Australian flood crisis threatens third-largest city and rural towns
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Rural towns in Australia’s southeast and the nation’s third largest city were on flood watch Friday as rivers surged in a weeks-long flood crisis that has created widespread devastation across the continent.
Residents of Brisbane, the capital of northeast Queensland state which was devastated by flooding last week, were sandbagging low-lying homes again as a high tide was expected on the main river that snakes through the city.
Wiretaps of Berlusconi’s racy parties capture Italians’ attention
ROME (AP) — For gossip-loving Italians, it’s a feast. To others, it may be more than they ever wanted to know about their premier, Silvio Berlusconi, his purported sexual appetites and parties with topless girls — or, in one case, with a woman told to dress in a sexy nurse’s uniform.
Italian newspapers are filled with embarrassing leaks of wiretaps ordered by Milan prosecutors as part of their prostitution probe targeting the 74-year-old Italian leader and his alleged encounters with a Moroccan teenager known as Ruby.
National zoo signs 5-year panda deal with China; pair to stay in US
WASHINGTON (AP) — National Zoo and Chinese conservation officials have signed a deal extending the stay of Washington’s two beloved pandas.
The $2.75 million deal signed by the Smithsonian National Zoo and China Wildlife Conservation Association on Thursday at the zoo’s panda exhibit allows 12-year-old Mei Xiang and 13-year-old Tian Tian to stay until 2015. The pair arrived at the zoo in 2000.
The deal was first announced Wednesday.
More than 120 busted by FBI in huge Northeast Mafia crackdown
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal authorities orchestrated one of the biggest Mafia takedowns in FBI history Thursday, charging 127 suspected mobsters and associates in the Northeast with murders, extortion and other crimes spanning decades. Past investigations have resulted in strategic strikes aimed at crippling individual crime families. This time, authorities used a shotgun approach, making scores of simultaneous arrests stemming from different mob investigations in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
They also used fanfare: Attorney General Eric Holder made a trip to New York to announce the operation at a news conference with the city’s top law enforcement officials.
US deports 26 Haitians in first such instance since earthquake in 2010
MIAMI (AP) — Immigration authorities repatriated 26 Haitians previously convicted of crimes on Thursday, plus another man who was acquitted in a 2007 terror plot, the first such deportations since the Obama administration halted them following the devastating 2010 earthquake.
The deportations were immediately criticized by members of the Haitian-American community and immigration advocates who say the Haitians will face dire conditions.
New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees to receive Bart Starr award
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Drew Brees has been named the recipient of the 2011 Bart Starr Award. The award honors players who demonstrate good character in the home as well as leadership on their teams and in their communities. NFL players vote on the award when they vote on the Pro Bowl.
Brees followed up his 2010 Super Bowl MVP performance by leading the Saints back to the playoffs this season. All the while, the quarterback maintained charitable causes that have donated millions of dollars to schools, athletic fields and facilities for cancer patients in New Orleans.
Two more applicants for BR police chief raise total to five
(AP) — There now are five applicants for the job of Baton Rouge police chief.
The Advocate reports that two lieutenants in the department, Keith Lockett and Carl Keith Dunn, are the latest to submit their applications to the Baton Rouge Fire and Police Municipal Civil Service Board.
Both Lockett and Dunn began their careers in the Police Department in 1983.
 
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