Australian flooding claims first victim in Queensland

2 January 2011 Last updated at 04:07 GMT

The waters are still rising in the city of Rockhampton

A woman swept from the road in her car has become the first victim of widespread flooding in the Australian state of Queensland.

At least two other people have been reported missing.

More than 20 towns have already been cut off or flooded across an area larger than France and Germany, with more than 200,000 people affected.

In some areas waters are receding, but in Rockhampton - a city of 77,000 - they have yet to reach their peak.

The 41-year-old woman who was killed had been trying to cross the Leichhardt River on a causeway with one other car when both vehicles were swept away.

Analysis

Nick Bryant BBC News, Queensland

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More than 20 towns and cities are facing the worst floods in living memory.

Rockhampton is the latest to be bracing itself for 9m floodwaters. The airport has been closed, a main highway has been shut and the local mayor is warning that more than 40% of the city could be flooded.

The Royal Australian Air Force has been brought in to deliver emergency accommodation for evacuated residents. Elsewhere, the rising waters have already inundated thousands of homes.

Police rescued eight people from the cars, but were unable to reach the woman. Her body was recovered later.

Costly damage

Rescue workers have also been searching for a man whose small fishing boat was swamped by flood waters in the mouth of the Boyne River, and for a swimmer who disappeared in the Fitzroy river, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

There are fears that damage from the floods could cost billions of Australian dollars to repair.

Officials have warned that the mining, farming and tourism industries will all suffer.

Recovery efforts are beginning in some areas where flooding has subsided, including the severely affected towns of Emerald and Bundaberg.

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QUEENSLAND

• North-eastern Australian state
• Largely tropical climate
• Area: 1.73 million sq km (668,000 sq mile)
• Coastal regions, including Great Barrier Reef, designated World Heritage Site
• Mining and cattle ranching important inland

Residents are preparing to return home, though the towns of Theodore and Condamine, which were completely evacuated, remain empty.

In some areas, helicopters have been used to deliver supplies and food to cut-off householders.

Residents in Rockhampton have been leaving their homes for days as water levels continue to rise.

The mayor there, Brad Carter, has warned that about 40% of the city could be affected.

The airport has been closed to commercial flights, and roads into the city from the south and the west have been cut off.

Alexandria bombings

ew days prior to Nagaa Hammadi Incidents' first anniversary, a blast goes off at Two Saints Church, Miami, Alexandria, mere minutes into New Year Day of 2011. Official reports say a car blast caused explosion. Later, a Ministry of Interior statement says incident is a "suicide attack". Casualties are estimated at 21 dead, 79 injured. Mourning victims, Egypt's Orthodox Church cancels christmas celebrations. In a televised speech, President Mubarak of Egypt addresses nation: "It [bombing] was a terrorist operation whiich carries, within itself, the hallmark of foreign hands which want to turn Egypt into another scene of terrorism like elsewhere in the region and the wider world." "We are all in this together," vows Mubarak, 82, "and will face up to terrorism and defeat it."

Experts: Al-Qaeda perpetrated Alexandria church bombings

Arabic Edition

Sun, 02/01/2011 - 11:04

Photographed by رويترز

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Egyptian experts, in the wake of a fatal attack shorty after midnight on New Year's Eve at an Alexandria church, have accused Al-Qaeda of responsibility, while predicting similar terrorist acts in the future due to security failures.

“Al-Qaeda is the lone perpetrator, for sure," said Hassan Nafaa, political science professor at Cairo University. "No Egyptian authority can do it.”

Nafaa considers the bombing “an act of revenge” and denied speculation concerning Israeli involvement.

“Israel cannot resort to such violent actions, because it fears its relationship with Egypt,” he said.

Expert at Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Amr Hashim Rabeei, concurred, saying, “That this crime was able to be perpetrated points to the fact that the Al-Qaeda warnings that emerged more than 40 days ago have not been dealt with adequately.”

Rabeei expects similar terrorist acts to occur in the light of the current security failure.

But Waheed abdel Meguid, another Ahram expert, ruled out another wave of terrorism in Egypt akin to that of the 1990s.

