GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Rescuers were reporting 219 saved at 08:00 Swiss time but another 350 are missing after a boat disaster in Papua New Guinea. The MV Rabaul Queen, operated by Star Ships, which is one of the country’s largest ferry operators, sank between Lae and Kimbe West after being reported missing at about 08:30 local time Thursday 2 February, but the reason for the boat going down is not yet known. Australian News.com reports that six merchant vessels are in the area, helping search for survivors and that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has “arranged ships in the area to conduct rescues and for aircraft to fly over the area”.
The owners issued a statement, according to Reuters, that the boat sank quickly, without sending a distress signal.
New Britain Island is a hugely popular diving area that pulls in international tourists.
Links to other sites: Herald Sun, Australia, Reuters
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GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Australia’s six-stage immunization programme covers 9 out of 10 children, the Sydney Morning Heraldreports, but the highest prevalence of whooping cough in 20 years is in part driving a campaign to increase the number of immunized children. The government will expand its programme to encourage families to get their children covered.
An extended plan starting in July 2012 will get rid of the $258 payment all families currently receive if their children are immunized. “Instead the government will require parents have their children fully immunised or forgo three payments of $726 available under the family tax benefit A end of year supplement. The family tax benefit A goes to about 90 per cent of families with young children and the payment provisions will apply for the financial years when the child is one, two and five years of age.”
The number of chidren with whooping cough, or pertussis, has jumped eight-fold in four years to over 34,000 and the government vaccination programme notes that a “single booster dose of adult formulation pertussis vaccine (dTpa) is recommended for all adults planning a pregnancy, for both parents as soon as possible after delivery of an infant, and for grandparents and other carers of young children.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The United States will station 250 Marines in Australia starting in 2012, with the number expected to grow to 2,500 at some point, US President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard agreed Wednesday 16 November. The BBC reports that “The deployment is being seen as a move to counter China’s growing influence. But Mr Obama said the US was “stepping up its commitment to the entire Asia-Pacific”, not excluding China.”
The Sydney Morning Herald, in an opinion piece, notes that ”‘It’s absolutely clear that this is all about China,’ says Hugh White, formerly the top strategy planner in the Australian Defence Department. And the real significance of yesterday’s announcement was that Australia’s US alliance is being shaped around the China threat.”
Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, for its part makes no comment in its straightforward English-language news article on the agreement, but AFP/Yahoo, in an article where it refers to China being “rankled”, says “The deployment of US Marines to Australia’s tropical north came as the allies adapted their military posture to face a new security era marked by the rise of China, which sparked an immediate negative response from Beijing. ‘It may not be quite appropriate to intensify and expand military alliances and may not be in the interest of countries within this region,’ China’s foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said.”
AUSTRALIA – The Australian government vetoed on 25 October an attempt to bring a private war crimes prosecution against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa while he is visiting the country.
Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard however, urged Sri Lanka to address claims of serious human rights violations. In addition, Australia urged the UN to probe alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has persistently denied that its troops committed atrocities while battling the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who were crushed in an offensive that ended in May 2009, bringing the 26-year conflict to a close.
Link to: Khaleej Times Online, AFP
AUSTRALIA – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II attended a wreath laying and met defence force personnel in Australia during a 10-day visit to the former British colony.
A crowd of about 1,000 people braved the rain for a glimpse of the Queen as she visited the national war memorial on 25 October, in tribute to fallen soldiers and met with veterans.
The 85-year-old monarch, was cheered loudly as she stepped from her with Prince Philip by her side.
On 24 October, the Queen visited Brisabane a place she said, she has seen “come of age.”
The Queen said she was there “to pay tribute to the resilience and courage of Queenslanders who bravely picked up their lives and rebuilt them after a period of great adversity.”
Links to: The Australian, The British Monarchy page, Photos of the visit
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Mandarin is making quiet steady inroads in European education, with the Financial Times the latest media to focus on West facing East in the area of languages. The British newspaper, in a feature Monday 17 October, notes that Chinese has become the fourth major language, behind French, German and Spanish. In the US, “the rise is reflected in the number of students sitting SAT II standardized tests, up 50 per cent since 2001; Advanced Placement programmes run by the College Board have grown by more than 2.5 times. In Britain, Chinese A-level exam entries in England in Wales rose 36 per cent in 2011 alone, the fastest of any major language. With 3,237 candidates, one in 11 final-year language exams are now for Chinese.”
The Economist, in an article in November 2010, took a more restrained approach, noting that Russian and Japanese also had language course booms which turned out to be fads.
