Lockyer Creek residents warned to move

RESIDENTS in low-lying areas in the Lockyer Valley in southeast Queensland have been urged to evacuate and seek higher ground before major flooding hits.

The state's Department of Community Safety said early on Monday morning that an emergency flood warning had been issued and people in flood-prone areas should consider moving immediately.

"Major flooding is expected during the night downstream of Laidley and Gatton in Lockyer Creek and Laidley Creek. Anyone at risk of flooding should seek higher ground," it said.

Evacuation centres have been established at the Fernvale Community Hall and the Lowood Showgrounds, it said.

Residents around the Mary River at Gympie have also been warned of flooding, with those in low-lying areas urged to relocate to higher ground if necessary before an expected flood peak of 21m hits.

Gympie Regional Council Mayor Ron Dyne advised affected residents to seek accommodation with friends and relatives or go to evacuation centres set up at the Gympie Civic Centre and Showgrounds Pavilion.

The latest warnings come as ex-tropical cyclone Oswald tracks south and into NSW, leaving flooded homes in Gladstone and Bundaberg as Brisbane, Ipswich and other centres in the state's southeast brace for flooding.

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Pro-gay marriage rally hits Paris streets

THOUSANDS of supporters of a French government-sponsored bill that would legalise marriage and adoption for same-sex couples are marching in Paris.

Demonstrators waved banners emblazoned with phrases such as "Equality of rights is not a threat" as they began marching from Denfert-Rochereau square in the southern part of the city.

Two weeks ago, a demonstration by those opposed to the proposal drew hundreds of thousands onto Paris's streets.

About 63 per cent of French favour legalising gay marriage, according to a survey released on Saturday, up from 60 per cent in December.

The French parliament is due to begin debate on the bill on Tuesday.

If MPs approve the plan, France would become the 12th country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage.

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20 missing from Russian fishing ship

A RUSSIAN fishing vessel has capsized in the Sea of Japan, and emergency officials say 20 Russian and Indonesian crew members are missing.

The far eastern branch of Russia's emergency services says 10 crew members were found in a lifeboat and rescued by a passing freighter.

The emergency services say the fishing vessel Shans-101 failed to make contact at the scheduled time and the ship owner reported it missing on Sunday afternoon.

A search was begun by air and sea, and late Sunday the vessel was found capsized off Russia's Pacific coast.

Shortly afterward, the freighter Anatoly Torchinov reported rescuing six Russian and four Indonesian sailors from the lifeboat.

Emergency officials say 13 Russians and seven Indonesians are missing.

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One dead in Egypt clashes

A TEENAGER has died and more than 400 people have been hurt in Egypt's Port Said as rioting sparked by death sentences handed to supporters of a local football team rocked the canal city for a second day.

Crowds attempted to storm three police stations and others torched a social club belonging to the armed forces, looting items inside, security officials said.

An 18-year-old male died of gunshots to the chest and another 433 people were injured, medical sources told AFP.

Earlier in the day, shots rang out as thousands of mourners marched at the funeral of people killed in clashes on Saturday.

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UAE to put on trial 94 Islamists

THE United Arab Emirates is to put on trial 94 Islamists accused of plotting against the Gulf state, attorney-general Salem Kobaish has announced.

He said the accused, whose arrests were announced in July, will go on trial for "having created and led a movement aimed at opposing the basic foundations on which the state's political system is built and at seizing power".

The group had formed a "secret organisation" that was in contact with individuals and organisations "abroad", including the Muslim Brotherhood, Kobaish said on Sunday, quoted by the official news agency WAM.

The attorney-general said they had also created or invested in real estate companies to finance their organisation, but he did not specify when their trial will begin.

On January 9, WAM reported that UAE prosecutors had begun questioning women allegedly linked to the group.

The UAE, a federation of seven emirates led by oil-rich Abu Dhabi, has not seen any of the widespread pro-reform protests that have swept other Arab countries, including fellow Gulf states Bahrain and Oman.

But authorities have stepped up a crackdown on voices of dissent and calls for democratic reform.

Dubai police chief General Dahi Khalfan has accused the Muslim Brotherhood - which came to power after the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia - of plotting against Gulf monarchies.

He charged the Islamists detained since last year were linked to the group.

This month, local media said UAE authorities had arrested 11 Egyptian residents suspected of links to the Brotherhood.

The case has sparked a sharp deterioration of relations between Abu Dhabi and Cairo, already under strain since Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi's election as Egyptian president in June last year.

The Gulf country, where membership of political parties is banned, has rejected a request from Egypt for the release of its nationals.

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Topless trio target Davos forum

THREE topless feminist activists have set off pink flares and staged a noisy protest in the bitter cold outside the Davos forum for the global elite.

Braving sub-zero temperatures in the Swiss ski resort, the women from the Ukrainian group Femen tried to break through a security fence before police guarding the World Economic Forum bundled them away.

It was the second year running that the group has protested at Davos, where politicians, business leaders and officials from around the world gather for a frantic round of seminars and cocktail parties.

The women - two Ukrainians and a Frenchwoman - arrived at the fortified Kongress Zentrum in Davos wearing heavy khaki coats, before stripping off to reveal that they were wearing just denim shorts and tights.

With "SOS DAVOS" daubed across their breasts in thick black pen and "Poor for Being Women" written on their bare backs, the three chanted slogans, blew whistles and lit flares that belched out clouds of bright pink smoke.

They then briefly pushed their way past a metal security fence before police officers in bulky jackets pushed them back.

Finally the women, still struggling and topless, were carried off by police.

"Today Femen activists came to scream SOS in Davos, SOS from all women from all over the world, because we are tired of looking at those guys who are under protection, eating caviar and drinking champagne pretending they care about (the) women question," said protester Inna Shevchenko, from Ukraine.

"But all the time when they discuss women in economics it's a discussion about one thing - how to earn money more using women - because women are always treated as slaves, as cheap workers they can use."

The Femen women's power group has been making headlines since 2010 for topless feminist, pro-democracy and anti-corruption protests in Russia, Ukraine, the Vatican and London.

In September they set up their first "training centre" in Paris.

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NATO missile defence in Turkey operational

THE first of six Patriot missile batteries being deployed to Turkey to protect against attack from Syria has been declared operational and placed under Turkish command, NATO says.

The battery, provided by the Netherlands, is meant to protect the city of Adana by shooting down missiles that could come over the Syrian border. Turkey has become a harsh critic of the regime in Syria, where a vicious civil war has left at least 60,000 people dead.

The United States, Germany and the Netherlands are providing two batteries each of the latest version of the US-made Patriots. The other five Patriot batteries are expected to be in place and operational in the coming days in Adana, Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep.

"This is a clear demonstration of the agility and flexibility of NATO forces and of our willingness to defend Allies who face threats in an unstable world," Admiral James Stavridis, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, said in a statement.

NATO reiterated on Saturday that the Patriots are for defensive purposes only. Syria has not fired any of its surface-to-surface missiles at Turkey during its nearly two-year civil war and its government has described the NATO deployment as a provocation.

NATO also deployed Patriot batteries to Turkey during the US-led invasion of Iraq 10 years ago. They were never used and were withdrawn a few months later.

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