Indian national dies in flooding in Australia
Melbourne, Feb 16: An Indian national has died in a flooding incident in Queensland as wild weather battered the region with severe rain and thunderstorms, the Indian High Commission in Canberra said on Friday. Expressing condolences, the Indian mission said that it is in touch with the family and providing all possible assistance. “Heartbreaking tragedy in Australia: an Indian national lost her life in a flooding incident near Mount Isa, Queensland. Deepest condolence to the family of the deceased. Mission team is in touch for all necessary assistance,” the Indian High Commission posted on X. While further details are awaited, the victim’s name was not revealed by the mission. The local media reported that a 28-year-old woman was found dead inside a partially submerged car in floodwaters in Queensland on Friday. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology in the country has issued a severe thunderstorm alert for parts of southeast Queensland, which includes heavy rainfall warnings across Logan, Redland City and parts of Brisbane. (IANS)
Seema Haider’s 1st hubby hires lawyer in India
Karachi, Feb 16: The first husband of Seema Haider, a Pakistani woman who illegally crossed over to India with her four children in 2023 to be with her lover, has hired an Indian lawyer to help him get his underage kids back, a top rights activist said in Karachi on Friday. Seema Haider, who is from Jacobabad in Sindh province, in May last year took her children and left her home in Karachi to travel to India via Nepal. She captured the headlines in July when Indian authorities found her living with Indian national (now her husband) Sachin Meena in the Greater Noida area in Uttar Pradesh. She is said to be expecting a child with Meena. Ansar Burney, a top Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist, said that Ghulam Haider, Seema’s Pakistani husband, had approached him for help in getting custody of his four children. “After due process, we have hired an Indian lawyer, Ali Momin and have sent the power of attorney to start legal proceedings in Indian courts,” Burney said. (PTI)
US adults divided on TikTok ban
Washington, Feb 16: President Joe Biden’s campaign is embracing TikTok to court younger voters ahead of the presidential elections, but the US adults have mixed views about whether the video-sharing app should even operate in the country. A new poll by The Associated Press and NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research finds a three-way split when it comes to banning the app, with 31 per cent of US adults saying they would favour a nationwide ban on TikTok use, while 35 per cent say they would oppose that type of action. An additional 31 per cent of adults say they neither favour nor oppose a ban on the social media platform, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. Discussions of the TikTok ban reached a feverish pitch in the country early last year after a series of Western lawmakers, governments and regulators raised concerns that a set of Chinese laws could force the company to share user data with the country’s authoritarian government. Specific evidence of such an incident hasn’t been provided by the US government or TikTok critics, who also posit that the platform could be used to spread propaganda beneficial to the Chinese government’s interests or be used to bury or amplify certain topics. (AP)