News Digest: January 20-26, 2019

January 20

• Masazo Nonaka, the 113-year-old Japanese man recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest male, dies.

January 21

• Shivakumara Swami, the seer who headed the Sree Siddaganga Mutt in Karnataka’s Tumakuru, dies at 111 after weeks of treatment.

• A Taiwanese woman, Gigi Wu, 36, known as the “Bikini Climber” for scaling mountains in swimwear, was found frozen to death after a 20m fall, in Central Taiwan’s Yushan Mountain.

 January 23

• Congress appoints Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as the party’s general secretary for the Uttar Pradesh (East) region.

• At least six Indian sailors were killed and six went missing after two fuel ships carrying Indian and Turkish crew members caught fire in the Kerch Strait.

January 24

• CBI books former ICICI Bank head Chanda Kochhar on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and abuse of official position for “dishonestly sanctioning loans to the Videocon Group”.

• Suspensions on Indian cricketers Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul were lifted by the Committee of Administrators (CoA), two weeks after they were sent home from the tour of Australia due to their sexist comments on a TV show..

January 25

• 21-year-old Japanese star Naomi Osaka wins the Australian Open women’s singles title, beating Czech player Petra Kvitova 7-6 (7/2), 5-7, 6-4 in the final. Osaka — who won last year’s US Open title — now takes over as the world number one from Romania’s Simona Halep.

January 26

• Lance Naik Nazir Ahmad Wani posthumously awarded India’s highest peace time gallantry award, the Ashok Chakra.

• Pranab Mukherjee, Nanaji Deshmukh, Bhupen Hazarika awarded Bharat Ratna.