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Kusal Mendis struck a rapid 84 to put Sri Lanka in a commanding position on the third day of the second Test against Bangladesh at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo on Friday. The aggressive wicketkeeper-batsman clubbed his runs from 87 balls, striking eight fours and two sixes, as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 458, taking with an imposing first innings lead of 211.Visitors Bangladesh, who chose to bat first after winning the toss on Wednesday, were bowled out for a modest 247 in their first innings. Resuming on a strong overnight platform of 290-2, Sri Lanka wobbled before lunch, losing four wickets in the morning session, three of them to the second new ball.But Kusal Mendis dug in his heels steering Sri Lanka past the 450-run mark before running himself out, ninth wicket down, going for an unlikely second run. Left-arm spinner Taijul Islam wrapped up the innings four balls later to finish with 5-131, his 17th five-wicket haul in Test cricket.Bangladesh’s first breakthrough on the third day of the game came in just the sixth over of the day when Taijul Islam, handed the new ball, induced a loose drive from century-maker Pathum Nissanka, who chipped it tamely to short cover. It was a soft end for the in-form opener, who hit a sublime 158 after a career-best 187 in the first Test in Galle.Taijul followed up with the wicket of Dhananjaya de Silva leg before for seven and when Nahid Rana had Prabath Jayasuriya edging to Mehidy Hasan Miraz at third slip for 10, Sri Lanka had slipped to 335-5.Kamindu Mendis made 33 during a sixth wicket partnership of 49 with Kusal Mendis who rallied the tail to put Sri Lanka firmly in control. Brief scores:Bangladesh: 247 (Shadman Islam  46, Mushfiqur Rahim 35; Sonal Dinusha 3-22, Asitha Fernando 3-51) Sri Lanka: 458 (Pathum Nissanka 158, Dinesh Chandimal 93, Kasul Mendis 84; Taijul Islam 5-131, Nayeem Hasan 3-87) 

India has deported without trial to Bangladesh hundreds of people, officials from both sides said, drawing condemnation from activists and lawyers who call the recent expulsions illegal and based on ethnic profiling.New Delhi says the people deported are undocumented migrants.The Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has long taken a hardline stance on immigration — particularly those from neighbouring Muslim-majority Bangladesh — with top officials referring to them as “termites” and “infiltrators”.It has also sparked fear among India’s estimated 200 million Muslims, especially among speakers of Bengali, a widely spoken language in both eastern India and Bangladesh.”Muslims, particularly from the eastern part of the country, are terrified,” said veteran Indian rights activist Harsh Mander. “You have thrown millions into this existential fear.”Bangladesh, largely encircled by land by India, has seen relations with New Delhi turn icy since a mass uprising in 2024 toppled Dhaka’s government, a former friend of India.But India also ramped up operations against migrants after a wider security crackdown in the wake of an attack in the west — the April 22 killing of 26 people, mainly Hindu tourists, in Indian-administered Kashmir.New Delhi blamed that attack on Pakistan, claims Islamabad rejected, with arguments culminating in a four-day conflict that left more than 70 dead.Indian authorities launched an unprecedented countrywide security drive that has seen many thousands detained — and many of them eventually pushed across the border to Bangladesh at gunpoint.- ‘Do not dare’ -Rahima Begum, from India’s eastern Assam state, said police detained her for several days in late May before taking her to the Bangladesh frontier.She said she and her family had spent their life in India.”I have lived all my life here — my parents, my grandparents, they are all from here,” she said. “I don’t know why they would do this to me.”Indian police took Begum, along with five other people, all Muslims, and forced them into swampland in the dark.”They showed us a village in the distance and told us to crawl there,” she told AFP. “They said: ‘Do not dare to stand and walk, or we will shoot you.'”Bangladeshi locals who found the group then handed them to border police who “thrashed” them and ordered they return to India, Begum said.”As we approached the border, there was firing from the other side,” said the 50-year-old.”We thought: ‘This is the end. We are all going to die.'”She survived, and, a week after she was first picked up, she was dropped back home in Assam with a warning to keep quiet.- ‘Ideological hate campaign’ -Rights activists and lawyers criticised India’s drive as “lawless”. “You cannot deport people unless there is a country to accept them,” said New Delhi-based civil rights lawyer Sanjay Hegde.Indian law does not allow for people to be deported without due process, he added. Bangladesh has said India has pushed more than 1,600 people across its border since May.Indian media suggests the number could be as high as 2,500.The Bangladesh Border Guards said it has sent back 100 of those pushed across — because they were Indian citizens.India has been accused of forcibly deporting Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, with navy ships dropping them off the coast of the war-torn nation.Many of those targeted in the campaign are low-wage labourers in states governed by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to rights activists.Indian authorities did not respond to questions about the number of people detained and deported.But Assam state’s chief minister has said that more than 300 people have been deported to Bangladesh.Separately, Gujarat’s police chief said more than 6,500 people have been rounded up in the western state, home to both Modi and interior minister Amit Shah.Many of those were reported to be Bengali-speaking Indians and later released.”People of Muslim identity who happen to be Bengali speaking are being targeted as part of an ideological hate campaign,” said Mander, the activist. Nazimuddin Mondal, a 35-year-old mason, said he was picked up by police in the financial hub of Mumbai, flown on a military aircraft to the border state of Tripura and pushed into Bangladesh.He managed to cross back, and is now back in India’s West Bengal state, where he said he was born.”The Indian security forces beat us with batons when we insisted we were Indians,” said Mondal, adding he is now scared to even go out to seek work.”I showed them my government-issued ID, but they just would not listen.”

