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At least 26 people have been killed when a bus carrying pilgrims veered off a mountainous road and fell into a deep gorge in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, officials said Monday. The accident occurred late on Sunday evening in the state's Uttarakashi district. "The bus was carrying 30 pilgrims from the central state of Madhya Pradesh to the holy town of Yamunotri in Uttarakhand when it plunged into the 250-metre-deep gorge," a senior police officer said. Also read: Missing youth from Kuakata sea beach found in India Some 26 bodies have been recovered from the accident site so far, according to a local disaster management official. "The bodies are being sent to Dehradun from where they will be sent to Madhya Pradesh. The body of the bus helper has been kept at the local community health centre," district disaster management officer Devendra Patwal told the media. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a compensation of Rs two lakh each to the families of those killed in the bus accident and Rs 50,000 to the injured. "A probe has been ordered into the accident," the police officer said. Also read: 12 killed in India chemical factory fire Road accidents are very common in India, with one taking place every four minutes. These accidents are often blamed on poor roads, rash driving and scant regard for traffic laws. The Indian government's implementation of stricter traffic laws in recent years has failed to rein in accidents, which claim over 100,000 lives every year.

India is facing major diplomatic outrage from Muslim countries after top officials in the ruling Hindu nationalist party made derogatory references to Islam and the Prophet, drawing accusations of blasphemy across some Arab nations that have left New Delhi struggling to contain the damaging fallout. At least five Arab nations have lodged official protests against India, and Pakistan and Afghanistan also reacted strongly Monday to the comments made by two prominent spokespeople from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Anger has poured out on social media, and calls for a boycott of Indian goods have surfaced in some Arab nations. The controversial remarks follow increasing violence targeting India’s Muslim minority carried out by Hindu nationalists who have been emboldened by Modi’s regular silence about such attacks since he was first elected in 2014. Over the years, Indian Muslims have been often targeted for everything from their food and clothing style to inter-religious marriages. Watchdog groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have warned that attacks could escalate. Rights groups have also accused Modi’s ruling party of looking the other way and sometimes enabling hate speech against Muslims, who are 14% of India’s 1.4 billion people but still numerous enough to be the second-largest Muslim population of any nation. Modi’s party denies the accusations, but India’s Muslims say attacks against them and their faith have become relentless. Read: British Prime Minister Johnson to face confidence vote The anger has been growing since last week after the two spokespeople, Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal, made speculative remarks that were seen as insulting Islam’s Prophet Mohammed and his wife Aisha. Modi’s party took no action against them until Sunday when a sudden chorus of diplomatic outrage began with Qatar and Kuwait summoning their Indian ambassadors to protest. The BJP suspended Sharma and expelled Jindal and issued a rare statement saying it “strongly denounces insult of any religious personalities,” a move that was welcomed by Qatar and Kuwait. Later, Saudi Arabia and Iran also lodged complaints with India, and the Jeddha-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation, or the OIC, said the remarks came in a “context of intensifying hatred and abuse toward Islam in India and systematic practices against Muslims.” New Delhi has made no comment so far over protests lodged by Muslim nations, but India’s Foreign Ministry on Monday rejected comments by the OIC as “unwarranted” and “narrow-minded.” On Sunday, India’s embassies in Qatar and Doha released a statement saying the views expressed against the Prophet and Islam were not that of the Indian government but made by “fringe elements.” Both statements said that strong action has already been taken against those who made the derogatory remarks. The criticism from Muslim countries, however, was severe, indicating that insulting Prophet Mohammad was a red line. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said it expected a “public apology” from the Indian government and Kuwait warned that if the comments go unpunished, India would see “an increase of extremism and hatred.” The Grand Mufti of the sultanate of Oman described the “obscene rudeness” of Modi’s party toward Islam as a form of “war.” And Riyadh said the comments were “insulting” and called for “respect for beliefs and religions.” The remarks made by Sharma during a TV program in India and Jindal in a tweet risk damaging India’s ties with Arab nations. Read: India's BJP sacks two spokespersons over comments on Prophet India maintains strong relations with the wealthy sheikhdoms of Qatar and Kuwait, which rely on millions of migrant workers from India and elsewhere in South Asia to serve their tiny local populations and drive the machinery of daily life. India also depends on oil-rich Gulf Arab states to power its energy-thirsty economy. The remarks also led to anger in India’s archrival and neighbor Pakistan and in Afghanistan. On Monday, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned an Indian diplomat and conveyed Islamabad’s “strong condemnation,” a day after Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said the comments were “hurtful” and “India under Modi is trampling religious freedoms & persecuting Muslims.” The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan said the Indian government should not allow “such fanatics to insult ...Islam and provoke the feelings of Muslims.” Anti-Muslim sentiments and attacks have risen across India under Modi. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said India was seeing “rising attacks on people and places of worship,” eliciting a response from New Delhi which called the comments “ill-informed.” More recently, religious tensions have escalated after some Hindu groups went to a local court in northern Varanasi city to seek permission to pray at a 17th century mosque, claiming that it was built by demolishing a temple. Critics say these tensions have been further exacerbated by India’s TV channel anchors during raucous debates.

