Melbourne, January 2
A woman has become the first victim of massive flooding in Australia, described as a disaster of “biblical proportions”, in Queensland where over two lakh people from 22 towns have been hit.

The flooding has directly impacted about 200,000 people, according to Emergency Management Queensland, and has affected an area roughly the size of the entire state of New South Wales.

Floodwaters in have claimed the life of a woman in Queensland’s Gulf Country, bringing the number of flood related deaths in the past month to eight.

The police says the 41-year-old woman was in one of two cars that were swept off a causeway into the flooded Leichhardt River at Floraville, near Burketown last night.

Rescuers managed to save three other adults and five children. The woman’s body wasn’t found until this morning, two kilometres downstream. At least two others have gone missing.

Rockhampton, close to the mouth of the giant Fitzroy River system, is the worst hit major population center, media reports said.

Twenty-two towns are either underwater or isolated and 900 houses have been abandoned as floods wreak havoc across Queensland, authorities said. Queensland State Treasurer Andrew Fraser described the floods as a “disaster of biblical proportions” and said the ultimate cost would exceed 1 billion Australian dollars.

“It will be a heartbreaking return to homes for a lot of Queenslanders,” Emergency Management Queensland Acting Assistant Director-General Warren Bridson was quoted as saying by Sydney Morning Herald.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said flood waters in Rockhampton town could reach nine metres tomorrow and peak at 9.4 metres on Wednesday, a level similar to floods that hit in 1991 and 1954.

Rockhampton’s regional airport was closed yesterday and is expected to remain shut for the coming weeks, Emergency Management Queensland said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard toured the devastation on Friday and said the flooding in Queensland will cost “hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars.” — PTI 

Islamabad, January 2
India and Pakistan cannot afford war, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said, stressing that dialogue is the only way to resolve outstanding issues between the two neighbours.

Gilani made the remarks last night during the debut episode of the live show “Prime Minister Online” in which he answered questions from the public and tried to address their grievances.

“There is a lot of pressure from the public and opposition on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but I believe that dialogue is the only answer. That’s the only way forward because we can’t afford wars. We must have a dialogue and that will happen,” he said.

Gilani was responding to a question on India-Pakistan ties in the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

He noted that he had held several meetings with Singh, including one in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh during which they “made a commitment that both countries cannot be held hostage to the Mumbai incident alone”.

“However, when Manmohan Singh went back to India, there was pressure on him in Parliament as well as public pressure and so no progress could be made,” he claimed.

Gilani became the first Pakistani Prime Minister to appear on a live television and field questions from the public. The new show will be aired on the first of every month.

During the 50-minute show, Gilani also expressed his government’s resolve to launch a ‘jihad’ against corruption in the new year by taking legislative measures, including the enactment of an accountability law.

“It is our resolve for the new year that we will launch a jihad against corruption. I have talked to (main opposition PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif) so that we can adopt the accountability bill with consensus. And it will be done in a way that nobody can raise a finger at it,” he said. — PTI

Karachi/Islamabad, Jan 2
The beleaguered PPP-led government in Pakistan was today reduced to a minority after the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) pulled out of the ruling coalition ostensibly to protest its failure to address the people's problems.

“The MQM has announced its decision to sit in the opposition benches in the National Assembly and in the Senate,” the party said in a statement in Karachi. “It has been decided. We will sit on the opposition benches in the National Assembly and the Senate,” MQM spokesman Wasay Jalil was quoted as saying by Dawn. The MQM, which had pulled its two ministers out of the federal cabinet last month, announced its decision to quit the nearly three-year-old coalition following meetings of its top leaders in Karachi and London.

The MQM, which has 25 lawmakers in the National Assembly or lower house of parliament, has played a key role in propping up the government. The PPP, which has 126 lawmakers and is now backed by 31 more parliamentarians, was at least 14 seats short of a simple majority in the 342-member National Assembly. In Lahore, Gilani insisted that his government was not facing any crisis and would survive despite the withdrawal of support by the MQM.

“Do you think the government will fall? The government will stay despite everything...I don't see any crisis,” he said. The MQM leaders said their party had decided to pull out of the coalition because the PPP had failed to address problems confronting people, including a rise in the prices of fuel and other items, growing unemployment, terrorism and an economic downturn.

They claimed the MQM had acted only after giving the PPP adequate time to address these issues. This was the second major setback for the PPP-led government since December, when the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam left the coalition after the Prime Minister sacked one of the ministers from the party. Since then, JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has called for the resignation of Gilani, saying he had sabotaged the policy of reconciliation adopted by PPP chief and President Asif Ali Zardari.

Senior MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi said his party would support all decisions made by the government in the interest of people despite sitting in the opposition in the National Assembly and the Senate or upper house of parliament. — PTI

Washington, January 2
The US military is set to deploy in insurgency-hit Afghanistan what it says is a revolutionary airborne surveillance system which can transmit live video images of physical movement across an entire town, a media report said today.

The system, Gorgon Stare, is made up of nine video cameras mounted on a remotely piloted aircraft, can transmit live images to soldiers on the ground or to analysts tracking enemy movements.

