India launched its heaviest ever communication satellite on Sunday, the latest step in the country’s ambitious space programme.

The CMS-03 satellite blasted off from Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh at 5:26 pm (1156 GMT).

“Our space sector continues to make us proud!” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who wants to send an Indian astronaut to the Moon by 2040.

Weighing about 4,410 kilograms (9,722 pounds), it is “the heaviest communication satellite” launched in the country, the Indian Space Research Organisation said on Thursday.

The Indian Navy said the satellite would help “secure communication links between ships, aircraft, submarines”.

The CMS-03 satellite was sent into orbit from the towering 43.5 metre (143 foot) tall LVM3-M5 launch vehicle.

It is an upgraded version of the rocket that launched India´s unmanned craft that landed on the Moon in August 2023.

Only Russia, the United States and China have previously achieved a controlled landing on the lunar surface.

The country has flexed its spacefaring ambitions in the last decade, with its space programme growing considerably in size and momentum.

Shubhanshu Shukla, a test pilot with the Indian Air Force, this year became the second Indian to travel to space and the first to reach the International Space Station— a key step towards India’s own crewed mission planned for 2027.

• Iran govt spox says received messages on resuming diplomacy.
• Nuclear sites, destroyed in Israeli strikes, will be rebuilt: Pezeshkian.
• Iranian scientists still had necessary nuclear know-how: president.

Iran said on Sunday that it would rebuild nuclear sites damaged by Israeli and US strikes “stronger than before”, as mediator Oman urged Tehran and Washington to revive stalled diplomacy.

US President Donald Trump has said the strikes obliterated Iran’s nuclear programme, but the full extent of the actual damage remains unknown.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a visit to the country’s nuclear organisation, said Tehran “will build (the destroyed sites) stronger than before”.

“By destroying buildings […] we will not be set back,” he said in a video posted to his official website, adding that Iranian scientists still had the necessary nuclear know-how.

Pezeshkian did not elaborate. In similar remarks in February before the strikes, he said Tehran would rebuild its sites if they came under attack.

Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran in June, kicking off a 12-day war that saw it target nuclear and military facilities — as well as residential areas — and kill many top scientists.

Iran retaliated with ballistic missile barrages aimed at Israeli cities.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in July, after the United States announced a halt in fighting, that the damage in Iran was “serious and severe”.

Pezeshkian’s comments came as Oman, Iran’s traditional intermediary, urged the two countries on Saturday to resume talks.

“We want to return to the negotiations between Iran (and) the United States,” Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said at the IISS Manama Dialogue conference in Bahrain.

Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said on Sunday that Tehran “has received messages” on resuming diplomacy, without providing further details.

Oman hosted five rounds of US-Iran talks this year. Just three days before the sixth round, Israel launched its strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Iran has since faced the return of UN sanctions after Britain, Germany and France triggered the “snapback” mechanism over Tehran’s alleged non-compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.

Nearly 300 people have been killed in political violence in Bangladesh in the year since student-led protests toppled autocratic former leader Sheikh Hasina, the country’s main human rights group said on Sunday.

A report by Odhikar, a Dhaka-based rights organisation, said at least 281 people had been killed in violence involving political parties from August 2024, when Hasina’s rule ended and she fled to India, to September 2025.

On top of those, there were another 40 victims of extrajudicial killings who had been suspected of crimes, while another 153 were lynched, the quarterly report released last week said.

Odhikar director ASM Nasiruddin Elan said adherence to human rights had improved since the fall of Hasina’s government but law enforcement agencies were still not being held accountable.

“Yes, we don’t see the frequent extrajudicial killings or enforced disappearances that we witnessed during the Hasina era, but deaths in custody, bribery, and harassment of victims are still ongoing,” Elan told AFP.

He said that “innocent people fall prey to atrocities” for their alleged involvement with the Awami League, Hasina’s political party that is now banned.

Hasina’s 15-year rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killing of her political opponents.

Odhikar also said mob attacks had been relatively frequent during the period, mainly because of inefficient policing.

“Police have been used to achieve party interests and were given impunity, which eventually led them to kill and torture activists affiliated with the opposition,” the report said.

It said “the police largely became dysfunctional and lost their morale”, after Hasina fell.

Bangladesh’s interim government nor any of the political parties have responded yet to Odhikar’s report.