The United States yesterday led allies in a fierce condemnation of China over allegedly “malicious” cyber activity, accusing it of criminal extortion, issuing ransom demands to private firms and threatening national security.

Spyware Pegasus, which is sold by the NSO Group of Israel, may have been used to conduct surveillance on about 300 Indians, including two serving Cabinet ministers at the Centre, three opposition leaders, a Constitutional authority, government officials, scientists and about 40 journalists, according to French media nonprofit, Forbidden Stories, and Amnesty International.

Taiwan’s government yesterday said it had granted emergency-use approval to a coronavirus vaccine made locally by Medigen, with experts saying early data suggested it was similarly effective to AstraZeneca’s jabs. 

At least 28 people were killed yesterday when a bus packed with people heading home for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday in Pakistan crashed into a truck, officials said.

The death toll from Germany’s worst floods in living memory rose to 165 yesterday as emergency services continued to comb through decimated towns in search of dozens of people still missing.

“This has to be verified, but if it is the case, it is completely unacceptable.... Free press is one of the core values of the European Union.”

Researchers believe that early versions of the hacking software, first detected in 2016, used booby-trapped text messages to install itself onto the phones of targets.  The recipient would have to click on a link in the message in order for the spyware to download.

Fifteen diplomatic missions and the Nato representative in Afghanistan urged the Taliban yesterday to halt their military offensives just hours after the rival Afghan sides failed to agree on a ceasefire at a peace meeting in Doha.

Previous Amnesty International Security Labs investigations unearthed evidence of Pegasus being installed on the phone of The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, just four days after he was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018. In another instance, for almost three years, Azerbaijan journalist Khadija Ismayilova’s phone was regularly infected with the Israeli Pegasus spyware, giving “certain” governments direct access to her phone. After the recent investigative dig aided by The Washington Post and The Guardian, the first question that did our head in was a simple one: what is Pegasus?

Russia said on Monday it had successfully tested a Tsirkon(Zircon) hypersonic cruise missile, a weapon President Vladimir Putin has touted as part of a new generation of missile systems without equal in the world.

The Biden administration on Monday blamed China for a hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software that compromised tens of thousands of computers around the world earlier this year.

India’s Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw today flayed the release of what he called "over the top" media reports about the use of Israeli spyware Pegasus to spy on opposition leaders and journalists and said there was "no substance behind this sensational" claim and that "checks and balances" ensured that illegal surveillance is "not possible".

India's capital New Delhi and the main financial centre of Mumbai were drenched with heavy rain on Monday, a day after at least 35 people were killed across the country in landslides and house collapses triggered by downpours.

At least 30 people were killed and over 40 were injured on Monday when a passenger bus collided with a truck on the Indus Highway in Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab, officials said.

Toyota won’t be airing any Olympic-themed advertisements on Japanese television during the Tokyo Games despite being one of the IOC’s top corporate sponsors.

An Israeli firm accused of supplying spyware to governments has been linked to a list of 50,000 smartphone numbers, including those of activists, journalists, business executives and politicians around the world, according to reports Sunday.

1947 - Burma’s effective prime minister and independence leader U Aung San was assassinated along with six other ministers.

Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Friday said there is no ban on the sacrifice of animals during the upcoming Islamic Eid al-Adha holiday, a day after the government asked law enforcers to stop the sacrifice of cows, calves, camels and other animals.

The United States on Saturday accused Tehran of an “outrageous” effort to deflect blame for the impasse in Iran nuclear talks and denied that any agreement had been reached on a prisoner swap.

President Bashar al-Assad took the oath of office for a fourth term in war-ravaged Syria on Saturday, after officially winning 95 percent of the vote in an election dismissed abroad.