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Fifty People Die In Pakistan Monsoon Floods

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At least 50 people, including eight children, have been killed by floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains that have lashed Pakistan since last month, officials said Friday.

The summer monsoon brings South Asia 70-80 percent of its annual rainfall between June and September every year.

It is vital for the livelihoods of millions of farmers and food security in a region of around two billion people — but it also brings landslides and floods.

“Fifty deaths have been reported in different rain-related incidents all over Pakistan since the start of the monsoon on June 25,” a national disaster management official told AFP, adding that 87 people were injured during this period.

The majority of the deaths were in eastern Punjab province, and were mainly due to electrocution and building collapses, official data showed.

In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the bodies of eight children were recovered from a landslide in the Shangla district on Thursday, according to the emergency service Rescue 1122’s spokesman Bilal Ahmed Faizi.

He said rescuers were still searching for other children trapped in the debris.

Officials in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, said it had received record-breaking rainfall on Wednesday, turning roads into rivers and leaving almost 35 percent without electricity and water this week.

The Meteorological Department has predicted more heavy rainfall nationwide in the days ahead and warned of potential flooding in the catchment areas of Punjab’s major rivers.

The province’s disaster management authority said Friday it is working to relocate people living along the waterways.

Scientists have said climate change is making seasonal rains heavier and more unpredictable.

Last summer, unprecedented monsoon rains put a third of Pakistan under water, damaging two million homes and killing more than 1,700 people.

Storms killed at least 27 people, including eight children, in the country’s northwest early last month.

Pakistan, which has the world’s fifth largest population, is responsible for less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to officials.

However, it is one of the most vulnerable nations to the extreme weather caused by global warming.

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International

Russia Hands Over Bodies of 1,000 Ukrainian Soldiers

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Russia on Tuesday returned the bodies of what it said were 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers, five of whom died while in captivity, a Ukrainian government agency said.

Ukraine returned the bodies of 19 Russian soldiers in exchange, a Russian official said.

Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022, though neither side regularly publishes data on their own casualties.

The exchange of prisoners of war and repatriation of war dead has been one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since the war began.

The two sides have intensified these efforts in recent months during talks in Istanbul.

“According to the Russian side, 1,000 bodies belonging to Ukrainian military personnel have been returned to Ukraine,” Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement on Telegram.

“Unfortunately, among those repatriated are the bodies of five Ukrainian servicemen who died in captivity,” it added.

It said law enforcement would begin the process of identifying the soldiers.

The exchange was carried out by agreements reached between the two sides in Istanbul, Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said.

Kyiv initially said the two had agreed to “exchange” the bodies of 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers for as many Russians, though Moscow has always presented the deal as a unilateral decision to repatriate Ukrainians.

AFP

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US Mandates 5-Year Social Media Disclosure for Nigerian Visa Applicants

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The United States Mission in Nigeria has announced a new requirement for visa applicants, mandating the disclosure of all social media usernames and handles used in the past five years.

The directive was issued on Monday via a post on the Mission’s official X (formerly Twitter) account. It aligns with the U.S. Department of State’s broader efforts to strengthen national security through enhanced applicant screening procedures.

According to the U.S. Mission, Nigerian applicants must provide a complete list of their social media profiles on the DS-160 visa application form, which is used for non-immigrant visa requests.

“Visa applicants are required to list all social media usernames or handles of every platform they have used from the last 5 years on the DS-160 visa application form,” the Mission stated.

It further cautioned that failure to accurately disclose this information may result in visa denial and could affect future eligibility for U.S. visas.

“Applicants certify that the information in their visa application is true and correct before they sign and submit. Omitting social media information could lead to visa denial and ineligibility for future visas,” the statement added.

The measure is part of a broader U.S. policy introduced in recent years, aimed at tightening immigration controls and improving background checks for travelers to the United States.

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Google agrees to pay Australia $36 million fine for anti-competitive deals with telcos

On anti-competitive tie-ups with Australian telcos, the country’s consumer watchdog on Monday said Google struck deals with Telstra and Optus, under which the tech giant shared with them advertising revenue generated from Google Search on Android devices between late 2019 and early 2021.

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Google agreed on Monday to pay a A$55 million ($35.8 million) fine in Australia after the consumer watchdog found it had hurt competition by paying the country’s two largest telcos to pre-install its search application on Android phones, excluding rival search engines.

Reuters report that the fine extends a bumpy period for the Alphabet-owned internet giant in Australia, where last week a court mostly ruled against it in a lawsuit brought by Fortnite maker Epic Games accusing Google and Apple of preventing rival application stores in their operating systems.

Google’s YouTube was also last month added to an Australian ban on social media platforms admitting users aged under 16, reversing an earlier decision to exempt the video-sharing site.

On anti-competitive tie-ups with Australian telcos, the country’s consumer watchdog on Monday said Google struck deals with Telstra and Optus, under which the tech giant shared with them advertising revenue generated from Google Search on Android devices between late 2019 and early 2021.

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