Ouattara offers amnesty if Ivory Coast's Gbagbo quits fast

PARIS (Reuters) – Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara promised rival Laurent Gbagbo an amnesty if the latter steps down quickly, according to an interview published in a French newspaper on Friday.

The comment shed further light after remarks on Thursday in which Ouattara, recognized internationally as winner of a November 28 election, said that Gbagbo had blood on his hands and had to go but that he would guarantee him safety.

In the interview in Le Figaro newspaper, Ouattara was quoted as having said: "For me, peace has no price. That's why I am willing to declare an amnesty for Gbagbo, as happened in the past for Benin President (Mathieu) Kerekou."

Ouattara said he would be willing to grant Gbagbo the status of a former head of state.

"But he has to accept rapidly, because he's a person with blood on his hands," Ouattara added.

The U.S. Treasury Department stepped up outside pressure on Gbagbo on Thursday when it barred U.S. citizens from financial dealings with a man who has ruled for more than a decade and whose standoff with Ouattara has raised fears of renewed civil war in the former French colony.

PROMISES, PROMISES: GOP drops some out of the gate

Cool Democracy...
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio holds up the gavel after receiving it from outgoing House Speaker …




WASHINGTON – Republicans have already violated some of the vows they made in taking stewardship of the House.

Their pledge to cut $100 billion from the budget in one year won't be kept.
And for a coming vote seeking to repeal the health care overhaul, the first major initiative of the new Congress, lawmakers won't be allowed to propose changes to the legislation despite Republican promises to end such heavy-handed tactics from the days of Democratic control.

Is business as usual really back so fast? That's not clear one day after Democrat Nancy Pelosi yielded the gavel to the new Republican House leader, John Boehner. The GOP came to power in the House with an agenda that, if carried through, would in fact change how the government spends, taxes and does its legislative business.

But those with long memories may have the feeling they've seen this movie before.

After the GOP won control of Congress in the 1994 elections, the House churned out a series of votes aimed at fulfilling promises made in the party's "Contract With America." Most hit a dead end in the Senate. The GOP's new governing document, "A Pledge to America," covers many of the same themes and faces many of the same problems.

The effort to repeal the health care law, for one, is expected to pass in the House and fail in the Senate, going nowhere.

A look at some of the Republican promises in the campaign that delivered them control of the House, and their prospects now:

CUT SPENDING: "We will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone," the GOP pledge stated.

It turns out $100 billion is way out of reach.

By the time the current stopgap spending bill expires March 4, five months of the budget year — which began Oct. 1 — will have passed. Republicans acknowledge it's unrealistic to force even deeper cuts for the rest of the budget year to make up for money that's already been spent at the current, higher levels.

What is more, Republicans juiced up the $100 billion promise in the first place by using as their starting point President Barack Obama's $1.128 trillion budget request, a theoretical figure that was never approved by Congress.

Republicans are bristling at accusations that they're backtracking from the $100 billion promise even as they concede they can't pull it off. Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Republicans will set spending limits "for the remainder" of the budget year at levels in effect before the 2009 stimulus.

___

REFORM CONGRESS: "We will let any lawmaker — Democrat or Republican — offer amendments to reduce spending," the pledge said. "House Democrats have relied heavily on what are known as `martial law' procedures during the current Congress, particularly provisions that allow them to bring any bill to the floor with little or no notice and deny Republican members of Congress or even factions of their own party their right to debate and offer amendments or substitutes for consideration or vote."

Despite the promise of more open debate and the opportunity to offer floor amendments, GOP leaders will bring legislation to repeal Obama's signature health care overhaul bill to the floor next week and deny Democrats any chance to try to preserve popular provisions.

Republicans say that repealing the health care measure is a core campaign promise that deserves an up or down vote.

But it denies minority Democrats the chance to force individual votes on certain provisions of the new law, such as the ban on insurance company discrimination against people with pre-existing illness or the measure allowing children to stay on their parents' health plan until they turn 26.

Blocking votes on such popular provisions would protect newly elected Republicans, especially in swing districts, from politically difficult decisions. It also would guarantee a united GOP front against the bill.

Democrats also say that repealing the health care law would add to the deficit, contrary to the GOP's promise to curb runaway deficits. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's most recent estimate says that the Democratic health measure would reduce the deficit by $143 billion over the coming decade, savings that would disappear if the law is repealed. Republicans counter that that figure is unrealistic.