The U.S. and South Korean militaries launched eight ballistic missiles into the sea Monday in a show of force matching a North Korean missile display a day earlier that extended a provocative streak in weapons demonstrations. The allies’ live-fire exercise involved eight Army Tactical Missile System missiles – one American and seven South Korean – that were fired into South Korea’s eastern waters across 10 minutes following notifications for air and maritime safety, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. Forces Korea. The tit-for-tat missile launches were aimed at demonstrating the ability to respond swiftly and accurately to North Korean attacks, the South Korean military said. Also read:South Korea: North Korea test-fired missile from submarine The South’s military on Sunday detected North Korea firing eight short-range missiles over 35 minutes from at least four different locations, including from western and eastern coastal areas and two inland areas north of and near the capital, Pyongyang, in what appeared to be a single-day record for the country’s ballistic launches. It was North Korea’s 18th round of missile tests in 2022 alone — a streak that included the country’s first launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles in nearly five years. South Korean and U.S. officials also say North Korea is preparing to conduct its first nuclear test since September 2017 as leader Kim Jong Un pushes a brinkmanship aimed at cementing the North’s status as a nuclear power and negotiating economic and security concessions from a position of strength. U.S. and South Korean forces conducted a similar live-fire exercise following North Korea’s previous ballistic launches on May 25, which South Korea’s military said involved an ICBM flown on medium-range trajectory and two short-range weapons. Those tests came as Biden wrapped up his trip to South Korea and Japan, where he reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend both allies. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol during a speech marking the country’s Memorial Day on Monday said his government would pursue “fundamental and practical security capabilities” to counter North Korea’s growing nuclear weapons and missile threat. “North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs have grown to a point where they are not only a threat to the Korean Peninsula, but to Northeast Asia and world peace,” Yoon said at the National Cemetery in Seoul, saying his government would “sternly respond to any kind of North Korean provocation.” Yoon, a conservative who took office in May, has vowed to strengthen the South’s defense in conjunction with its alliance with the United States. His goals include enhancing missile strike and interception capabilities and resuming large-scale military exercises with the United States, which were suspended or downsized in recent years to create space for diplomacy with Pyongyang or because of COVID-19. Yoon’s dovish predecessor, Moon Jae-in, who had staked his five-year term on inter-Korean engagement, refrained from missile counter-drills after North Korea resumed ballistic missile tests in 2019 as its diplomacy with the U.S. fizzled. North Korean state media have yet to comment on Sunday’s launches. They came after the U.S. aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan concluded a three-day naval drill with South Korea in the Philippine Sea on Saturday, apparently their first joint drill involving a carrier since November 2017, as the countries move to upgrade their defense exercises in the face of North Korean threats. North Korea has long condemned the allies’ combined military exercises as invasion rehearsals and often countered with its own missile drills, including short-range launches in 2016 and 2017 that simulated nuclear attacks on South Korean ports and U.S. military facilities in Japan. Also read: North Korea fires ballistic missile amid rising animosities Hours after the North Korean launches, Japan and the United States conducted a joint ballistic missile exercise aimed at showing their “rapid response capability” and “strong determination” to counter threats, Japan’s Defense Ministry said. The United States has vowed to push for additional international sanctions if North Korea conducts a nuclear test, but the prospects for meaningful new punitive measures are dim with the U.N. Security Council’s permanent members divided. Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution that would have imposed additional sanctions on North Korea over its latest ballistic tests on May 25, insisting that Washington should instead focus on reviving negotiations with Pyongyang. Those talks have stalled since 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of crippling U.S.-led sanctions for the North’s disarmament steps. Despite facing harsh challenges at home, including a decaying economy and a COVID-19 outbreak, Kim has shown no willingness to fully surrender an arsenal he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival. His government has so far rejected the Biden administration’s offers for open-ended talks and is clearly intent on converting the dormant denuclearization negotiations into a mutual arms-reduction process, experts say.