India has launched an investigation after an endangered tigress and her four cubs were found dead in a protected forest in the southern state of Karnataka, an official said Friday.State forest minister Eshwar Khandre said the “unnatural” deaths were “extremely tragic and distressing” and that an investigation team had been formed.Local media reports said forest officials suspected poisoning.The tigress had reportedly killed a cow days earlier, and poison may have been laced into the carcass, which her cubs also fed on, according to The Times of India.”If there has been any negligence, or if the tigers died due to any reason, I have ordered criminal action against those responsible,” Khandre said.Sustained conservation efforts have led to a steady rebound of the big cats’ numbers in India. According to the latest census, there are over 3,600 of them in the wild in India — 75 percent of the global tiger population. But shrinking habitats and expanding human settlements have also fuelled conflict. More than 600 people were killed in tiger attacks over the past decade, according to official figures.

Bangladesh’s caretaker leader has ordered all government institutions including ministry buildings and schools to install solar panels to ease chronic power problems in a country regularly hit by deadly heatwaves.The South Asian nation of 170 million people has set itself a target of generating 20 percent of its power from renewable energy by 2030 — a four-fold increase —  and rising to 30 percent by 2040, the government said in a statement. “Bangladesh is lagging far behind its neighbouring countries”, the statement issued by the office of interim leader Muhammad Yunus read.”Only 5.6 percent of our total requirement is currently met from renewable sources,” it added, noting that in neighbouring India, it is 24 percent and in Sri Lanka, nearly 40 percent.The government’s rooftop solar programme will see all government offices, schools, colleges and hospitals installed with panels immediately, the statement issued late Thursday said.The micro-finance pioneer said the panels would be installed and operated by private sector companies, unlike the largely failed push by since-ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina to install panels by using government power agencies.”The private sector will handle overall maintenance and keep the systems operational for their own business interests”, the statement said.”The government will only provide them with rooftop access”.The government has also initiated tender processes for 55 solar power plants with a total 5,238 megawatts capacity.Bangladesh relies heavily on importing cross-border power from neighbouring India, as well from Nepal, especially when demand soars during the blistering heat when consumers rely on energy-hungry air conditioners to keep cool.Dhaka also began construction of the Russia-backed nuclear plant at Rooppur in 2017.The much-delayed 2,400-megawatt project will be Bangladesh’s largest power station by generating capacity once fully operational.

A US commercial mission carrying astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary docked with the International Space Station on Thursday, marking the first time in decades that these nations have sent crew to space.Axiom Mission 4, or Ax-4, lifted off early Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a brand-new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule riding a Falcon 9 rocket.Onboard were pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India; mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary; and Commander Peggy Whitson of the United States, a former NASA astronaut now with Axiom Space, which organizes private spaceflights.The capsule, the fifth and final Dragon in the SpaceX fleet, was christened “Grace” after reaching orbit.It achieved “soft capture,” or the first stage of docking, with the orbital lab Thursday at 6:31 am Eastern Time (1031 GMT).They later entered the station through the hatch and were greeted by the current ISS crew during a brief welcome ceremony.”It’s so great to be here at last,” said Whitson. “That was a long quarantine.”The crew will now spend about 14 days aboard the station, conducting some 60 experiments — including studies on microalgae, sprouting salad seeds, and the hardiness of microscopic tardigrades in space.- Key step for India -The last time India, Poland or Hungary sent people to space, their current crop of astronauts had not yet been born — and back then they were called cosmonauts, as they all flew on Soviet missions before the fall of the Iron Curtain.Shukla is the first Indian to reach space since Rakesh Sharma, who flew to the Salyut 7 station in 1984 as part of an Indo-Soviet mission.India’s space agency, ISRO, sees this flight as a key step toward its first independent crewed mission, slated for 2027 under the Gaganyaan (“sky craft”) program.”What a fantastic ride,” Shukla said in Hindi after liftoff. “This isn’t just the start of my journey to the International Space Station — it’s the beginning of India’s human space program.”Each country is funding its astronaut’s seat.Poland has spent 65 million euros for its astronaut’s flight, according to the Polish Space Agency. Hungary announced a $100 million deal with Axiom in 2022, according to spacenews.com, while India has not officially commented.The Ax-4 launch comes after technical issues delayed the mission, originally slated for early June.It also follows an online spat between US President Donald Trump and SpaceX chief Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and, until recently, Trump’s ally and advisor.Trump threatened to yank SpaceX’s federal contracts — worth tens of billions of dollars — prompting Musk to threaten an early retirement of Dragon, the only US spacecraft currently certified to carry astronauts to the ISS.Musk walked back the threat a few hours later and in the days that followed continued to deescalate, stating on X that he had gone “too far.”Any falling out between SpaceX and the US government would be massively disruptive, given NASA and the Pentagon’s reliance on Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy to send up crew, cargo, satellites and probes.But for now, analysts believe both sides are too entangled to risk a serious break.