Wal-Mart Could Pay $40 Million To Settle Claims It Colluded With Netflix

Did Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) illegally divide up the DVD market back in 2005? Wal-Mart has denied the allegations, but the retail giant is now set to cut a check—for anywhere from $29 million to $40 million—to make them go away.

The settlement Wal-Mart has agreed to is outlined in papers that were filed with the Oakland federal court that is hearing the class-action lawsuit. Wal-Mart will give either cash or a Walmart.com gift card to every “class member” who asks for one, and will spend no less than $29 million and no more than $40 million. The class—which has now been certified by the judge overseeing the case—includes everyone who has paid for a Netflix subscription since 2005. The exact size of the class still hasn’t been determined, but Netflix today has more than 16 million members in the U.S. and Canada. The settlement applies only in the U.S.

The judge overseeing the case still has to approve the settlement, which is a normal step in class-action lawsuits. Wal-Mart first agreed to settle the case back in August but didn’t disclose the cost of the settlement or any details.

For its part, Netflix is going to fight on. Contacted for this story, a Netflix spokesman said the company “believes the lawsuit lacks merit and we will defend it.”

The plaintiffs have passed an important hurdle by getting class certification from the Oakland federal judge. The certification of such an enormous class isn’t good news for Netflix, because it increases the potential damages it could have to pay out if it loses. In class-action suits, defendants often try to prevent the certification of a class, because class-actions can be more difficult and expensive to defend than complaints filed by individual plaintiffs. The order certifying the class doesn’t suggest anything about the actual merits of the suit, however.

The lawsuit stems from an agreement between Wal-Mart and Netflix in 2005. Wal-Mart agreed to get out of the business of renting DVDs online, even though it was doing well in that increasingly competitive market, while Netflix agreed it wouldn’t go into physical DVD sales, a core area for Wal-Mart. The pact came about shortly after Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) got into the online rental business. The pact, which included a provision that called for the two companies to help market each others’ services, was reportedly widely in the press; Netflix had a 4 percent bump in its stock price the day the agreement was announced. The plaintiffs’ lawyers in the class-action case argue that the agreement by the two companies to help each other violated antitrust laws

Turkish Airlines passengers overpower 'hijacker' claiming to have a bomb

The Telegraph




Passengers aboard a Turkish Airlines flight from Oslo have overpowered a would-be hijacker
as the plane landed at Istanbul airport.12:00AM GMT 06 Jan 2011.
Police said the man was a Turk who had demanded that the plane return to Norway. His motive was unclear.

Reports suggest he tried to force his way into the cockpit of the plane saying: "I have a bomb."

The pilot notified emergency services at Istanbul's Ataturk airport. Passengers were quickly taken off after landing and the man was arrested and the bomb found to be a fake.

"I was sitting at the front end of the plane and I heard voices at the back of the plane around 30 minutes before we landed," said Lelya Kilic, one of the 60 passengers aboard flight TK1754 from Oslo.

"I saw a fight between passengers and a man with a mask, carrying a device that looked like a radio handset."

Police said a passenger had been sitting on top of the hijacker when they entered the plane. Police identified the hijacker as Cuma Yasar, 40, and Anatolia news agency said the man was carrying a card identifying him as a disabled person.

Salim Tahar, a passenger, told Norwegian television that someone in the back of the aircraft had put on a mask and threatened to blow up the plane in the air.

"The man spoke Turkish and demanded the plane return to Oslo," Mr Tahar said.

He said the crew moved the other passengers to the front of the plane, while the would-be hijacker remained at the back.

There were no reports of anyone being hurt in the incident

More than 200 Chinese children poisoned by lead

BEIJING (Reuters) – More than 200 Chinese children have been poisoned by lead from battery plants located too close to houses in the east of the country, state media said on Thursday, the latest in a string of heavy metal pollution cases.

After tests last month showed three children in Gaohe in Anhui province had elevated levels of lead in their blood, 280 others were subsequently checked, more than 200 of whom were found to have been poisoned, Xinhua news agency said.

Authorities have now closed both battery plants blamed for the poisoning, the report said.

One of the plants was separated from residences in Gaohe by only a narrow road, it added, in contravention of environmental protection guidelines.

Some of the children affected were just a few months old, the official news agency said.

"When she was a baby, she stayed with my in-laws in Changsha, of the central Hunan Province, and was perfectly healthy. She's been in Gaohe town for just a few months," resident Jiang Feng told Xinhua of her poisoned child.

Lead poisoning, which often builds up slowly as a result of repeated exposure to small amounts of lead, can damage various parts of the body including the nervous and reproductive systems and the kidneys, and it can cause high blood pressure and anemia.

Lead is especially harmful to the developing brains of young children and can cause consequences that may be irreversible including learning difficulties and behavioral problems.

China's environment ministry has called for urgent measures to tackle heavy metal poisoning as cases of mass poisoning created widespread public anger.

In 2009, protesters broke into a smelting works they blamed for the lead poisoning of more than 600 children, smashing trucks and tearing down fences.

Suicidal New York man leaps, but saved by garbage pile

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A would-be suicide jumper in New York was alive on Monday after leaping from a ninth-floor window but landing in a giant heap of garbage uncollected since the city's massive snowstorm a week ago.

Vangelis Kapatos, 26, was hospitalized in critical but stable condition after jumping from his apartment on West 45th Street on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

Sanitation workers have not collected trash since the December 26 storm dumped more than a foot and a half of snow on the city. Mounds of garbage several feet high line many sidewalks.

"Everybody is complaining that the trash hasn't been picked up," Kapatos' aunt said on Monday. "But me, I'm thankful that it was never picked up."

Police said the trash bags below broke Kapatos' fall and that he left no suicide note before jumping.

The Department of Sanitation, which was only resuming garbage collecting on Monday, estimates 77,000 tons of trash have been left uncollected since the storm.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he expects workers to be caught up with trash collection by Friday.

"It will take a few days to catch up," Bloomberg said. "But they're out there today and hopefully in the next three to four days, we'll be done with it."

Katharina Capatos, who spells her surname differently from her nephew, told Reuters he was severely depressed and had spent a month in the psychiatric ward at Bellevue Hospital before being released last week.

He also was worried about the possibility of being evicted from his $572-a-month rent-stabilized apartment, she said.

Kapatos' eviction hearing was scheduled to proceed on Tuesday, according to the New York City Housing Court.

IVORY COAST TODAY

Nigeria Senate leader Teslim Folarin on murder charge

Teslim Folarin, a PDP member, is the majority leader of Nigeria's Senate



A court in Nigeria has charged the leader of the Senate, Teslim Folarin, with involvement in the murder of trade union activist Lateef Salako.

Mr Salako, a transport workers' union leader, was shot dead during a dispute at a ruling party PDP meeting in the south-western city of Ibadan last week.

Three others have also been charged with his killing.

Senator Folarin, who was present at the PDP meeting, is to remain in custody until a bail hearing later this month.

The residents of Ibadan in Oyo State witnessed violent scenes following a local meeting of the PDP last Thursday.

The BBC's Tomi Oladipo in Lagos says during the chaos, unidentified gunmen killed Mr Salako, who rose to prominence last September when a court validated his leadership of Oyo State's National Union of Road Transport Workers, which had been split for months over a bitter power dispute.

Many of Mr Salako's rivals were unhappy at his appointment and clashes broke out between different factions - and dozens were killed in the violence.

It is believed that being the leader of the transport workers' union, and having the subsequent control over the bus stations in the state, brings greater political influence, our reporter says.

Mr Folarin, a PDP member, has been a senator for Oyo State since 2003.

Elections are due in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, in April.

Public Angry

PEACE FM Online


The recent 30 percent increase in petroleum products has triggered a lot of public criticisms and anger from a cross-section of the public.

Many of those condemning the Mills government over the price hike recall how the then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) he led, politicized the issue of petroleum products pricing.

The NDC slammed the then New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, claiming it was insensitive to the plight of Ghanaians and went ahead to organize a series of demonstrations to register their displeasure about the manner in which the NPP was managing the affairs of the country.

Many ordinary Ghanaians could not understand why President Mills, who promised during the 2008 electioneering campaign to reduce fuel prices drastically, is now doing the contrary.

“Why is the NDC government full of lies? The National Petroleum Authority boss was interviewed about this price increases and he categorically denied it, only to come out and slap 25 to 30 percent increment. Ghanaians are watching,” Francis Twum, a resident of Accra lamented.

Contributing, Evelyn Mensah, a civil servant stated: “The government last year promised to hedge the price of the commodity so that if the price goes up we will still get it at a lower price. Where is the promise? This is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Ghanaians must reject the new price!

“The NPA has done a disservice to this country, at a time when businesses that fund the nation's coffers are struggling. The NPA has chosen to serve the parochial interests of a few and they will surely have to give account of their stewardship,” she added.

A student of the University of Ghana, John Tei, on his part said: “Mills promised 2011 will be the year of action. Kufuor bought a barrel of crude oil for $147 per barrel and the highest Ghanaians paid for a gallon of petrol was GH¢5.30. Now that the price is at $92, the NDC government is selling a gallon of petrol at more than GH¢6.00. This is the action he (Mills) is talking about; an action that will send most Ghanaians to their graves.

“Last year, the same government told Ghanaians that it had agreed to hedge oil to prevent the nation from buying oil at higher prices when the price of the most important commodity rises on the world market. So the question we are asking is; why the increment?” Mr Tei asked.

Some traders in the Accra Metropolis have also registered their displeasure about the current hikes in petroleum prices which took effect from yesterday January 4, 2011.

According to the traders, patronage of goods and services on the market had already fallen to an all-time low, noting that the price hike would make it very difficult to make ends meet. The traders, who were mostly market women, told DAILY GUIDE that the increment in petroleum prices would definitely affect the prices of goods and services.

“The 30 percent increase in petroleum products which translates into 18 percent increase in transport fares would make life unbearable for us,” Mrs. Faustina Ansah Boamah, a trader at the Hawkers Market at Circle noted.

Meanwhile, the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has expressed its fury at the latest petroleum prices hikes, dreading that it might kill the businesses of some of its members.

According to the president of the association, Nana Owusu Afari, last year’s price increment in electricity tariffs nearly collapsed some businesses of its members.

Following the announcement of the price hikes, he is apprehensive, telling Citi Business the move might make doing business in Ghana almost impossible and reduce the country’s attraction as an investment destination. “We have already been complaining about the cost of doing business in this country. Now this increase is going to take a lot of money, and when that happens? The people’s ability to purchase goods are reduced and this will have a very sad effect on industry because when you produce the goods and you cannot sell, you have to cut down production and lay off workers.

“Secondly, industry will also become uncompetitive in the ECOWAS region. We are in a global economy, so a lot of people who want to make their profits may be looking to re-locate somewhere. “These are things that we have always been talking to the government about. We did not expect the quantum of the percentage (increase) that we are having to handle. It’s too much on the high side and industry will suffer."

Transport fares have gone up by 18 percent, beginning yesterday. The increase follows late Monday evening announcement by the National Petroleum Authority of a 30- percent adjustment of prices of petrol, diesel, and LPG. Petrol will now sell at GHp 152.07 from GHp116.98 per litre, with diesel going for GHp153.46 from GHp118.05 per litre. LPG will now sell at 104.76 from 83.81 per kilogram. Kerosene and pre-mix fuel are not affected by the price increases.

Government blamed the price hike on increases in crude oil prices on the international market as well as increases in Tema Oil Refinery debt recovery levy approved by Parliament.

Petroleum price increases often lead to nasty clashes and disagreements between commuters and transport owners. To forestall such quarrels, Chairman of the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council, Mathew Hayford, said the council had already met and approved an 18 percent increase.

He explained that the increase in fuel prices accounted for eight percent increase in the fares, with increases in insurance levies and prices of lubricants accounting for the remaining 10 percent. Mr Hayford said taxi fares would however be calculated differently.

The international community recently warned that Ghana’s decision to hedge a barrel of oil for the next 6 to 12 months could have dire consequences on the fragile economy but the government ignored the warning and went ahead to hedge the commodity.

Soldiers Gun Down Cop

Source: Daily Guide


CORROBORATIVE EYEWITNESS accounts have made clearer the circumstances under which a group of soldiers shot and killed an off-duty policeman at Ashaiman, near Accra, last Friday.

The deceased cop, 32-year-old Corporal Sampson Sorsey Quarshie of the Panthers Unit of the Ghana Police Service, was said to be the personal bodyguard of the Minister for Employment, E.T. Mensah.

His shattered mortal remains have been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue in Accra.

A reliable source said that Quarshie, who was riding a motorbike with registration number M-09-GR 4527 to his base at Prampram, was believed to have earlier gone to purchase some items for his two-month-old baby and his wife from the Ashaiman Main Market.

Persons who witnessed the killing said Lance Corporal Quarshie was in a shop at Ashaiman when a commercial driver rushed into the shop asking for help and claiming that his life was at stake.

The policeman then went outside the shop and saw that a soldier, whose name was given as Sergeant Lawrence Agbawu of the 1st Battalion Infantry, Michel Camp near Tema, was furiously at the heels of the taxi driver.

Eyewitnesses said the policeman walked up to the soldier to ask what the matter was but the soldier answered his question with some quick hefty slaps.

Not happy with the action of the military man, Quarshie was said to have retaliated with an equally hefty slap, an action that sent the soldier sprawling on the ground.

On getting up, Sergeant Agbawu was said to have cocked his gun and fired a warning shot into the air. In retaliation, the policeman also pulled out his gun and fired to disarm the furious soldier, injuring him.

The soldier was part of a joint elections security task force deployed to beef up security at the just-ended District Assembly and Unit Committee Elections in the Ashaiman area.

According to eyewitnesses, shortly after the policeman disarmed him, his colleague soldiers rushed down from the patrol vehicle to his aide.

They were said to have held the deceased from behind while one of them shot the policeman who was by this time on the floor. Afterwards, a hail of bullets was pumped into him in different parts of his body, an action which scared onlookers who ran for their dear lives.

The soldiers, after the bloody display, reportedly abandoned the policeman but picked their injured colleague into their vehicle and sped off to the Tema General Hospital.

They later returned and picked up the policeman’s pistol but left him, still lying in a pool of blood.

Onlookers, mostly the youth of the area, who earlier fled the scene in fear and panic, rushed back to rescue the over six feet policeman, after the military men had taken his pistol and left the scene.

The youth carried him from the scene to a distance of about five hundred metres where they shoved him into a taxi which conveyed him to the Tema General hospital where he was confirmed dead on arrival.

He was later pronounced dead as staff of the emergency unit of the Tema General Hospital tried desperately to save his life.

A certain Inspector Eduful of the Tema Buffalo Unit of the Ghana Police who was in the vehicle in which the military men were in was reported to have witnessed the incident.

Quarshie’s body was later conveyed to the Police Hospital in Accra.

Some persons believed to be family relations of the deceased, the source hinted, visited the mortuary of the Police Hospital on Saturday morning where they identified the dead as Lance Corporal Quarshie.

Meanwhile, an autopsy is yet to be carried on the remains of the late policeman at the morgue.

When DAILY GUIDE contacted the Ashaiman Police on the incident, they indicated that the matter had been referred to the Tema Regional Police Command to carry out investigations on the incident.

As at the time of filling this story, the boots of the late Quarshie were still at the emergency centre of the Tema General Hospital.

Yesterday, a statement jointly issued by the Defence Public Relations Directorate and the Police Public Affairs Directorate gave a rather interesting account of what led to the death of the policeman.

According to them, the joint elections security task force was responding to a distress call during the district level elections but was blocked by a Toyota van then discharging supplies at the Ashaiman market.

It said the situation compelled one of the patrolmen to ask the driver to reverse so their vehicle could have easy access but he refused so a verbal exchange ensued between the soldier and the civilian driver.

A policeman who chanced upon the development, the statement claimed, prevented the patrolmen from having the driver move his vehicle from the road.

“Even when the patrol leader, a police inspector, prevailed upon him to reason with the patrol, he would not budge. In the course of the fracas, he threatened the patrol members with his side arm,” the statement explained.

“As a solider-member of the patrol team attempted disarming the policeman, both men fell to the ground and in the course of the ensuing struggle, their weapons went off leaving them seriously injured,” the statement pointed out.

From Razak Mardorgyz Abubakar & Vincent Kubi, Ashaiman






Source: Daily Guide

7 insurers sue Toyota over acceleration crashes

AP – FILE - In this Feb. 3, 2010 file photo, a shim that will be used to repair springs in the gas pedal systems




LOS ANGELES – Seven insurance companies have sued Toyota Motor Corp. in an attempt to recover money paid to cover crashes they blame on sudden acceleration.

The insurers cite data that blames 725 crashes on the problem and fault the Japanese automaker for failing to equip its cars with an override system that would cause a car to idle if the brake and gas were deployed simultaneously. They are seeking damages in excess of $230,000 from 14 crashes throughout the United States.

The lawsuits allege that "certain of Toyota's cars and trucks have a defect that causes sudden uncontrolled acceleration to speeds of up to 100 mph or more," the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

Toyota said the latest lawsuits were without merit.

"Toyota believes that any allegation that a vehicle-based defect is the cause of unintended acceleration in this or any other complaint is completely unfounded and has no basis," Toyota spokeswoman Celeste Migliore told the Times.

The insurance companies are American Automobile Insurance Co., Fireman's Fund Insurance, National Surety Corp., Ameriprise Insurance, IDS Property Casualty Insurance, Motorists Mutual Insurance and American Hardware Mutual Insurance.

The lawsuits were filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court. They follow the recent disclosure that Toyota paid $10 million to the family of four people killed in a runaway Lexus crash that led to recalls of millions of the automaker's vehicles

Snakes, crocodiles threaten flood-hit Australia town

ROCKHAMPTON, Australia (AFP) – Australian residents fled their homes and sandbagged properties Tuesday as a major town was threatened by a worsening flood disaster which unleashed a plague of snakes and crocodiles.

Tens of thousands of people in Rockhampton braced for complete isolation as waters which have inundated an area bigger than France and Germany, and closed the town's airport and railway, lapped at the last remaining road link.

Rumours of crocodile sightings swept the besieged cattle-farming centre northeast of Brisbane, population 75,000, while snakes up to two metres (6.5 feet) long were spotted around the town centre.

The snakes, including highly venomous taipans, brown snakes and red-bellied blacks, are climbing trees and hiding in people's houses as they search for dry refuge, residents said.

"The snakes are a massive problem, I've shut all the doors because they're coming in," said Suzanne Miller, owner of the Pioneer Hotel pub, adding that her mother was "almost killed" by a brown snake.

"She is living on a boat near here and it was curled round the rope," Miller said. "She could feel the tongue flicking on to her face to test how far away it was, ready to bite, and then it jumped into her lap."

Miller said her mother's husband used a stick to flick the snake into the water, adding that the boat almost capsized as the pair leaped around and screamed in panic.

Emergency officials warned that the snakes were aggressive, while crocodiles flushed from rivers by the rising floods could easily be mistaken for debris.

"(Snakes are) in their mating season and they've been flushed out of their environment... snakes are very, very cranky right now," State Emergency Service (SES) operations director Scott Mahaffey said.

"(And) the problem with crocodiles now is it's very, very hard to pick (them out) with the amount of debris," he added. One SES volunteer told AFP he had seen "two cops hightailing it out of the water with a croc going past".

Thousands of poisonous cane toads were also spotted around Rockhampton while authorities say the town will also be hit by sandflies and disease-carrying mosquitoes breeding in the standing water.

About 200 people have evacuated on foot or by boat, including two pregnant women who went into labour. Some 200 homes are already flooded with the Fitzroy River bisecting town expected to peak at 9.4 metres on Wednesday or Thursday.

"I know people around here are pretty tough, but if your house gets smashed up pretty bad and you have lost all of your kids' presents (it's difficult)," Mahaffey said.

Rockhampton, 500 kilometres (300 miles) from Brisbane and a hub for the farming and coal-mining region, is now the focus for what officials call "biblical" floods affecting 200,000 people across Queensland state.

Weeks of heavy rains have swollen rivers to record levels, deluging mines and farms, washing away bridges and forcing military evacuations of entire towns by helicopter.

Ten people have died trying to negotiate fast-running waters in vehicles, swimming or on foot over the past month, while the disaster is expected to cost several billions of dollars (several billion US).

Flooded mines and railways and closed ports have hammered Queensland's all-important production of hard coking coal, much of it bound for urbanising Asia's steel mills.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed condolences Monday for the dead and offered aid, while neighbouring New Zealand promised to send an emergency response team.

In Rockhampton, the military trucked in supplies and police frog-marched one reluctant resident from his home, considered too dangerous to remain in as the waters rise.

Other parts of the state are already cleaning up after the worst of the flooding passed, but officials warn relief and recovery operations could last for weeks.

Official: Zetas drug gang had base in Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemala's top security official says the Zetas drug gang from Mexico had set up an operations center in the border province of Alta Verapaz where the government declared a state of siege Dec. 19.

Interior Minister Carlos Menocal says a two-week-old military offensive against the cartel is making progress. In his words, "This is just the beginning."

Menocal said Monday that authorities have seized planes, vehicles and $40,000 in cash. He said the Zetas "had their base, their hiding place, their operations center in Alta Verapaz."

The Zetas initially began on Mexico's Gulf coast, but have extended their operations to other parts of Mexico and into Central America.

Nigeria's president sets out anti-terror plans

ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan announced a series of anti-terrorism initiatives on Monday as he looks to regain control after a wave of attacks in the last week of 2010 rocked Africa's most populous nation.

Jonathan is preparing to contest in ruling party primaries next week that are likely to be the most fiercely contested since the end of military rule more than a decade ago.

A bombing in Nigeria's capital Abuja on New Year's Eve killed four people, a week after 80 were killed in a series of blasts and subsequent violence in the central city of Jos.

Religious clashes in the northeast have killed more than a dozen with police pointing the finger at an Islamist sect that claimed responsibility for the Abuja blast.

Jonathan will be hoping his show of intent Monday will help boost confidence in his leadership credentials as rivals look to seize on any signs of weakness.

"Mr President in the next one week is to appoint a special adviser on terrorism," presidential spokesman Ima Niboro said after an emergency meeting of Nigeria's security council.

"Mr President is going to work with the National Assembly to ensure the speedy passage of the anti-terrorism bill that is before the assembly."

Niboro said four new presidential committees would be launched, including a group working on controlling explosives and another to promote public security awareness.

PARTY PRIMARIES

Nigerian elections usually favor the incumbent and Jonathan is the frontrunner.

But an unofficial party pact says that power within the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) should rotate between the mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south every two terms.

Jonathan, a southerner, took over when President Umaru Yar'Adua, a northerner, died during his first term, and some northern factions are opposed to his candidacy.

He faces a northern challenge from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for the party nomination.

The New Year's Eve blasts at a crowded market area in Abuja left dozens injured. No group has claimed responsibility and the president has said the culprits have yet to be identified.

Radical Islamist group Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sinful" in Hausa, the language spoken across northern Nigeria, said it carried out the Jos bombings but it has not claimed involvement in the Abuja attack.

Nigeria's main militant group operating in the oil-producing Niger Delta, which said it planned car bomb attacks in Abuja in October, said it was not involved in Friday's blasts.

Nigeria can ill-afford a security crisis ahead of April's presidential, governorship and parliamentary polls as the West African nation has a history of violent elections.

Copts in Canada step up security after Egypt attack

MONTREAL (AFP) – Copts in Canada have hired private security contractors to protect churchgoers during this week's Christmas period after an attack in Egypt and Islamist threats, the national association said Monday.

Canada has an estimated 255,000 Copts, mainly in Toronto where there are 14 Coptic churches, but also in Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver, where police patrols are also likely to be stepped up for midnight masses on Thursday.

"The churches are going to conduct ceremonies with no problem, it's going to be the same as usual. However, the security will be tightened up around the buildings," Canadian Coptic Association spokesman Sherif Mansour told AFP.

"The people who are going to enter (the churches) will be only people known by the community, and we have hired a private security company to be within the churches perimeters," Mansour said.

The security announcements came in the wake of a deadly attack that killed 21 worshippers at a New Year's mass in Alexandria, the city in Egypt where the branch of Christianity originated.

Canada's Coptic community was already on high alert after the names and addresses of 100 Copts, along with photographs, were published on an Islamist website in December.

"Everybody is now worried of going to church but we won't stop," Mishriky Guindi, whose name appeared on the website, told AFP.

Police in several European countries have also boosted security at the group's churches following threats from Islamists.

Mansour said a new wave of Copts was immigrating to places like Australia and Canada because of the violence they are subjected to in the Middle East.

"We are seeing a new trend of young professionals that are leaving with their families," he said.

Copts, who celebrate Christmas on January 7, make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 80-million population and often complain of discrimination.