The Sydney Morning Herald in February 2011 pointed out that while Australian language programmes and enthusiasm may be strong for starting Chinese, there remains a paucity of students completing Chinese courses with true proficiency in the language.
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND – The Rugby World Cup came down to the final four after some hard fought matches, 9th and 10th October. Australia edged past the current champions, South Africa 11-9 in a closely fought and bruising encounter. New Zealand had to struggle in the first half but then upped the tempo to beat Argentina 33-10. The Saturday games saw a revived French team sweep past a disappointing England 19-12 while Wales put on a fine show to beat Ireland 22-10. The semi-finals will feature the All-Blacks against the Wallabies and Wales face the much improved French side.
Links to other sites: Rugby World Cup, Telegraph
AUSTRALIA – Child asylum-seekers in Australia may be victims of “child abuse,” said the Australian Medical Association, AMA, to a joint select committee looking into Australia’s detention network.
The AMA said it has “grave concerns for the mental welfare of child asylum-seekers and believes mandatory detention is akin to child abuse.”
According to the Association, asylum-seekers as young as nine, have attempted suicide while in Australian immigration lock-ups.
Currently there are 795 children in the detention network, including those in community placements, says The Australian newspaper. “Of these, 282 are unaccompanied, 688 are housed in mainland facilities and 107 are on Christmas Island,” the article says.
Links to: The Australian
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Police in Australia say an aggressive kangaroo attacked a 94-year-old woman as she tended to the laundry in her backyard in the town of Charleville, in Queensland Province.
Police say they had to pepper spray the “Big Red” twice after it approached them menacingly.
The woman suffered bruises and cuts and was recovering in a local hospital.
“Big Reds” can weigh more than 80 kgs and stand more than 1.5 meters tall.
Further details: ABC Western Queensland, BBC News
Source: US space agency Nasa (click on imag to view larger)
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The unusually high number of very severe weather events in the United States in April and May of this year will cost Zurich Re at least $295 million, for both Zurich North America and Farmers Re, the company says in a 20 June statement.
This initial estimate, net of reinsurance and pre-tax, will be recorded in its half-year results, which appear 15 August. It notes of the weather events that the “severity and frequency [were] well above past industry experience”.
Tornadoes are more common in the US than in any other country, with about 1,200 a year on average, according to Wikipedia.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Perth, in western Australia, became the latest victim of a cloud of ash from a volcano in Chile Wednesday, with the airport stopping flights as a precautionary measure, starting at 13:00 and lasting at least a day, with disruptions to international as well as national flights. Qantas, Virgin Australia and other airlines have been cancelling flights in and out of Australia and New Zealdn due to the ash from the volcano 9,000km away.
The disruptions to air travel throughout the country has many Australians puzzled, local media report: Puyehue volcano in southern Chile’s Andes mountains began erupting 4 June and shows no signs of a let-up, affecting air travel in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil, but also Australia.
The ash cloud takes about six days to reach Australia, but there are concerns that airlines will be hit just as families prepare for school holidays that start 1 July. The Meteorology Bureau in Australia notes that “Volcanic ash particles come in a range of sizes and while the biggest will fall to the ground quickly, very small particles take a long time to settle out of the atmosphere. This eruption ejected these small particles very high in the atmosphere, to a region of stronger winds known as the jet stream. The jet stream has then carried the ash particles great distances to the east.”
It is not unprecedented for volcanic ash to remain suspended for long time periods.
Perth’s situation is different from that on the east coast. “The base of the plume is at a lower level than the ash cloud that has disrupted air travel on Australia’s east coast, making it harder for pilots to fly around or below the danger,” reports the Sydney Morning Herald. “Airservices Australia spokesman Matt Wardell told AAP the plume approaching Perth covered a band between 15,000 and 35,000 feet (4.5km to 10.5km) and was approaching Perth from the southwest.
Links to other sites: Australian national weather service, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Australia’s minister for agriculture, Joe Ludwig, has suspended shipments of live cattle to 11 abattoirs in Indonesia after disturbing film footage surfaced showing severe mistreatment of the animals. He has also opened an investigation into the supply chain, from shipment to slaughter and demanded an immediate end to the use of Indonesia is Australia’s biggest market for shipping live animals.
Austrlia’s public reaction was swift, reports the Sydney Morning Herald, with web sites for two animal protection agencies crashing due to an overload of traffic, and 35,000 signatures gathered in just five hours for a total ban on the trade. Indonesia is Australia’s largest market for live cattle shipments. The value of the trade, according to the Jakarta Globe, is A$320 million ($342 million).
