Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on  Jan 5 inaugurated the world's largest hockey stadium at Rourkela ahead of the men's FIH Hockey World Cup which begins on January 13.

Built at a cost of over Rs 260 crore in a record 15 months, the world-class Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium (BMHS) is capable of hosting over 20,000 spectators.

Around 20 matches of the 44 matches will be played in the new state-of-the-art stadium. The remaining 24 matches, including the final, will be played at the Kalinga stadium in Bhubaneswar.

The chief minister also dedicated the World Cup village developed at a cost of around Rs 85 crore on the stadium campus. The complex has all amenities, including a practice pitch, fitness centre, hydrotherapy pool, dressing and changing room and a 225-room residential complex, developed in a record nine months, with five-star facilities capable of accommodating four hundred players.

French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is making headlines again by stirring outrage in Iran, demonstrating that it has lost none of its appetite for provocation or its ability to stir up diplomatic problems abroad.

The irreverent and militantly atheist publication operates today with round-the-clock police protection and from a secret location, seven years after it was attacked by Islamist gunmen. Twelve people died in that assault, including some of its most famous cartoonists, but it continues to caricature and mock politicians and public figures in a style that is deliberately vulgar and disrespectful.

Most controversially of all, it has repeatedly published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed -- acts seen as blasphemous by many Muslims and which were used as justification for the 2015 attack on its staff.

Iranian women

Riss was behind the latest publication that has incensed the Iranian government. It appeared on French newsstands on Jan 4 .

Cartoonists were invited to depict Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the context of ongoing demonstrations against his theocratic regime, by women in particular. The graphic front cover sought to highlight the fight for women's rights, while others were sexually explicit and insulting towards Khamenei and fellow clerics. Many cartoons pointed to the authorities' use of capital punishment as a tactic to quell the protests.

From Afghanistan and Iran to rampant misogynistic vitriol online, the UN rights chief said he was appalled at "systematic" efforts to strip women of their rights, but believed they would ultimately fail.

In an interview with AFP, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said he wanted to visit Kabul and Tehran for direct talks with the authorities.

Turk said it was deeply worrying that nearly 75 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, efforts to strip rights from women and girls were swelling.

"I am very concerned about the backsliding and the pushbacks," said the 58-year-old Austrian, who took over the top UN rights job in October 2022.

In a fresh attack on Gen (retd.) Qamar Javed Bajwa, Pakistan's ousted prime minister Imran Khan has alleged that the former army chief wanted to have him murdered and impose a state of emergency in the country.

Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, made the startling allegation during an interview with private Bol News channel in Lahore.

Khan, 70, had been at loggerheads with Bajwa ever since his ouster from power in April by a no-confidence motion.

He suffered bullet injuries in the right leg on November 3 when two gunmen fired a volley of bullets at him and others standing on a container-mounted truck in the Wazirabad area, some 150-km from Lahore, where he was leading the long march to press for snap polls.

Gen Bajwa, 61, retired on November 29 after getting a three-year extension in 2019 by the then Prime Minister Khan, who turned out to be the biggest critic of the Pakistan Army.

The powerful Army, which has ruled the coup-prone country for more than half of its 75 plus years of existence, has hitherto wielded considerable power in the matters of security and foreign policy.

Khan, the former cricketer-turned-politician, is the only Pakistani prime minister to be ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament.

Hotel booking platform OYO has requested the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to expedite the Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ (MCA) investigation on the functioning of hotel and restaurant body Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI).

OYO has pointed out that the present governing body members of the FHRAI are running a “deleterious and malicious agenda”, aimed towards ruining the interest of hotel industry at large, and creating hurdles and bottlenecks for new players in the market, who are posing a stiff challenge to the self-serving agenda of certain members of the FHRAI with vested interest.

Recently the NCLT’s Principal Bench, New Delhi, passed an order where it directed MCA to look into the affairs of FHRAI and examine if it conducts itself in a manner compliant with the provisions of Companies Act. Oyo and FHRAI have been at loggerhead for quite some time now. 

Union Minister for Railways, Communication and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw on  Jan 5 announced that BSNL would launch its 5G service by April 2024.

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, who is on a four-day visit to India, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and pledged the company's support in helping the country realise the Digital India vision.

The Microsoft top honcho described his meeting with the PM as "insightful", and lauded the government's deep focus on sustainable and inclusive economic growth driven by digital transformation.

Nadella, currently on day three of a multi-city tour of the country, has been on marathon meetings with customers, startups, developers, educators and students, as well as top government leaders.

Nadella had called on External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Jan  4, and issues relating to governance and security in the digital domain had come up for discussion.

Hyderabad-born Nadella has appreciated India for building public digital infrastructure for public good.

Dasun Shanaka led from the front with a record half-century and two wickets in Sri Lanka's series-levelling 16-run win in the second Twenty20 international on Jan 5 .

Shanaka hit an unbeaten 56 off 22 balls laced with two fours and six sixes to steer Sri Lanka to 206-6 after being invited to bat first in Pune.

Bowlers led by Kasun Rajitha kept down India to 190-8 despite a threatening 91-run sixth-wicket stand between Suryakumar Yadav (51) and Axar Patel (65). Captain Shanaka turned up with his medium-pace bowling for the 20th over to send back Axar and Shivam Mavi, who hit 26 off 15 balls, and take the series into the decider on  jan 7 in Rajkot.

Shanaka was named man of the match for his all-round show.