Australians yesterday battled both fires and some of the worst flooding in decades that stranded residents in several communities after days of intense summer heat and storms.
Bureau of Meteorology hydrologist Gordon McKay said some parts of New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, had experienced their worst floods in more than 50 years after a week of rain.
Those trapped included 1,000 music fans attending a four-day music festival in the state, officials said.
Flood waters also isolated several communities in Queensland and the tropical Northern Territory, which was lashed by a cyclone over the weekend, emergency services reported.
The major highway from the east to the west coast city of Perth remained closed yesterday because of a blaze that remained out of control, eight days after three truck drivers died in an attempt to drive through a wall of fire.
Federal lawmaker Barry Haase, whose 2.3 million-square kilometer Outback electorate is described as the largest in the world, called for the Great Eastern Highway to be reopened despite the danger.
The closure of the highway, which runs through Haase's electorate, was proving costly for interstate trade, he said.
State official Peter Keppel said the fire, which has burned 41,000 hectares of scrubland since Dec. 28, remained dangerous.
With temperatures expected to reach 40oC yesterday and northerly winds forecast, the fire could again cross the highway, which is closed between Southern Cross, 370km east of Perth, and Coolgardie, 560km east of Perth, Keppel said.
In southeast Australia, water-dropping aircraft were used yesterday to attack a 10-hectare fire in steep terrain in a national park in Victoria state.
North of Victoria in New South Wales state, thousands of people remained cut off by floods, State Emergency Service spokesman Phil Campbell said.
"The threat in terms of rising floodwaters has eased," he said. "The greater concern for us is the ongoing isolation of those several thousand people who will remain isolated in some instances for up to week."
About 1,000 music fans attending the music festival near Tenterfield would remain trapped by a washed-away bridge until today, Campbell said.
Further north in Queensland state, flood waters were receding from weekend peaks.
Emergency volunteers were being airlifted to Queensland farms isolated by floods to deliver supplies to stranded residents, the State Emergency Service reported.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump