The government on  Sep 28 banned Popular Front of India, alleged to be involved in several violent and terror incidents and having "links" with global terror groups like ISIS, along with its several associates for five years following the second round of crackdown against its leaders.

Besides PFI, the organisations which were also declared banned under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA include Rehab India Foundation, Campus Front of India, All India Imams Council, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation, National Women's Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath  has inaugurated an intersection in Ayodhya  named after legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar on the occasion of her 93rd birth anniversary.

The Chief Minister in the presence of Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy inaugurated the intersection, 'Lata Mangeshkar Chauraha'.

The intersection at the banks of the Saryu river has been developed at an estimated cost of Rs 7.9 crore.

Himachal Pradesh Congress working president Harsh Mahajan joined the BJP and claimed the opposition party has become "vision-less, directionless and leaderless".

A former state government minister and close aide of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who died last year, Mahajan lashed out at the Congress leadership in the state, saying it is very much ruled by "maa-beta" like in Delhi.

Singh's wife Pratibha Singh is the state Congress president now and their son Vikramaditya Singh is a party MLA.

In a festival bonanza for lakhs of Central government employees and pensioners, the Union Cabinet gave its clearance for the release of an additional installment of Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief at 4 percent.

This would be due from July 1, 2022.

A total burden of Rs 12,852 crore would be borne by the exchequer towards payment of these allowances for the current fiscal.

From July 1, 2022, till March 31, 2023, a total of Rs 8,568 crore would be spent on it. DA hike will be beneficial for over 50 lakh Central government employees and 62 lakh pensioners.

With this, the DA has been increased from 34 percent to 38 percent for all the employees.

A fire at a restaurant in northeastern China on  Sep 17 killed 17 people and injured another three.

The blaze broke out at 12:40 pm (0440 GMT) in an eatery in the city of Changchun.

Authorities said the cause of the incident is under investigation. Deadly fires occur frequently in China, where lax enforcement of building codes and widespread unauthorised construction can make it hard for people to flee burning buildings.

Earlier this month, a huge blaze in the central city of Changsha engulfed part of a skyscraper housing an office of state-owned telecommunications company China Telecom, but no casualties were reported.

In July last year, a warehouse fire in northeastern Jilin province killed 15 people and injured 25 more.

The month before that, a fire killed 18 people -- mostly children -- at a martial arts school in central Henan province, causing an uproar over fire safety standards.

A further two dozen people died in a pair of blazes in Beijing's migrant neighbourhoods in 2017, while 58 perished when a huge fire swept through a 28-storey Shanghai housing block in 2010.

Ishaq Dar took oath as Pakistan's new finance minister on  Sep 28 for the fourth time as the country struggled to resurrect its cash-strapped economy, also hit by unprecedented floods.

The 72-year-old senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) who had been in self-exile since 2017 after being accused in a corruption case, took oath as the finance minister a day after he was sworn in as a Senator amid loud protests by former premier Imran Khan's party members who shouted slogans, calling him a "thief" and an "absconder.

President Arif Alvi administered the oath to Dar during a ceremony which was also attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The move came after former finance minister Miftah Ismail stepped down from his post to make way for the PML-N senator.

A search team retrieved the body of top US ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson from the Himalayas on Sep 28, two days after she disappeared on the slopes of Nepal's Manaslu peak.

Nelson slipped and went missing while skiing down the world's eighth-highest mountain, after a successful summit with her partner Jim Morrison on Sep 26.

A decade ago, she became the first woman to summit both the highest mountain in the world, Everest, and the adjacent Lhotse peak within the span of 24 hours.

Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was appointed prime minister on Sep 27 by royal decree.

The crown prince, who is heir to the throne held by King Salman, already wields wide powers and is seen as the kingdom's day-to-day leader.

The 37-year-old crown prince, widely known by the acronym MBS, has taken the lead on Vision 2030, the kingdom's wide-ranging plan to transform its economy and end its dependency on oil.

He is associated with the October 2018 killing of Saudi journalist and critic Jamal Khashoggi, who disappeared after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. US intelligence found that the crown prince likely approved the killing.

The prince said in 2019 that he took "full responsibility" for the killing since it happened on his watch, but denied ordering it. Saudi officials have said Khashoggi's killing was the work of rogue Saudi security and intelligence officials.

Saudi Arabian courts say they have sentenced eight Saudi nationals to prison over the killing but have not identified them.

President Joe Biden once vowed to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah" over the killing, but he visited the kingdom and met with the crown prince earlier this year, acknowledging the continued importance of relations with the world's largest oil exporter.