Six In The Morning

Brisbane braces for massive floods
Thousands flee Australia's third-largest city before floods that are expected to sweep through scores of districts.
Last Modified: 12 Jan 2011
Thousands of residents have begun evacuating the outskirts of Australia's third-largest city as other people piled sandbags outside their homes and stockpiled food amid rising floodwaters and more heavy rain.

The streets of Brisbane in the state of Queensland were largely deserted, with 80 suburbs expected to be flooded if the Brisbane river bursts its banks as expected on Thursday.

About 20,000 homes were expected to be hit by the flooding in the coming days, Anna Bligh, the premier of Queensland state, said on Wednesday.

"I understand that we could see up to 20,000 properties in Brisbane affected by the water and people do need to take that very seriously," she said.

"That is an extraordinary amount of people and homes."

How Does One Keep Its Citizens from Fleeing? Shoot Them

Five North Korean refugees reported shot dead after pursuit across Chinese border
IN WHAT looks like a new departure for the government of Kim Jong-il, border guards have reportedly shot dead five North Korean refugees after pursuing them across the frozen Yalu river, which forms a natural border with neighbouring China.

Thousands of North Koreans have fled the world’s last Stalinist state in a bid to escape poverty and hunger. South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that border guards pursued seven refugees across the river into China.

“Five of them died instantly under intensive gunfire by North Korean border guards who had run after them and the two others were wounded and taken to the North,” the paper said.

If Only The Worlds Major Financial Institutions Cared
The world economy remains in a weakened state after the financial crisis of 2007-2009, according to a risks survey for the World Economic Forum in Davos this month
Global economy 'in no state to cope with new shocks'
Global leaders received a blunt warning today that the world would be unable to cope with an array of potentially "disastrous" shocks after being left weakened by the financial crisis of 2007-2009.

The annual risks survey prepared for the World Economic Forum in Davos later this month identified inequality and weaknesses in global governance as the two key challenges facing policymakers.

"The world is no position to face major, new shocks," the report noted. "The financial crisis has reduced global economic resilience, while increasing geo-political tension and heightened social concerns suggest that both governments and societies are less able than ever to cope with global challenges.

Talk Radio In America Is All About Fury Against The Government

Politics as usual in a city struggling to come to terms with its grief
On the street corner just outside Gabrielle Giffords' constituency office, a helium balloon slips its moorings and zigzags into the dusk sky. Passengers on a bus turn all at once, faces pressed against the windows to glimpse the scene: flickering candles, flowers and stuffed toys cram the pavement in the immediate vicinity.

Grief is a unifying force. Two days after the shooting that gravely injured the congresswoman and killed six others, Tucson residents are coming to this spot in a steady flow, to say their prayers privately, to add their own offerings to the roadside shrine or to write down their thoughts on a slip of paper provided before dropping it in a message box in the hope Ms Giffords will soon be well enough to read it.

Thousands Still Living In Tents The Country In Ruins
Haiti marks the first anniversary of its disastrous earthquake on Wednesday with voodoo ceremonies and open air masses amid a barrage of warnings that its corrupt political power struggle was destroying recovery efforts.
Haiti earthquake anniversary: power struggle destroying recovery efforts
Rene Preval, the outgoing president, was last night under mounting pressure to reverse an apparent attempt to rig the election of his successor.
The Organisation of American States (OAS), the regional grouping, demanded that Jude Celestin, the ruling party candidate, be removed from a run-off for the post.
Widespread bribery, intimidation and ballot fraud in the first round of the election produced a discredited result that has pitched the island into dangerous political uncertainty.

Yes, My Authoritarian Rule Is To Blame So, Don't Blame My Authoritarian Rule

Tunisia protests: Troops deployed in capital

Soldiers and militaryvehicles have been seen on the city's main avenue, at major intersections, and outside the headquarters of state television.

On Tuesday, riot police were pelted with stones in the suburb of Ettadamen.

Meanwhile, human rights activists say a strike has been called in Kasserine, a region at the centre of the unrest.

A trade union official told the BBC that all workers in Kasserine were observing the strike call. It has not been possible to verify this claim.