Indonesia’ vice-minister of agriculture, Bayu Krisnamurthi, asked “Please respond to the video proportionally”, reminding Australians that the two countries are not at the same level of development. He “stopped short of calling for the immediate punishment of any abattoirs found guilty of mistreatment of cattle, reportedly saying the first step would be to provide them with guidance”, reports the Australian newspaper.
Links to other sites: ABC Australia programme on cattle shipments (alert: disturbing graphic images), BBC, Jakarta Globe, Sydney Morning Herald
ZUG, SWITZERLAND - Ivan Glasenberg of Zug is making headlines in Australia, as the country’s surprise new number two billionaire – surprise in part because few knew Glasenberg was Australian, but also because he’s never before appeared on the list of the richest 200 Australians.
CEO runs London Stock Market’s remarkable new member
The South-African born man who lives in Switzerland and heads commodities giant Glencore, based in Baar, Switzerland, soared to the runner-up spot on the country’s BRW list of the 200 wealthiest people. He became an overnight billionaire when the company was partially floated in the past few days, in London and Hong Kong.
“Mr Glasenberg, who joined Glencore in 1984, is believed to have gained his Australian citizenship while working in the company’s Sydney office for two years,” the Sydney Morning Herald, which is published by the same company as BRW, reports, without giving dates.
Reuters reported in early May, when Glencore published its IPO (initial public offering) brochure, that Glasenberg “will rank among the world’s 100 richest people, Forbes data suggests, ahead of Nicky Oppenheimer, the $7 billion diamond tycoon Forbes considers South Africa’s richest man.”
The wire service carries one of the lengthiest descriptions of him published by world business media, noting that the race-walking athlete barely missed competing in the 1984 Olympics, according to his own account, because of a technicality related to his Israeli nationality.
The London Stock Exchange said in a press release Tuesday 24 May that the company had raised $10 billion.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A Canadian woman who has admitted helping her elderly and ailing mother to travel to Switzerland to commit suicide is asking her provincial court to challenge a Canadian law that penalizes people who assist suicides.
Kathleen Carter, from Langley, British Columbia, was 89 years old and suffering from a painful chronic disease, spinal stenosis, that left her unable to care for herself.
She asked her daughter Lee in 2009 to help her end her life. The two plus Lee’s husband travelled to Zurich in January 2010, where the elderly woman died.
The name of the Dignitas clinic is not specifically mentioned, but the clinic has developed notoriety as one of the few places in the world that accepts foreigners who want to end their lives. The clinic has come under increasing pressure in recent years (see GenevaLunch related stories).
The Langley Advance, a local paper, reports that “this week, Carter, Hollis Johnson, and Dr William Shoichet of Victoria along with the BC Civil Liberties Association are asking the BC Supreme Court to overturn the Criminal Code provisions against assisted suicide. Their legal challenge says the laws are unconstitutional.”
The newspaper says the five-day trip cost the family $30,000 and that Kathleen Carter, according to her daughter, very much regretted the need for secrecy, which did not allow her to say goodbye to her fellow nursing home residents. Her children were told ahead but not the grandchildren.
In another case which is raising questions about laws covering the right of the elderly and unwell to commit suicide with assistance, the Sydney Morning Herald this week carries the story of a couple who decided to die together, after 60 years of marriage.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Barely a whiff of the scandal has reached Switzerland, but it’s top of the news in India this week, and UK media have been following it with interest: the former head of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi (CWG) in October 2010, Suresh Kalmadi, was arrested Monday 25 April and appeared in court Tuesday, charged, according to India’s Central Bureau of Investigation with “conspiracy to cause favour to a private firm based in Switzerland in awarding the contract for Timing, Scoring & Result system at an inflated cost of Rs. 141 crore [ed. note: CHF27.7 million].
Kalmadi is the third top official to be arrested since March in connection with the investigation.
A lawyer was arrested for throwing a slipper at Kalmadi as he arrived at court Tuesday.
Wednesday, Indian media report that the Indian Olympic Association have replaced him as president (the IOC in Lausanne has not yet confirmed the information).
The company in question, while not named by the court, is clearly Swiss Timing, based in Corgémont, canton Bern, which is owned by the Swatch Group. The scandal has been whipped up by the Indian press for months, but reached a new peak this week, implying in passing that Swiss Timing might be accused of wrongdoing, and even the Associated Press expressed confusion, saying in reports published Tuesday that “it was not immediately clear if Swiss Timing was also accused of alleged wrongdoing.” The sentence was later dropped from updates, but the older version is still available from several of AP’s client news outlets.
