Baghdad, May 28: A wave of car bombings tore through mostly Shiite Muslim neighbourhoods of the Baghdad area starting on Monday afternoon, leaving at least 70 dead in the latest outburst of an unusually intense wave of bloodshed roiling Iraq.

The blasts are the latest indication that Iraq's security is rapidly deteriorating as sectarian tensions exacerbated by months of Sunni-led anti-government protests and the war in neighboring Syria are on the rise.

Iraq has been hit by a wave of bloodshed that has killed more than 350 people in the past two weeks alone.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for bloodshed, but the attacks bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda's Iraqi arm.

The group, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, frequently uses car bombs and coordinated blasts in an effort to undermine Iraqis' confidence in the Shiite-led government.

The day's deadliest attack happened when two bombs exploded in the eastern Habibiya neighbourhoods, which is near the sprawling Shiite district of Sadr City. That attack killed 12 killed and wounded 35, according to police.

Twin blasts also struck an open-air market in the predominantly Shiite al-Maalif area, killing six and wounding 12 others, two police officers said.

Another car bomb exploded in the busy commercial Sadoun Street in central Baghdad. It killed five civilians and wounded 14 others, two other police officers said. Among the wounded were four policemen who were in a nearby checkpoint. The street is one of the major hubs in the capital for clinics, pharmacies and shops.

Firefighters were seen struggling to extinguish the flames from the debris of the car bomb as police sealed off the area. Several shops were partially damaged or burned.

Colombo, May 28: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa arrived  in China on Monday for a 4-day state visit, his sixth, with Colombo saying that its ties with Beijing were not an "exclusive one" and would not harm the interests of others.

This is Rajapaksa's first visit after the new leadership headed by Xi Jinping assumed power.

China was expected to announce more aid for various development projects in Sri Lanka in addition to heavy infrastructure projects like Hambantota port in Rajapaksa's home town.

"China has contributed very significantly to our economic development by assisting us with infrastructure after the eradication of terrorism," Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, G L Peiris  said.

Sri Lanka perceives China's rise as an opportunity, while some of China's neighbours remain skeptical toward Beijing's growing power, state-run news agency said, referring to India's concerns over growing influence of China in the island nation.

"Sri Lanka has friendly relations with other countries as well, but there has never been a conflict, because China has never sought to use her relations with Sri Lanka in order to put any other country in peril or to jeopardise interests of any other countries," he said.

As for bilateral ties, Peiris said while the political relationship is "as good as it can be," Sri Lanka hopes to expand trade ties with China by exporting more value-added goods so as to narrow its trade deficit.

Sri Lanka will benefit from the shift in the world's economic gravity to the Pacific Rim, Peiris said, noting that China is becoming a power which is more outward-looking and that this could benefit the island nation in the Indian Ocean.

Over 70 percent of China's imported energy resources go through the Indian Ocean. Peiris noted that Sri Lanka has no apprehensions or fears of China's rise. "On the contrary, we think that as China's position becomes stronger in the world, Sri Lanka could benefit from that, because of the nature and quality of our relationship," he said.

China backs Sri Lanka in Colmbo's efforts to ward off pressure from the international community over probe into the killings of civilians during the last stages of the war against LTTE.

In March, China supported Sri Lanka against a US-backed resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, while India backed the resolution. China has provided loans to the war-ravaged country to develop infrastructure and Chinese enterprises are active in building highways, railroad systems, harbours as well as energy facilities in the country.

Islamabad, May 28: The formal election of Pakistan's new Prime Minister by members of the National Assembly will be held on 5th June, officials said on Monday.

PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif is set to become the Premier for an unprecedented third term.

PML-N officials said his election to the post will be a mere formality as the party has the required numbers in the 342-member National Assembly or lower house of Parliament.

The first session of the new National Assembly will be convened on 1st June. Soon after the House convenes, the newly elected members will take oath.

Nomination papers for the posts of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly will be submitted on 2nd June and elections will be held the next day. Nomination papers for the post of Prime Minister will be submitted on 4th June and the election will be held the following day.

The PML-N won 126 of the 272 directly elected seats in the National Assembly in the 11th May general elections. Eighteen independent candidates recently joined the party, taking its tally of directly elected seats to 144.

The PML-N will also be allocated 37 reserved seats for women and non-Muslims. This will give it 181 seats in the 342-member House, or 10 seats more than the 171 required for a simple majority.

The party's strength in the National Assembly is set to increase further as several parties including the PML-F, National People's Party and National Party are expected to enter into an alliance with it.

However, the PML-N's dream of getting Sharif elected unopposed as the new Prime Minister has been shattered as Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf has announced it will field veteran politician Javed Hashmi for the post.

This is more a symbolic gesture rooted in the Tehrik-e-Insaf's opposition to the PML-N. Hashmi is a former PML-N leader who quit the party and joined the Tehrik-e-Insaf last year.

Yangon, May 28:  Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi has criticised a ban on Rohingya having more than two children in strife-torn Rakhine state as counter to human rights, in rare comments on the plight of the Muslim group.

The opposition leader, who has been accused by activists of failing to speak up for the marginalised Rohingya, said she opposed the controversial rule, imposed by the previous junta and reaffirmed recently by local authorities in the wake of deadly unrest.

"It is not good to have such discrimination. And it is not in line with human rights either," the veteran democracy activist told reporters in Yangon, adding that she could not confirm whether the policy was being implemented.

Rakhine authorities said on Sunday that the rule had been reaffirmed in two Muslim-majority townships in the state.

Win Myaing, spokesperson for the Rakhine government, said the order was designed to "enforce monogamy and not to have more than two children."

He said the policy had previously been put on hold because of fears over "conflicts among communities" in the state. Up to 1,40,000 people - mainly Rohingya Muslims - were displaced in two waves of sectarian unrest between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine last year.

Human Rights Watch has accused the authorities of being a party to ethnic cleansing over the violence, which killed some 200 people and saw mobs torch whole villages.

An official commission's report in April into the unrest suggested voluntary family planning to stem a high birth rate among the Rohingya that it said stoked tensions.

Local authorities have previously been accused of trying to restrict birth rates among the Rohingya by refusing to acknowledge any more than two children per married couple - thereby denying them legal rights and access to services.

Rio, May 28: A short film based on the project- affected people of Tarapur Atomic Power Station has won the 'Yellow Oscar' award at the Uranium Film Festival at Rio-de-Janeiro, Brazil.

Pradeep Indulkar, producer-director of 'High Power', told a news agency that the film won the award at the international festival last Saturday.

Indulkar, a resident of Thane, and a villager from Tarapur, Chandrasen Arekar, accepted the award. Made in 2012, the film depicts the woes of the people displaced by the nuclear power plant built in 1960s.

It could not be released in India due to certain objections raised by the Censor Board. Indulkar had sent the film to the Uranium Film Festival.

"I dedicate this award to all farmers and fishermen who lost their lands, their homes and their lives for nuclear power plants all over the world," Indulkar said.

The International Uranium Film festival was founded in 2011 in Santa Teresa, the famous artist quarter in the heart of Rio de Janeiro. The aim of the festival is to inform the public, from a neutral position, about nuclear power, uranium mining, nuclear weapons and the health effects of radioactivity.

In the past the festival has travelled to Sao Paulo, Recife, Salvador, Fortaleza and to Lisbon and Porto in Portugal, to Berlin in Germany, and to ten major cities in India including New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

The festival showcases documentaries, fiction, animation, short and feature films on the nuclear issue.