Photographs of a leopard snapped by camera traps in forests in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts have raised hopes among conservationists working to save the critically endangered species.Bangladesh’s Creative Conservation Alliance (CCA) issued pictures of the leopard emerging from lush green bush, celebrating the “evidence that these elusive big cats still persist” in the forested hills where Bangladesh borders India and Myanmar.”We have to ensure the protection of the species so that it doesn’t become extinct,” CCA research officer Sourav Chakma told AFP on Thursday.Leopards are listed as vulnerable as a species globally, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), but critically endangered in the South Asian country of more than 170 million people, warning its population may no longer be viable.Zoologist Monirul Khan, of Jahangirnagar University, said previous reports of the elusive cats had been based on paw prints and fleeting sightings in the forest.”As an extremely rare and secretive species, the latest sighting is very significant”, Khan said.”It highlights the importance of the remaining natural forest in the Chittagong Hill Tracts as a reserve of wildlife habitat.”The predator was once widely seen in forested areas. Habitat loss, lack of prey and poaching are key contributors to the loss of leopards, experts say.Bangladesh is also home to tigers, now found only in the vast Sundarbans mangrove forests that straddle the border with India.On the Bangladesh side, the latest survey released in October 2024 recorded 125 tigers, up from 114 in 2019.

Indian investigators have successfully retrieved data from the black boxes of a Boeing plane, after it crashed in one of the deadliest air disasters in decades, the government said Thursday.All but one of the 242 people on board the Air India flight were killed on June 12 when the jet crashed in the western city of Ahmedabad, where at least 19 others were left dead.Two weeks after the disaster, the civil aviation ministry said investigators have started “the data extraction process” from the plane’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders.”The analysis… is underway. These efforts aim to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the accident and identify contributing factors to enhance aviation safety and prevent future occurrences,” a ministry statement said.The two black boxes were found within days of the crash, but were only flown to the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau in New Delhi on Tuesday.One of the victims’ relatives said they were waiting for answers.”For now, all we know is the plane took off and then fell. How? Why? Nobody knows. And we want to know. We deserve to know,” said Imtiyaz Ali, whose brother was on the plane with his wife and two children.”I refuse to believe that our aviation sector is this bad that we still don’t have even a slight indication about what went wrong,” he told AFP on Wednesday.Air India said last week that the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was “well-maintained” and that the pilots were accomplished flyers. Investigators have recovered more than 100 mobile phones with the aim of retrieving any recordings that “may provide clues about the final moments of the flight”, Ahmedabad police commissioner GS Malik said last week.The plane was being reconstructed at an undisclosed location “to detect any signs of mechanical failure, structural faults, or explosions”, he told journalists.- ‘We are moving forward’ -Forensic scientists have meanwhile been analysing hundreds of DNA samples in order to identify the victims.Despite the jet bursting into a fireball when it smashed down moments after takeoff, a forensic dentist told AFP the team has been able to find matches through teeth.”A protected molar tooth can withstand a temperature of over 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit,” or 980 degrees Celsius, Jayasankar P Pillai said.The painstaking forensic process has enabled the majority of victims to be identified.”So far 260 deaths have been confirmed through DNA and police identification,” Gujarat health minister Rushikesh Patel said.One victim remains unidentified, a member of the forensic team told AFP on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.A police source told AFP two days after the disaster that 279 bodies had been recovered from the crash site.The plane slammed into accommodation for medics, killing four doctors and injuring at least 24 as it hit the canteen. Smit Patel, a medical intern, joined a gathering this week to open a makeshift kitchen.”For us, reopening the mess is symbolic… despite everything, we are moving forward,” he said.