It can send up to 65 different images to different users; by contrast, Air Force drones today shoot video from a single camera over a "soda straw" area the size of a building or two, Washington Post reported. The US Air Force is looking to mount wide-area surveillance cameras on airships that can stay aloft for up to two weeks.

Gorgon Stare is being tested now, and officials hope it will be fielded within two months. Each $17.5 million pod weighs 1,100 pounds and, because of its configuration, will not be mounted with weapons on Reaper aircraft, officials said. — AFP

London, January 2
British Queen Elizabeth II, who increased the number of her public engagements in 2010, is set to be busier this year, a media report said today.

Most people of her age would have retired long ago, but the 84-year-old monarch carried out 444 engagements in 2010, 69 more than in 2009. Her workload featured 57 overseas engagements, the Daily Mail reported.

Palace officials say 2011 will be busier still, with the royal wedding, Prince Philip’s 90th birthday and two “significant” overseas state visits. “She won’t be slowing down,” said a spokesman.

Prince Philip has been active too, increasing his workload to 356 engagements last year. Prince William’s official workload also grew, despite his demanding job as a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot. He had 73 official engagements, up 27 in 2009.

Prince Harry was also busier than last year. Like his brother, most of his 53 engagements were overseas. The hardest-working royal was Prince Charles, with 585 engagements, 71 more even than famously industrious Princess Anne.

The Duchess of Cornwall, once dubbed the “laziest woman in Britain” by a former aide, notched up 243, her highest-ever figure. —IANS 

Washington, January 2
As a “global citizen”, India’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Hardeep Singh Puri, has no problem with the controversial ‘pat down’ searches at US airports and seeks no exemption for himself.

“There is no controversy whatsoever. Insofar as I am concerned, no pat down took place,” Puri told IANS referring to an incident with him at Texas airport in November. “I don’t know why there is an attempt to generate a controversy.”

“I know what the American procedures are. I never asked for any exemption. And I would not on security ask for an exemption for myself.

“When I was going through the security scanner, there was no beep. So when he asked for a pat down, I said ‘your rules provide that I can do the pat down myself’ and that’s what happened. So where is the controversy?” Puri asked.

Referring to External Affairs Minister SM Krishna’s comment that such searches of diplomats are “unacceptable”, the envoy said: “Let’s take two things. What Mr Krishna said was in the context of what happened to (the Indian envoy to the US) Meera Shankar, who was patted down twice.”

“So far as my pat down is concerned, I made it absolutely clear as I am telling you now, no pat down took place.

“But, as I said, personally for me, I am not even objecting to the pat down. I said I am a global citizen and if there are security rules, I’ll happily comply with them.” — IANS 

BRIEFLY

Hotmail users find empty inboxes, missing folders
London: Many Hotmail users had a New Year surprise when they found empty inboxes and missing folders as they logged in. Several frantic users posted complaints against Email giant MSN claiming that their emails have been deleted from their accounts. It is still unclear whether the problem lies with Microsoft, which owns MSN, or whether it is the work of hackers, the Daily Mail reported. It is not known yet how many account holders have been affected. — PTI

Police quells riot at British prison
London: The police resolved a riot at a British prison after inmates set buildings alight when staff tried to clamp down on contraband alcohol on New Year's Day, the police said on Sunday. Prison authorities launched an investigation into the daylong rampage involving around 40 inmates, which started early yesterday at Ford open prison near Arundel in southeast England. Several buildings were burned to the ground and police in body armour and firefighters had to be called in. — AFP

Lindsay inspired by Gandhi
Los Angeles: Just a day before she leaves rehab for a secret location, Lindsay Lohan is taking a cue from what Mahatma Gandhi said: The future depends on what we do in the present. The 24-year-old seems to have decided to bid her troubles bye-bye in the New Year and start anew. The singer-actress, who entered the Betty Ford Center after breaching the conditions of probation set for a 2007 conviction, is trying to go sober, reports gossipcop.com. — IANS

Blackout in Moscow region
Moscow: For the second time in just over a week, the Moscow region has faced the worst blackout in its post-Soviet history following heavy snowfalls and strong winds in Russia. Strong winds, freezing rain and heavy snowfalls have again led to large areas in Moscow suburbs and rural region without power, which was restored on the New Year Eve after a six-day of outage caused by devastating icy rain storm on December 25. — PTI

Chavez, Hillary chat amid tension
Caracas: President Hugo Chavez and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton shook hands and chatted briefly in a rare cordial encounter amid a diplomatic dispute that has left Venezuela and the United States without ambassadors in each other's capitals. It was unclear what Chavez and Hillary discussed. — AFP

Healthy women see themselves fat 
LONDON: Despite their healthy weight, 17 per cent of women in a survey described themselves as “fat” - with almost as many saying they felt “down” when they looked in the mirror. Only one out of 17 such women actually considered herself “slim”. To her husband and her friends, a woman looks happy, slender and confident, in her size 12 jeans. But when the same woman looks in the mirror, the picture is distorted. — IANS