India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday sacked two of its spokespersons over their recent controversial remarks against Prophet Muhammad that triggered a major diplomatic row with the Gulf states. Announcing the suspension of BJP national spokesperson Nupur Sharma from her post and expulsion of its Delhi media cell head, Naveen Kumar Jindal, the party said that it “respects all religions”. “The BJP does not promote such persons or philosophy… it (the BJP) strongly denounces the insult of any religious personalities of any religion,” the party said in a statement. Also read: AL, BJP discuss improvement of relations between them In fact, the BJP swung into firefighting mode after two of the Gulf states -- Qatar and Kuwait, with which India shares close ties -- summoned the Indian envoys in their respective countries to lodge their "strong protest" over their controversial remarks. Qatar's Foreign Ministry made it clear to Indian Ambassador Deepak Mittal that it was "expecting a public apology and immediate condemnation of these remarks from the Government of India". "Allowing such Islamophobic remarks to continue without punishment, constitutes a grave danger to the protection of human rights and may lead to further prejudice and marginalization, which will create a cycle of violence and hate," the Gulf state said. Kuwait's Foreign Ministry too demanded a "public apology (from the BJP) for these hostile statements". India's main opposition Congress party, however, lashed out at the BJP over the fiasco and questioned if the ruling outfit was on a course correction mode. Also read: Riding on 'Brand Modi', BJP wins big in India state elections "The placatory expulsion of two key members and spokespersons of the BJP from its primary membership, done obviously under duress of threats from external powers, exposes the much touted ‘muscular posturing’ and positioning of the BJP and the Modi Government. Is the BJP sincere in course correcting?" the Congress said in a statement.

Pakistan reported 55 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total tally to 1,530,705, the country's ministry of health said on Sunday. A total of 30,379 people died from COVID-19 in Pakistan, with no more deaths on Saturday, according to the ministry's statistics. On Saturday, 14,084 tests for COVID-19 were conducted in Pakistan while the positivity rate stood at 0.39 percent. READ: Soldier killed in terror attack in NW Pakistan Currently, there are 65 active cases who are in critical condition in the South Asian country. 

India's COVID-19 tally rose to 43,176,817 on Sunday, as 4,270 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data. Besides, 15 deaths from the pandemic registered across the country since Saturday morning took the total death toll to 524,692. READ: India records 2,710 new COVID-19 cases, 14 more deaths There are still 24,052 active COVID-19 cases in the country with an increase of 1,636 active cases during the past 24 hours. So far, 42,628,073 people have been successfully cured and discharged from hospitals, of whom 2,619 were discharged during the past 24 hours.