Swatch Group, in a press release issued 26 April, vehemently denies the Indian media reports and clarifies the financial situation, which has been the source of much confusion in the Indian press.
The CWG were pursued by charges of corruption months before the Games took place:
Swatch Group vehemently denies Indian media rumours
Beatrice Howald, press spokesperson for Swatch, told GenevaLunch Wednesday that the company has not been contacted or accused by Indian authorities of any illegal activities, nor has it been able to obtain any information in response to its efforts to determine if there were problems with the contract bid process.
“Swiss Timing would have had nothing to gain by this,” she points out, qualifying the company’s reputation in the field of sports events timing as “excellent”.
Swiss Timing was responsible for timing and scoring at the Games. A second company, India-based Gem International, may have been involved in obtaining the contract, but the process now under investigation by a court in Delhi, appears murky.
Swiss Timing has long history of timing top world sports events
Swiss Timing is one of the world’s top sports events timekeepers:
Australian media carrying the story of a kangaroo that was apparently castrated and cruelly damaged Sunday afternoon 10 April while it was alive, reported that there is a public outcry over the incident, but authorities said late Tuesday that the animal had not been intentionally injured.
Police and animal welfare specialists say the number of cases of cruelty to animals is on the rise, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, but possibly due to increased awareness rather than more cases. It initially appeared that the kangaroo, after being hit by a car, was castrated, possibly for souvenir parts.
“Kangaroo scrotums are sold in souvenir shops as pouches and bottle openers,” reported the SMH.
An autopsy done on the kangaroo, which was put down by Wildlife Victoria volunteers, showed that he had in fact lost body parts as he was dragged by the car after being hit, news service AFP reports.
Safety fears in Peru have increased following the shooting at the end of March of Australian tourist Elizabeth Littlewood, who was attacked by her taxi driver on the way to the airport in the capital city Lima. Littlewood, 26, who was returning home to Newcastle, Australia after a trekking holiday in the Andes with her partner, is now recovering in hospital from the bullet wound, which entered through her stomach at point blank range but luckily missed her vital organs.
Greg Carter, long time Lima resident and director of Chimu Adventures, is quoted by an Australian paper as warning that “unlicensed taxis are abundant and never to be advised to tourists travelling to the airport, or around Lima in general,” but that the city itself is relatively safe, when tourists are aware of where not to go and how to avoid danger.
Foreign embassies in Lima have not altered their travel advisories in the wake of the shooting.
Links to other sites: Sydney Morning Herald, Newcastle Herald, Worldnomads.com on safety advice in Lima
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Five natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific region in the first three months of 2011 are likely to cost Zurich Financial Services Group $500 million, the company said in a statement Thursday 31 March.
The figure represents an amount net of reinsurance and before tax. They are estimates only, the company cautions: “The full loss assessment, and therefore the ultimate cost, will take time to complete due to the extreme nature of the losses and the limited access to the damaged areas particularly in Japan but also in New Zealand.”
The five events are: the Brisbane floods, the Victoria storms and cyclone Yasi in Australia in January and February, the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand in late February and the recent earthquake and Tsunami in Japan. The losses will be recorded in the first quarter results 2011,to be released 5 May 2011.
An Australian court is hearing the case of a father who threw his four-year-old daughter off the Melbourne West Gate Bridge in January 2009, shortly after phoning his ex-wife to tell her she would never see their children again. The jury is faced with deciding if the father was “mad”, too mentally impaired at the time to be responsible for his actions, or if he was a “bad” father. Two other children, ages 2 and 6, were found with him soon after the crime, the facts of which he does not contest.
He was delivering the children to school and a creche when he pulled over on the bridge. Motorists immediately stopped to scan the water below, and emergency services pulled her out of the water but she died four hours later from the effects of being in the water, and multiple injuries.
Links to other sites: The Age, Herald Sun
Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has declared that closing the life-expectancy gap for Aboriginals by the target year of 2031, “would be extremely difficult unless they themselves take more responsibility for improving their living standards” to help meet the goal.
“Indigenous people know that when the child starts attending school, when the drinker stops abusing alcohol, when the adult takes the job that is there, then change begins,” she told parliament.
Gillard said governments had created a cycle of dependence that needs to be broken.
