NEW DELHI – At least 200 Muslims have fled their village in the western Indian state of Rajasthan after a Hindu priest and his friends were alleged to have killed a Muslim folk singer late last month, police said on Wednesday.

Trouble erupted in Dantal village near the India-Pakistan border on Sept. 27, when a Hindu priest accused folk singer Ahmad Khan of making mistakes while reciting hymns to evoke a Hindu goddess.

Khan, 45, was a member of the Langa Manganiyar community that has been singing Hindu religious songs and spiritual verses in temples and at festivals for generations. The priest suggested changes to the hymn, leading to an argument.

Police said the priest, Ramesh Suthar, and his friends then broke Khan’s musical instruments and killed him.

“The news of the murder triggered unrest between Hindus and Muslims who have been living together for generations,” said Gaurav Yadav, a senior police officer investigating the case.

He did not say how Khan was killed, but said Suthar had been arrested. The priest’s accomplices had fled, Yadav said.

Two of Suthar’s family members said he was in shock and refused to talk about the case.

Government authorities had sent paramilitary forces to the area but the Muslims, fearing clashes, refused to return home.

“For one small mistake the Hindus killed my brother,” said Rakha Khan, the dead singer’s cousin. “We can’t live in the same village ever again.” Rakha Khan said they had sought refuge in a school and that the state government office and other local authorities were providing them with food.

The attack is the latest in a series of incidents targeting the minority Muslim community in states ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party.

Since his Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, hardline Hindu groups and cow protection vigilantes have carried out numerous attacks on Muslims accused of eating beef or killing cows. Many Hindus believe cows are sacred and killing them is banned in some states.

Seoul – The US has flown two supersonic heavy bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force against Pyongyang, staging the first night-time joint aviation exercises with Japan and South Korea.

Two B-1B Lancers based in Guam flew a mission in the vicinity of the Sea of Japan late Tuesday, the US Pacific Air Forces said in a statement.

“Flying and training at night with our allies in a safe, effective manner is an important capability shared between the US, Japan and the Republic of Korea and hones the tactical prowess of each nations’ aviators,” Major Patrick Applegate said in a statement.

South Korean defence authorities on Wednesday said the bombers staged a simulated air-to-ground missile firing drill with two South Korean fighters over the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

The four aircraft then flew across the peninsula and staged another round of a firing exercise over the Yellow Sea before the two B-IBs returned home, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

“This drill was part of a routine deployment training aimed at enhancing deterrence” against the North’s nuclear threats, the JCS said in a statement.

“Through the practice this time, South Korean and US air forces showed off the allies’ resolve for strong retaliation against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats,” it added.

The B-1Bs also conducted exercises with Japan’s Air Force in what the US statement called a “sequenced bilateral mission”.

Trump discusses ‘options’

Tensions over North Korea’s weapons programme have soared in recent months with Pyongyang launching a flurry of missiles and conducting its sixth and most powerful nuclear test last month.

Its actions were in defiance of multiple sets of United Nations sanctions, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten military action against the regime.

The exercises came as a US nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine, the USS Tuscon, made a call in South Korea’s southern port of Jinhae, the US Pacific Command said.

It did not say when the Hawaii-based submarine with a crew of around 150 would depart the peninsula.

The last flight by US bombers was 17 days earlier when four US F-35B stealth fighter jets and two B-1Bs flew over the peninsula.

The bomber drill came as US President Donald Trump on Tuesday discussed “a range of options” with his national security team to respond to North Korea’s recent missile and nuclear tests.

The briefing by his defence secretary James Mattis and top military officer General Joseph Dunford “focused on a range of options to respond to any form of North Korean aggression or, if necessary, to prevent North Korea from threatening the United States and its allies with nuclear weapons,” according to a brief statement from the White House.

It came days after he said that diplomatic efforts with North Korea have consistently failed, adding that “only one thing will work”.

Trump has engaged in an escalating war of words with North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Un, trading insults amid rising tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals.

The North’s missile and nuclear capabilities have made significant progress under Kim, who on Saturday told party officials that the country’s atomic weapons were a “treasured sword” to protect it from aggression.

TOKYO – Mount Shinmoedake in southern Japan erupted for the first time in six years Wednesday, shooting a plume of ash several hundred metres into the air and sparking warnings to local residents.

