Indian Sub-continent

Kanpur: As many as 189 covid virus cases were reported here while Meerut & Varanasi received 321 and 316 cases respectively. In other districts like Lucknow, a maximum of 1,705 fresh cases were recorded, followed by Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ghaziabad, and Jhansi, with their 620, 388, and 330 cases, respectively.

Two deaths occurred in Kanpur district and the same count was seen in Chandauli and Gorakhpur districts respectively.

Active cases in the state were taken at a figure of 59601 whereas the overall total of infection shot up to 2005245.

Kanpur: At least two people died after a fire broke out at a sweets shop in Kahoo Kothi market of Kanpur city in the early hours of Saturday morning.

According to the news, the leaping blaze of fire broke out at 4 am on Saturday in which the entire shop was burnt to ashes.

Two employees Shyam Narayan and Sunny of Raj Kishore Sweets, who were sleeping inside the shop died of suffocation.

Another employee Mohit is injured and has been admitted to the hospital, informs Ramesh Chandra, Fire Officer of Colonel Ganj here.

New Delhi, Jan 29 (PTI) With 235,532 people testing positive for the coronavirus infection in a day, India's total tally of cases increased to over 4.08 crore, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.

The death toll has climbed to 493,198 with 871 fatalities reported during the 24-hour period, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The active cases decreased by 1,01,278 to reach 20,04,333 -- 4.91 per cent of the total infections -- while the country's recovery rate stands at 93.89 per cent, the ministry said.

New Delhi, Jan 28 (PTI) A joint venture of billionaire Gautam Adani-run group's gas arm and Total of France on Friday walked away with the most 14 licenses to retail CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households in the latest city gas bidding round, according to oil regulator PNGRB.

Adani Total Gas Ltd won city gas rights in 14 out of the 52 geographical areas (GAs) for which Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) declared results on Friday.

Patna, Jan 28 (PTI) Normal life in Bihar was on Friday affected by a dawn to dusk `bandh' called by students' bodies in protest against anomalies in the format of exams conducted by the Railway Recruitment Board and police high handedness against protesting students.

Opposition parties like the RJD, the Left and the Congress extended their support to the bandh, took active part in many places and expressed satisfaction over its "success" .

Bengaluru, Jan 28 (PTI): Former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa's granddaughter Dr Soundarya V Y was found hanging in her house here on Friday and police suspect it to be a case of suicide.

Soundarya, daughter of the BJP leader's second daughter Padmavathi, was married to Dr Neeraj S, who works in the same hospital where she is employed, police said.

The couple had a nine-month-old son, whose christening ceremony had taken place a couple of months ago, according to family sources.

New Delhi, Jan 28 (PTI) Day after a 20-year-old woman was allegedly abducted, gang-raped and paraded by her attackers in east Delhi's Kasturba Nagar, police arrested two more people in connection with the incident, officials said on Friday.

With this, eight women and three men have been arrested, a senior police officer said.

Mathura, Jan 28 (PTI) A local BJP leader and two others have been booked for threatening a cop on duty here, police on Friday said.

District President Madhu Sharma on January 24 had threatened police on duty when her vehicle was stopped at 100-bed hospital Vrindavan for checking, the FIR filed by static magistrate Devendra Singh in Vrindavan Kotwali said.

According to police, when she was stopped for checking, she threatened the official on duty that she will make him lose his job if he doesn't back off.

Palghar, Jan 28 (PTI) A 23-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman allegedly committed suicide in Varkhanda village in Dahanu area of Palghar reportedly due to a financial crisis, police said on Friday.

The bodies of Sushmita Prakash Bhimra and Sudhip Dhaku Umbarsada were found hanging from a tree, a Talasari police station official said.

The two were engaged to get married but were facing financial trouble as the man's saloon had shut down, the official added.

New Delhi, Jan 29 (PTI) The Congress on Saturday attacked the Centre over a New York Times report which claimed that the Indian government bought the Pegasus spy tool in 2017 as part of a deal with Israel, saying illegal snooping using the spyware amounts to "treason".

According to the report in The New York Times, the Israeli spyware Pegasus and a missile system were the "centerpieces" of a roughly USD 2-billion deal of sophisticated weapons and intelligence gear between India and Israel in 2017.