucknow on Jan 30 awarded death penalty to Ahmad Murtaza Abbasi, who was convicted for attacking security staff at Gorakhpur’s Gorakhnath temple with a sharp weapon in April last year.

Abbasi was convicted by the special ATS court in Lucknow.  An IIT graduate, Abbasi had tried to forcibly enter the Gorakhnath Mutt premises of which Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is the head priest, on April 3, last year.

A court in Gujarat's Gandhinagar  has convicted self-styled godman Asaram Bapu in a woman disciple rape case registered against him in 2013.

Sessions court judge DK Soni reserved its order on the quantum of sentence for January 31.

The court acquitted six other accused, including Asaram's wife, due to the lack of evidence.

As per the FIR lodged at Chandkheda police station in Ahmedabad, Asaram Bapu allegedly raped the woman on several occasions from 2001 to 2006 when she was living at his ashram on the outskirts of the city.

The controversial godman is currently lodged in jail in Jodhpur in another rape case.

A Surat-based woman had filed a case of rape and illegal confinement against Asaram Bapu and seven others, one of whom died during the pendency of the trial, in October 2013. A chargesheet was filed in July 2014.

Rescue officials on Jan 31 recovered the severed head of the suspected suicide bomber who they believe blew himself up inside a mosque packed with worshippers during the afternoon prayers on  Jan 30 in the high-security zone in Pakistan's restive northwestern Peshawar city.

The death toll from the bomb blast rose to 93, with 221 people severely wounded, police officials said, even as rescue operations continued to retrieve the remaining bodies from the debris.

The powerful blast occurred inside the mosque in the Police Lines area around 1.40 pm when worshippers, which included personnel of the police, army and bomb disposal squad -- were offering the Zuhr (afternoon) prayers.

The suicide bomber who was present in the front row blew himself up, causing the roof to collapse on the worshippers, officials said.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the suicide attack, saying it was part of a revenge attack for slain TTP commander Umar Khalid Khurasani who was killed in Afghanistan in August last.

The TTP, set up as an umbrella group of several militant outfits in 2007, called off a ceasefire with the federal government and ordered its militants to stage terrorist attacks across the country.

The group, which is believed to be close to al-Qaeda, has been blamed for several deadly attacks across Pakistan, including an attack on army headquarters in 2009, assaults on military bases, and the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.

In 2014, the Pakistani Taliban stormed the Army Public School (APS) in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least 150 people, including 131 students.

The attack has sent shockwaves across the world and was widely condemned.

Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant wants to add caste to the city’s anti-discrimination policy, saying discrimination takes place throughout the US based on the South Asian practice of assigning people their social status at birth.

In announcing the proposal this week Sawant said South Asian American and other immigrant working people face caste discrimination in workplaces including in the technology and hospitality sectors, The Seattle Times reported.

Seattle’s anti-discrimination policy currently includes gender, age, race and sexual orientation.

Estimated to be thousands of years old, the caste system is based in India’s Hindu scripture. It placed Dalits at the bottom of a social hierarchy, once terming them “untouchables.” Inequities and violence against Dalits have continued although India banned caste discrimination in 1950.

Long-haul carrier Emirates successfully flew a Boeing 777 on a test flight  Jan 30 with one engine entirely powered by so-called sustainable aviation fuel.

This comes as carriers worldwide try to lessen their carbon footprint.

Flight No.EK2646 flew for just under an hour over the coastline of the United Arab Emirates, after taking off from Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, and heading out into the Persian Gulf before circling back to land.

The fuel powered one of Boeing's two General Electric Co.engines, with the other running on conventional jet fuel for safety.

Emirates, a state-owned airline under Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, described the sustainable fuel as a blend "that mirrored the qualities of jet fuel." It included fuel from Neste, a Finnish firm, and Virent, a Madison, Wisconsin-based company.

Virent describes itself as using plant-based sugars to make the compounds needed for sustainable jet fuel, while Neste's fuel comes from vegetable oils and animal fats. Those fuels reduce the release of heat-trapping carbon dioxide typically burned off by engines in flight.

Aviation releases only one-sixth the amount of carbon dioxide produced by cars and trucks, according to World Resources Institute, a nonprofit research group based in Washington.

The UAE, a major oil producer and OPEC member, is to host the next United Nations climate negotiations, or COP28, beginning in November.

Already, the seven sheikhdom federation has come under fire from activists for nominating the CEO of Abu Dhabi's state oil company to lead the UN negotiations known as the Conference of the Parties, where COP gets its name.

The dreaded terror outfit Islamic State of Iraq and Levant in South-East Asia (ISIL-SEA) has been designated as a global terrorist organisation by the United Nations Security Council.

The outfit, also known as Islamic State East Asia Division and Dawlatul Islamiyah Waliyatul Mashriq, was, according to the UN website, formed in June 2016, upon announcement by now-deceased Isnilon Hapilon, and is associated with Islamic State in Iraq and Levant, listed as Al-Qaida in Iraq.

Hapilon was the leader of Abu Sayyaf, a group affiliated with ISIL, and was killed in 2017.

On January 16 the committee added Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba's deputy chief Abdul Rehman Makki to its list of designated terrorists.

By the end of this year, Boeing India will open its second-largest campus at Aerospace Park in Devanahalli. This facility will be its largest outside its headquarters in Virginia.

The company on Jan 30 said it has invested over $200 million to build the campus on 43 acres of land on the outskirts of the city. 

The new facility will house various labs, testing infrastructure and part of R&D operations. Aarti Singh, Senior Director, IT and DA and CIO Boeing India said most engineers employed by the plane maker will continue to work from Boeing India Engineering &  Technology Centre at Bagmane Tech Park in Bengaluru.

Boeing’s India operations include field service offices in Mumbai, Hindan, Rajali and New Delhi. Boeing India has over 4,000 employees.

Billionaire Gautam Adani's embattled group clutched on to a USD 400-million investment by Abu Dhabi's International Holding Co.

in its flagship firm's share sale to restore confidence in the conglomerate that saw nearly USD 70-billion rout in value after a tiny New York short seller came out with a damning report. 

Adani, 60, who was third richest man in the world till a day before Hindenburg Research came out with its report on January 24 that flagged concerns about its debt levels and alleged stock manipulation, accounting fraud and the use of tax havens, has slipped to 8th position, narrowing the gap with rival Mukesh Ambani, whom he overtook in April last year, to just USD 4 billion.

While anchor investors poured in almost Rs 6,000 crore in the FPO on that day, the public subscription remained muted with just 3 per cent of the shares on offer being subscribed till Jan 30 evening, according to information available on BSE.

The offer closes on January 31 and the retail investor portion -- which is the biggest chunk of the FPO -- is hardly 4 per cent subscribed.

IHC said it will invest about USD 400 million in Adani Enterprises' follow-on share sale, saying it was confident in the fundamentals of the conglomerate even after the route in share value.

IHC is led by Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan -- the UAE's national security adviser and brother to the president.