Dhaka, Aug 9 (IANS) Samina Lutfa, an Associate Professor of the Department of Sociology at the Dhaka University, on Saturday criticised the male-dominated decision-making process in Bangladesh, where men bargain over political participation of women, their roles, and seat allocations, quite “similar to a fish market”.Lutfa’s observations came at a roundtable titled ‘Women’s seats in the National Parliament and women’s political empowerment’ organised by Bangladesh’s leading daily Prothom Alo i…

Dhaka, Aug 9 (IANS) Several students from Dhaka University (DU) in Bangladesh took out a protest rally on Saturday, demanding the expulsion of eight students following their appointment to the hall committee of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), the student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the local media reported. The protesting students marched through various roads of the campus, raising slogans including ‘One two three four/Hall Politics No More’, ‘Hall politics Cholbe Na Cholbe …

Dhaka, Aug 9 (IANS) Flagship Chinese projects in Sri Lanka — such as the Colombo Port City and Sinopec’s $3.7 billion Hambantota oil refinery — are now entangled in complications the government led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is struggling to resolve, a report highlighted on Saturday. While both sides had lined up multiple ventures, recent issues, including regulatory concerns, have cast doubt on the long-term sustainability of Chinese investments, the report in Daily Sun, a leadin…

Lanzhou, Aug 9 (IANS) Mountain torrents in Yuzhong County, northwest China’s Gansu Province, had left 13 dead and 30 missing as of noon on Saturday, provincial emergency authorities said. Torrential rains, which led to the mountain torrents, began pounding Yuzhong, which is under the jurisdiction of the provincial capital of Lanzhou, as well as other areas of Lanzhou on Thursday evening, with precipitation reaching 220.2 millimetres by noon on Friday.Search and rescue efforts and infrastructure …

Tokyo, Aug 9 (IANS) Japan and India are breaking through decades of constraints and traditional defence partnerships to forge an “unprecedented high-technology military collaboration”, Tokyo-based Japan Forward Association emphasised this week in a detailed report. “The Indo-Pacific region is at a critical juncture where technological superiority increasingly determines strategic outcomes. Against this backdrop, Japan and India are breaking through decades of constraints and traditional defence …

Colombo, Aug 9 (IANS) Economic engagement with China cannot be sustained through shortcuts or opacity, a report in Sri Lanka’s leading newspaper highlighted citing the crisis surrounding the “bold venture” with BYD to bring electric vehicles into the island nation. “When Sri Lanka announced a partnership with China’s BYD to bring electric vehicles into the country, it was heralded as a double victory: a leap toward green mobility and a symbol of deepening economic ties with Beijing. Today, that …

New Delhi, Aug 9 (IANS) India on Saturday welcomed the forthcoming summit between the United States President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that is scheduled to take place in Alaska on August 15. “India welcomes the understanding reached between the United States and the Russian Federation for a meeting in Alaska on 15th August 2025. This meeting holds the promise of bringing to an end the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and opening up the prospects for peace. As Prime Mini…

Beijing, Aug 9 (IANS) China’s Ministry of Water Resources activated a Level IV flood-control emergency response on Saturday for five provincial-level regions, as heavy to torrential rains are predicted to sweep across vast parts of the country in the coming days. From August 9 to 11, intense rainfall is expected to batter Henan, Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Anhui, and Gansu, where the alert was already in place, with some areas facing extreme downpours.The downpours may cause sharp water …

Moscow, Aug 9 (IANS) A gas-air mixture explosion rocked a brick building in Sterlitamak, Russia’s Bashkortostan Republic, on Saturday, injuring 36 people, said Alexei Kuznetsov, aide to Russia’s Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko. “As of now, 36 people have been injured, 22 of whom have been hospitalised, with the exact number still being determined,” the regional investigators’ statement said.Earlier reports noted that 27 people were hospitalised after the explosion at the Bashkir Soda Company…

Beijing, Aug 9 (IANS) Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing has called for all-out efforts to search for people missing in mountain torrents in Yuzhong County of northwest China’s Gansu Province, when directing emergency response work at the disaster site. Zhang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, left for the county on Friday evening to guide on-site search and rescue and emergency response work. He visited the hardest-hit villages of Mal…