China hosted defence ministers from Iran and Russia for a meeting in its eastern seaside city of Qingdao on Thursday against the backdrop of war in the Middle East and a summit of NATO countries in Europe that agreed to boost military spending.Beijing has long sought to present the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed to strengthen collaboration between its member countries in politics, security, trade and science.The Qingdao meeting of the organisation’s top defence officials comes as a fledgling ceasefire between Israel and Iran holds after 12 days of fighting between the arch-foes.It is also being held the day after a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders in The Hague, where members agreed to ramp up their defence spending to satisfy US President Donald Trump.Beijing’s ties with Moscow are also in the spotlight.China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia’s war with Ukraine, although Western governments say its close ties have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support.Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov painted a bleak picture of a world seeing “worsening geopolitical tensions” when he addressed his counterparts at the meeting.”The current military and political situation in the world remains difficult and shows signs of further deterioration,” he said, according to a Russian defence ministry statement.His Chinese counterpart Dong Jun also framed Thursday’s meeting in Qingdao, home to a major Chinese naval base, as a counterweight to a world “marked by intertwined turmoil and changes”.”It is all the more important for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to play its role as an anchor of stability,” he said, according to state news agency Xinhua.- Backing for Iran? -Recent fighting between Israel, Iran and the United States was also likely discussed in Qingdao.Beijing refrained from offering anything more than diplomatic support to its close partner Tehran throughout that conflict, reflecting its limited leverage in the region and reluctance to worsen relations with the United States. “Public backing for Iran will come in the form of words, rather than deeds,” James Char, an expert on the Chinese army at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told AFP.”Other than condemning the US strikes on Iran, Beijing can be expected to continue treading cautiously in the Middle East’s security issues and would not want to be dragged into the region’s security challenges,” he said.Iran’s defence minister will likely “discuss with China the supply of weapons but I doubt China would agree”, said Andrea Ghiselli, an expert in China foreign policy and a lecturer at Exeter University.”It would be seen as provocative by both Israel… and, even more important for China, the US, with which Beijing is trying to stabilise relations,” Ghiselli said.India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, also in attendance in Qingdao, said SCO members should “collectively aspire to fulfil the aspirations and expectations of our people as well as tackle today’s challenges”.”The world we live in is undergoing a drastic transformation. Globalisation, which once brought us closer together, has been losing momentum,” he said in comments his office posted on social media.

China hosted defence ministers from Iran and Russia for a meeting in its eastern seaside city of Qingdao on Thursday against the backdrop of war in the Middle East and a summit of NATO countries in Europe that agreed to boost military spending.Beijing has long sought to present the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed to strengthen collaboration between its member countries in politics, security, trade and science.The Qingdao meeting of the organisation’s top defence officials comes as a fledgling ceasefire between Israel and Iran holds after 12 days of fighting between the arch-foes.It is also being held the day after a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders in The Hague, where members agreed to ramp up their defence spending to satisfy US President Donald Trump.Beijing’s ties with Moscow are also in the spotlight.China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia’s war with Ukraine, although Western governments say its close ties have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support.Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov painted a bleak picture of a world seeing “worsening geopolitical tensions” when he addressed his counterparts at the meeting.”The current military and political situation in the world remains difficult and shows signs of further deterioration,” he said, according to a statement by the Russian defence ministry.His Chinese counterpart Dong Jun also framed Thursday’s meeting in Qingdao, home to a major Chinese naval base, as a counterweight to a world in “chaos and instability”.”As momentous changes of the century accelerate, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise,” Dong said as he welcomed defence chiefs from Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Belarus and elsewhere on Wednesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.”Hegemonic, domineering and bullying acts severely undermine the international order,” he warned.He urged his counterparts to “take more robust actions to jointly safeguard the environment for peaceful development”.- Backing for Iran? -Recent fighting between Israel, Iran and the United States will likely also be discussed in Qingdao.Beijing refrained from offering anything more than diplomatic support to its close partner Tehran throughout that conflict, reflecting its limited leverage in the region and reluctance to worsen relations with the United States. “Public backing for Iran will come in the form of words, rather than deeds,” James Char, an expert on the Chinese army at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told AFP.”Other than condemning the US strikes on Iran, Beijing can be expected to continue treading cautiously in the Middle East’s security issues and would not want to be dragged into the region’s security challenges,” he said.Iran’s defence minister will likely “discuss with China the supply of weapons but I doubt China would agree”, said Andrea Ghiselli, an expert in China foreign policy and a lecturer at Exeter University.”It would be seen as provocative by both Israel… and, even more important for China, the US, with which Beijing is trying to stabilise relations,” Ghiselli said.India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, also in attendance in Qingdao, said SCO members should “collectively aspire to fulfil the aspirations and expectations of our people as well as tackle today’s challenges”.”The world we live in is undergoing a drastic transformation. Globalisation, which once brought us closer together, has been losing momentum,” he said in comments his office posted on social media platform X.