The Prime Minister also called on indigenous people to create a safe environment, pay their rent, to respect good social norms and respect the law.
Indigenous leader Lowitja O’Donoghue an important figure in Australia has criticised Gillard for being too tough in her call.
Links to other sites: The Australian, The Dominion Post
Nations Brands Index: Swiss hold onto 8th place
US still number one, UK, Canada, Australia in top 10
When it comes to tourism, Switzerland is ranked 11th by the NBI (photo, Verbier)
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland is still viewed by most of the world in a positive light, says the newly published 2010 Nations Brands Index, NBI, which evaluates the strength and attractiveness of 50 countries. Several countries use it to create public relations campaigns.
The United States continues to have “the world’s most valuable country brand, a top spot it obtained in 2009 after [Barack] Obama’s election,” the index shows.
The annual NBI study bases its result on six categories: governance, investments and immigration, exports, tourism, cultural heritage and population. Switzerland ranks in the top 12 in 5 of these categories.
The study shows mixed results for Switzerland.
Generally speaking, Switzerland enjoys a better image outside Europe than with its neighbours, Germany being the exception. It ranks Switzerland second.
When it comes to the category “Population”, Switzerland is viewed less than favourably by Egypt and Turkey. Turkey places Switzerland 12th.
The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs notes that in the 2010 index, Switzerland’s “commitment to the environment and its excellent quality of life were once again regarded as [its] greatest strengths. It also received top marks for [respecting] the political rights of its citizens,” it ranked second only to Canada.
A long silence abruptly followed by screaming wind and loud noises: Yasi, which could be the worst cyclone in 100 years in Australia, landed Wednesday.From Australia:
Cyclone Yasi heads towards Queensland, Australia 30 Jan (photo, NASA Goddard / MODIS Rapid Response Team)
Cyclone Yasi headed towards Queensland, full power ahead, Tuesday 1 February, and thousands were evacuated, while industry, includings mines and transport, including railways and ports closed.
It is expected to hit Cairns late Wednesday, with winds that could gust up to 250kph. Airlines have put on extra flights to move people out of Cairns.
One-third of the country’s sugar crop is threatened by the storm, says the government.
The storm could dump up to a metre of rain on the northeastern coast, already suffering from massive floods, according to weather services.
Links to other sites: AP/CBC, Bloomberg, Nasa Eurekalert
Australia creates flood tax
Displaced Afghan refugee Gul Hassan is taking refuge on a road side near Hajizai Afghan refugee village which was destroyed by recent floods; August 2010 (UNHCR / R. Ali)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Monsoon floods that devastated Pakistan in 2010 continue to cause extreme hardship in the face of a funding shortfall, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva says.
“This natural disaster, unprecedented in terms of destruction of housing and infrastructure, has necessitated an unprecedented response,” the IOM notes in a statement issues 27 January.
The UN agency coordinates some 300 agencies and NGO (non-governmental organization) groups involved in the Shelter Cluster programme to re-house people in the region.
It says international donors have contributed US$1.1 billion or 56 percent of a UN appeal for US$1.96b launched in September 2010. Agencies in the Shelter Cluster appealed for US$322 million and have received US$126m or 39 percent.
Some 11 million people were left homeless, with 1.7 million houses destroyed. Punjab province alone saw twice as many people lose their homes as did in the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Those caught by the floods include Afghan refugees.
Millions have been helped but “unless more funding is forthcoming, at least half a million families who lost their homes and need help to rebuild either a one-room or a transitional shelter will receive nothing,” according to the IOM.
Current La Niña episode started in June 2010, expected to die down over next four months
Milton Road, Brisbane, Australia January 2011 - part of a collection of Brisbane flood photos on flickr by Eric Veland: www.flickr.com/photos/erikveland
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva has published data confirming that recent heavy rains that led to flooding in Australia are linked to a La Niña “episode” that began in June 2010.
Areas including Australia and Indonesia that have already been affected are warned by forecasters to expect more unusually heavy rain for the next one to two months before the episode dies down.
The WMO is a United Nations organization, whose member countries’ national weather and meteorological services use it to work together.
The WMO says that “during La Niña episodes rainfall is increased across the western equatorial Pacific, including northern Australia and Indonesia during December-February and the Philippines during June-August”.
Below average sea level pressure and above average sea surface temperature in some areas, coupled with La Niña “have led to much above average rainfall in parts of Australia, Indonesia and southeast Asia. This La Niña situation is also believed to be linked to above average rainfall in southern Africa, below average rainfall in eastern equatorial Africa, and below average rainfall in central southwest Asia and southeastern South America.”