“Large organizations engaging in violence do not exist any longer in Egypt,” he said.

Abdel Meguid placed the culpability on a group of wayward youth subscribing to the ideology of Al-Qaeda.

Alex Salafists condemn church attack

EE staff

Sun, 02/01/2011 - 11:47

Photographed by AFP

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A suicide attack on Friday that killed 21 and injured dozens outside an Alexandria church has provoked condemnation by the city’s Salafists.

A statement by the Salafist Call labeled the explosion at St. Mark’s Church and St. Peter’s Church in Sidi Beshr district as a “source of evil and corruption” for society. The statement said the attack will help fuel accusations that Islam is a violent religion.

“The Islamic approach we adopt opens up the path to God through logic and good advice. It rejects the use of violence that only serve the interests of people bent on damaging Egypt”

Many experts brand the Salafist trend as hostile to Christianity and influenced by Al-Qaeda, which is widely believed to have carried out the attack.

Experts believe the statement seeks to divert attention away from Alexandria as a Salafist hub. The church attack is the bloodiest since explosions targeted Sinai resorts in 2005.

The group’s statement pointed to a centuries-old state of co-existence between Egypt’s Muslims and Copts “except for rare incidents that only served to strengthen the relationship.”

The Salafist movement, on the other hand, attacked calls for foreign intervention by the US or Israel to protect Egyptian Copts. It warned against the using the incident as a pretext for retaliation against Muslims and their mosques.

Egyptian policeman shot by human traffickers along Israeli border

Agencies

Sun, 02/01/2011 - 11:32

Photographed by Reuters

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An Egyptian policeman was gunned down by human traffickers on the Egyptian-Israeli borders on Saturday, a local security source said.

The policeman, Rami Ahmed Abdel-Latif, was shot in the head when he tried to prevent a group of human traffickers from smuggling a number of Africans into Israel at the southern Rafah land port, the Egyptian source told Xinhua news agency.

The policeman's body was transferred to the Rafah central hospital. Efforts were underway to arrest the killers, the official added.

Large numbers of migrants use Egypt as a transit point in their search for jobs and asylum in other countries. Egypt's border with Israel in the Sinai Peninsula has become a major trafficking route for African migrants seeking jobs in Israel.

Court rules to remove offending photos from cigarette boxes

Shaimaa el-Karanshawi

Hoda Rashwan

Sun, 02/01/2011 - 13:09

Photographed by other

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Describing cautionary photos recently put on cigarette packets as "offensive," Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court on Saturday mandated health minister Hatem al-Gabali remove the photos.

Egypt's Ministry of Health commits tobacco producers to include a photo of a sloping cigarette on the packets, with a warning against the negative impacts of smoking on sexual relationships.

The court labeled the photos at odds with religious, moral, and social principles.

But a researcher at the ministry-run Egyptian Smoking Prevention Research Institute, Mohamed Moustafa, said the photos posted on cigarette packets are chosen by the World Health Organization (WHO), which he said chooses images that can best effect change.

Moustafa argues the image fails to carry sexual implications beyond the scientifically proven impact of cigarettes on sexual efficacy.

In pictures: Day of anger in Egypt

The attack in Alexandria prompted Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican to call for Christians throughout the Middle East to be protected [AFP]


At least 21 people were killed in a car bombing outside a Coptic Christian church in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria on Saturday [EPA]



Copts in the port city protested outside the Qiddissine (The Saints) Church following the early-morning attack [AFP]

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the deadly blast, blamed by officials on a suicide bomber [AFP]

Riot police clashed with Christian men after the bombing, which occurred as nearly 1,000 faithful left the church following a service [Reuters]

Christian youths threw stones at riot police as tension spilled onto the streets. Officials claimed that the car that exploded was parked in front of the church [AFP]

The protests underscored the religious tension that simmers just under the surface of Egyptian society [Reuters]

Witnesses said that some Coptic Christians in Alexandria took out their anger on Muslims after the bombing [Reuters]

Eventually police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters [Reuters]

Egypt's Christian community - the biggest in the Middle East - has complained of being the target of religiously motivated violence in recent years [AFP]