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Four hundred and two people from 53 countries have taken permits as of April 27 to climb Mt Everest, the world's tallest peak, in this spring climbing season this year, the Department of Tourism said. Seventy-four among them are women.

Department Director Liladhar Awasthi said that 41 expeditions have taken permission. 

In the same season last year, a total of 414 people, including 75 women and 339 men from 41 mountaineering expeditions, had taken permission to climb Mt Everest.

Royalty of Rs 684 million has been collected from the permits issued for climbing various mountain peaks this year.

The Department stated that the royalty amount is expected to increase further as climbers continue to arrive.

The Department has set up a field office at the Everest Base Camp to ensure safe, orderly mountain climbing and to regulate the mountaineering activities in the Mt Everest. It is stated that during the 72 years of climbing Mt Everest, many new records have been set as a growing number of mountaineers jostle to stand tall on the top of the Everest.

Even though climbing Mt Everest is fraught with risk and challenging, an increasing number of climbers are still aspiring for ascending the tallest mountain on Earth.

One of them is Solukhumbu's Tashi Gyaljen Sherpa who has set out to climb Mt Everest four times in 20 days this season with the aim of setting a new record.

So far, more than 8,000 domestic and foreign climbers have reached atop the highest peak in the history of Everest climbing and the trend of setting new record continues.

The death toll from a powerful explosion at Iran's biggest port of Bandar Abbas has risen to at least 40, with more than 1,200 people injured, state media reported on Sunday, as firefighters worked to fully extinguish the fire, Reuters reported.

Saturday's blast took place in the Shahid Rajaee section of the port, Iran's biggest container hub, shattering windows for several kilometres around, tearing metal strips off shipping containers and badly damaging goods inside, state media said.

The incident occurred as Iran held a third round of nuclear talks with the United States in Oman.

Fires kept breaking out in different parts of the affected area as of Sunday night, according to state media, with helicopters and fire fighters continuing efforts to extinguish them, according to Reuters.

Chemicals at the port were suspected to have fuelled the explosion, but the exact cause was not clear and Iran's Defence Ministry denied international media reports that the blast may be linked to the mishandling of solid fuel used for missiles.

China’s coastguard has seized Sandy Cay, a small sandbank in the Spratly Islands. CCTV showed officers raising the Chinese flag on the reef earlier in April, asserting control over the area, BBC reported.

In response, the Philippines, which also claims the reef, posted a similar photo of its police waving the flag and landed security guards on neighboring sandbanks. It's still unclear which sandbanks were involved.

China's "illegal presence" close to the sandbanks was denounced by the Philippine National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea, which also reported seeing seven militia vessels and a coastguard ship, according to BBC.

While China has not established permanent occupancy of Sandy Cay, the incident adds to the region's extending tensions, which have resulted in frequent clashes. The White House expressed alarm over China's actions, as the dispute continues with rival claims from many countries.

Israel carried out an airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday, targeting a Hezbollah site said to house precision-guided missiles. The attack came after an evacuation order, despite a ceasefire brokered five months ago by the US and France, according to BBC.

Lebanon’s presidency condemned the strike and urged international pressure to stop Israeli actions.

It was Israel’s first strike on Dahieh, Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold, in nearly a month. Although the ceasefire remains officially in place, Israel continues hitting suspected Hezbollah targets, citing security threats, BBC reported.

The latest escalation adds new strain to the fragile truce and raises fears of fresh conflict along the Lebanese-Israeli border.