People were ordered to stay away from the volcano after it rumbled to life at 5:34 am (2034 GMT Tuesday) as Japan’s Meteorological Agency said air blasts caused by the eruption could shatter windows.

“The ash plume reached a height of 300 metres (1,000 feet) when the volcano erupted,” an agency official told AFP, adding that the eruption would continue and “become more active”.

Ash deposits would spread as far as two kilometres from the crater, the agency warned.

Authorities raised its alert to level three, meaning that locals should avoid approaching the volcano. They detected 90 small tremors on October 5 near the mountain, which featured in the 1967 James Bond film “You Only Live Twice”.

Japan, with scores of active volcanoes, sits on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire” where a large proportion of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are recorded.

On September 27, 2014, Japan suffered its deadliest eruption in almost 90 years when Mount Ontake, in central Nagano prefecture, burst unexpectedly to life.

An estimated 63 people were killed in the shock eruption which occurred as the peak was packed with hikers out to see the region’s spectacular autumn colours.

NEW DELHI – Sex with a minor amounts to rape even if the couple are married, India’s top court ruled on Wednesday, closing a legal loophole that had allowed some perpetrators to escape punishment.

The age of consent and thus the legal age for girls to marry in India is 18, but millions of children are made to do so when they are much younger, particularly in poor rural areas.

India’s rape laws specifically exclude married couples, which historically meant that even non-consensual sex with a minor could not be classed as rape if it took place within marriage.

But the Supreme Court said that contradicted India’s strict laws on the age of consent.

It ruled that police should in future prosecute cases of marital rape if the victim was under 18 and registered a complaint within a year of the incident.

Vikram Srivastava, a lawyer who petitioned the court on the issue, welcomed the ruling which he said would give child victims some protection.

“The judgement today in two lines says that if anyone now marries a girl child below the age of 18 years and if the girl complains within a year of sexual intercourse, then that person can be prosecuted for rape,” he said in comments broadcast on the NDTV news network.

“(Child marriage) is prohibited, but we all know the number of children who are married below the age of 18 years.” Many parents in India marry off their children in the hope of improving their financial security and to avoid the shame associated with pre-marital sex.

The results can be devastating, with girls dropping out of school to cook and clean for their husbands and suffering health problems from giving birth at a young age.

A separate challenge to the laws on marital rape is currently going through the Indian courts.

The government has said it opposes criminalising marital rape as this would damage the institution of marriage.

Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that Kim Jong Un’s status as North Korea’s dictator is “an accident of birth.”

“This is a plump 31-year-old kid,” the Florida congressman told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “If he were born somewhere else, and not to that family, he could be playing video games and eating Cheetos in some basement somewhere.”

DeSantis, chairman of the House Oversight’s National Security subcommittee, said the problem with Kim’s aggression toward the US and persistent pursuit of nuclear weapons is two-fold. “We don’t know how rational he is,” he said. “The other thing is he’s willing to transfer that technology to rogue states like Iran.”

“This regime’s history has shown that they’re willing to export that technology. So that may be a bigger threat than them even using it on the United States,” said DeSantis. He cited North Korea’s involvement in the Syrian nuclear programme, which was revealed in the aftermath of Israel’s bombing of a Syrian reactor in 2007.

That was before Kim’s reign, which began in 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, but his family has been in power for three generations in North Korea.

DeSantis, also a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the United States needs to address the entrenched North Korea situation head-on.

“Neglecting the problem has only made it worse. We’re in a much worse situation than we were 25 years ago,” DeSantis said. But he added that the Trump administration has made strides. “They’ve actually done a lot if you look internationally to squeeze the Kim regime. There’s less cash going in there now. I’d like to see that continue.”

“[Kim] is never going to voluntarily give up his programme because that’s a key for him being there. But if he sees the bottom falling out of his economy, that could threaten his hold on power,” DeSantis said. “That would be one way to deal with the problem.”

The other way is to flex America’s military might, said DeSantis, a day after Defence Secretary James Mattis told the Army “to be ready” should action be ordered by President Donald Trump against North Korea.

“If you don’t have a credible threat of military force, then Kim Jong Un has very little incentive to look what’s going on around him,” said DeSantis.

He said military force is not the only possible action.

“We have cyber capabilities. We have covert capabilities,” he said. If Kim were to launch missiles at the US, he added, “we have capabilities that would be able to prevent those missiles from reaching their intended targets as well.”

This article was first published in CNBC.