It is the opposite of El Niño, which brings unusually warm ocean surface temperatures.” Both events disrupt the large-scale ocean-atmosphere circulation patterns in the tropics and have important consequences for weather and climate around the globe. Once established, they typically last for 9 months or more,” according to the WMO.
2010 equal to 2005 and 1998, confirms global warming trend
Extreme weather events listed but no direct link made
Australian desert (photo: ©2010 Peter Brodbeck, flickr)
(video, El Niño, La Niña) Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Those who thought 2010 was hotter than usual were right: it was one of the warmest years on record, sharing the top hot slot with 2005 and 1998, the WMO (World Meteorological Organization) said in Geneva 20 January.
But if you were sitting in Scandinavia or the eastern US in December 2010 you’ll be right in thinking you’ve just experienced exceptional cold, with parts of Norway and Sweden having temperatures -10C below normal.
Eastern Canada and Greenland had unusually warm weather in December, however.
Higher temperatures did not affect the world evenly, but 2010 was exceptionally warm in much of Africa, southern and western Asia, Greenland and Arctic Canada, “with many parts of these regions having their hottest years on record” since the start of what the WMO calls instrumental climate records.
Greenland's snow and ice suffered from unusually warm weather in Decembe 2010
“The 2010 data confirm the Earth’s significant long-term warming trend,” WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a statement. “The 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 1998.”
The WMO is a United Nations organization that provides a place where member states’ national weather and meteorological services work together.
Arctic sea-cover at all-time low in December
Devastating floods in the Rio de Janeiro region in Brazil continue to take a high toll, with the number of deaths now well above 400 and expected to rise as rescuers find more bodies. Some 14,000 people are homeless and the country’s new president, Dilma Rousseff has promised US$400 million in aid to clean up and rebuild.
In other extreme weather news, Brisbane and the Queenlands area in Australia fear more rain is on the way, with a cyclone building up offshore while the massive damage from high waters of the past two weeks is assessed. Reuters reports that 12,000 homes have been destroyed and 118,000 buildings are without electricity. The World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Switzerland 10 January confirmed that the heavy rains are part of the La Nina weather pattern.
In the Boston area and much of the rest of the northeastern US, heavy snows are threatening again, but schools and airports have re-opened after being closed for two days while the area dug itself out.
Links to other sites: Boston.com, Los Angeles Times, Reuters
Video, Boston.com
View Queensland flooding in a larger map
Bundaberg, north of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia, is bracing Wednesday for the highest flood level in 50 years, reports The Age, with waters expected to reach 8 metres. Several highways and bridges are closed on Australia’s east coast due to the floods from rivers swollen by heavy rains that followed tropical cyclone Tasha, which landed in the region last week.
The town of Theodore, population 350, which is 400 km northwest of Brisbane, had to be evacuated completely by military helicopters, reports AFP.
International sports, cricket
Tiny Ashes urn
Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia (Geneva Lunch) - England turned on the pressure throughout the Fourth Test to take a 2-1 lead in the five Test series and so retain what for many English and Australians is the most important trophy in world sport, The Ashes. The tiny urn was presented by a group of Melbourne women to represent the death of English cricket after the first loss to Australia on English soil in 1882. The teams compete for the trophy every second year. England last retained the trophy in Australia in 1986-87.
The man of the match was Jonathan Trott, who scored 168 not out in England’s innings to set up the win. The final score was a victory for England by an innings and 157 runs, 29 December 2010.
Links to other sites: Yahoo cricket, BBC, Guardian,
Up to 50 people may have drowned when their flimsy fishing boat smashed up on rocks in heavy seas on the coast of Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean. Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan confirmed 15 December that “a number of people” had died. The boat is thought to have carried some 70 asylum seekers, who often leave Indonesia in fishing boats hoping to reach Australia. The weather in the area has been very bad with 3-metre swells and little visibility, according to local news reports.
Australian news reports say that people on the island watched helplessly as the vessel broke up on the rocks and tossed its passengers into the sea. Australia’s navy and customs boats patrol the seas to try to stem the flow of illegal immigrants. Christmas Island is a major “detention” centre for the boat people whose claims to migrate are evaluated there, rather than on the mainland. Illegal immigration has been a contentious political issue in Australia, and many opponents of current immigration policy have said that the Australian presence in the seas could have averted the disaster, according to ABC News.
Links to other sites: ABC News, The Australian, LA Times