China on Sunday launched a new three-person mission to complete assembly work on its permanent orbiting space station. The Shenzhou 14 crew will spend six months on the Tiangong station, during which they will oversee the addition of two laboratory modules to join the main Tianhe living space that was launched in April 2021. Their spaceship blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert at 10:44 a.m. (0244 GMT) atop the crewed space flight program’s workhorse Long March 2F rocket. Fifteen minutes later, it reached low Earth orbit and opened its solar panels, drawing applause from ground controllers in Jiuquan and Beijing. The launch was broadcast live on state television, indicating a rising level of confidence in the capabilities of the space program, which has been promoted as a sign of China's technological progress and global influence. Commander Chen Dong and fellow astronauts Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe will assemble the three-module structure joining the existing Tianhe with Wentian and Mengtian, due to arrive in July and October. Another cargo craft, the Tianzhou-3, remains docked with the station. READ: Boeing capsule lands back on Earth after space shakedown The arrival of the new modules will “provide more stability, more powerful functions, more complete equipment,” said Chen, 43, who was a member of the Shenzhou 11 mission in 2016, at a press conference Saturday. Liu, 43, is also a space veteran and was China’s first female astronaut to reach space aboard the Shenzhou 9 mission in 2012. Cai, 46, is making his first space trip. China’s space program launched its first astronaut into orbit in 2003, making it only the third country to do so on its own after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. It has landed robot rovers on the moon and placed one on Mars last year. China has also returned lunar samples and officials have discussed a possible crewed mission to the moon. China’s space program is run by the ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, prompting the U.S. to exclude it from the International Space Station. Chen, Liu and Cai will be joined at the end of their mission for three to five days by the crew of the upcoming Shenzhou 15, marking the first time the station will have had six people aboard.

At least 12 people were charred to death and some 20 others injured in a major fire that broke out at a chemical factory in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday. Officials said a boiler explosion triggered the fire at the factory located in an industrial area of the state's Hapur district, 80 kms from Delhi, in the afternoon. Within an hour, the blaze engulfed the entire factory. Some 15 fire tenders were pressed into service and it took them a good five hours to completely douse the flames. "As many as 12 bodies, some charred beyond recognition, have been recovered by the firefighters so far. The search and rescue operation is still on," a senior officer of the state fire service said. The victims were all workers of the factory, the fire officer said. Read: Paralysed man charred to death in Ctg fire Hapur range inspector general of police Praveen Kumar, who rushed to the spot within an hour of the fire, said that all the injured were initially taken to a nearby hospital by the local police. "As the condition of some of them worsened, we shifted them to better medical facilities in nearby cities," he told the local media. Local TV channels aired footage of the fire and reported that the impact of the blast was so intense that the roofs of a couple of nearby factories were damaged. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took to Twitter to convey their condolences to the bereaved families. "The accident in the chemical factory of Hapur, Uttar Pradesh is heart-wrenching. I express my condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives in this," Modi tweeted. "The state government is actively involved in providing treatment to the injured and all possible help," he wrote. Read: President: 11 babies killed in fire at Senegalese hospital The Chief Minister's office tweeted to say that he "has directed district administration officers to go to the spot and oversee rescue and relief measures and extend all possible help to victims and their families." "A probe has been ordered into the fire," Kumar said. Factory fires are common in India and often attributed to the absence of basic fire safety systems. A number of people die in such fires in India every year.  

China's internet security consulting services market registered robust growth in 2021 and is expected to continue steady expansion in the coming years, an industry report shows. Last year, the market size was about 1.3 billion U.S. dollars, soaring 42 percent year on year, said the report from the global market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC). IDC estimates that the market will reach 3.2 billion dollars by 2026, with a five-year compound growth rate at 19 percent. READ: Palak calls for Global Internet Governance Council & Frontier Technology Guidelines under UN In recent years, internet security consulting has become a vital service for many internet users, providing professional solutions in network planning and building, testing and evaluation as well as emergency response, according to the report.

The upcoming Shenzhou-14 crewed space mission will complete the construction of the Tiangong space station, with a basic three-module structure consisting of the core module Tianhe and the lab modules Wentian and Mengtian, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on Saturday. The mission will build the space station into a national space laboratory, said Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the CMSA, at a press conference. China is set to launch the Shenzhou-14 crewed spaceship on Sunday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, sending three astronauts to its space station combination for a six-month mission. The Shenzhou-14 crew will work with the ground team to complete the rendezvous, docking and transposition of the two lab modules with the core module, Lin said. They will enter the two lab modules for the first time and help make the environment suitable for their stay, he said, adding that they will unlock and install a dozen of scientific experiment cabinets in the two modules. READ: SpaceX brings 4 astronauts home with midnight splashdown They will also carry out relevant function tests on the two-module space station complex, three-module space station complex, large and small mechanical arms, as well as exit from the airlock cabin in the Wentian lab module, with the assistance of the ground team. They will, for the first time, use the airlock cabin in Wentian to carry out extravehicular activities for two to three times, Lin said.