Australia flooding

More than 1,000 people have been evacuated from an outback town in Australian state of New South Wales, after days of flooding.

Two areas of the state have been declared natural disaster areas after days of the heavy rains swelled rivers and left farms cut off.

As water levels threatened to reach 5.5m (18ft), up to 1,200 people were moved from the town of Coonamble.

It comes after summer wildfires wreaked havoc on the other side of the country.

Sunday's evacuation order for Coonamble was issued because of concern about the state of levees holding back the nearby Castlereagh river.

"We are looking at a flood peak in the early hours of Monday morning at around 5.5m (18ft)," Phil Campbell, from the State Emergency Service, told state radio.

"That particular flood height does give us some concern regarding the levee that does protect 224 properties within Coonamble and, as such, an evacuation order has been issued."

Coonamble resident Ken Baker told AP television the river was the highest he had seen it in 60 years of living in the town.

Despite the damage, a number of farmers welcomed the rains, which follow a long drought.

Last week, wildfires threatened the city of Perth in Western Australia after razing dozens of homes and consuming thousands of acres of land.

Danish artist

A Somali man has been charged with trying to kill a Danish artist whose drawing of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) sparked riots around the world.
The suspect, who was shot by police outside cartoonist Kurt Westergaard's home in city of Aarhus on Friday, was carried into court on a stretcher. Police say he broke into the house armed with an axe and a knife.

The suspect, who denies the charge, was remanded in custody. Police say he has links with Somali Islamist militants.

The radical al-Shabab group in Somalia hailed the attack.

Al-Shabab spokesman Sheikh Ali Muhamud Rage told AFP news agency: "We appreciate the incident in which a Muslim Somali boy attacked the devil who abused our prophet Mohammed and we call upon all Muslims around the world to target the people like" him.

The suspect, who cannot be named for Danish legal reasons, was charged with attempted manslaughter.

The BBC's Julian Isherwood in Copenhagen says he was wearing bandages on his arm and leg and a cloth over his head to conceal his identity as he was carried into court for a remand hearing in Aarhus.

Police say the 28-year-old suspect broke into Mr Westergaard's home and shouted in broken English that he wanted to kill him. He is also alleged to have attacked police with an axe when they arrived at the scene.

The 74-year-old cartoonist, who was in the house with his five-year-old granddaughter, raised the alarm from a specially designed panic room.

The accused denied the charges, but reportedly did admit to being at the scene.

The judge remanded him in custody for four weeks, two of which are to be spent in isolation.

Earlier, police said the suspect, who had a permit to stay in Denmark, had been shot in the knee and the shoulder.

And Jakob Scharf, who heads the Danish intelligence service PET, said the alleged attack was "terror related".

The assailant had close contacts with al-Shabab, Mr Scharf said, and had been under surveillance for activities unrelated to Mr Westergaard.

A prominent member of the Somali community in Denmark, Ahmed Daqane, told the BBC that Somalis there had to be more vigilant about extremism.

"They have to take care of themselves and talk to the young people who are doing wrong things and misusing Islam," he said.

The shaken cartoonist told Danish news agency Ritzau: "I locked myself in our safe room and alerted the police. He tried to smash the entrance door with an axe, but he didn't manage."

Mr Westergaard also told the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which originally published the cartoon in 2005 as part of a set of 12, that he had been taken to a safe location.

The cartoon depicted the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.

In 2006 the newspaper apologised for the offence caused by the drawings, but other European media reprinted them.

Danish embassies were then attacked by Muslims around the world and dozens killed in riots.

Mr Westergaard went into hiding amid threats to his life, but emerged last year saying he wanted to live as normal a life as possible.

His house has been heavily fortified and is under close police protection.

Islamic militants have placed a $1m (£620,000) price on Mr Westergaard's head.

Although he is one of 12 cartoonists whose drawings of the Prophet Muhammad were published in Jyllands-Posten, he has had the highest profile.

Artist Edgar Degas

Police have arrested a man over the theft of an artwork by Impressionist artist Edgar Degas from a museum in Marseilles.

A judicial official said "an employee of the museum, a night watchman" had been arrested on the Thursday. A security guard noticed Les Choristes (The Chorus) - on loan from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris - was missing from the city's Cantini Museum on 31 December.

Public prosecutor Jacques Dallest said there were no signs of a break-in.

A colourful depiction of a group of male singers performing on stage, France's national museum service valued the pastel artwork at £710,000.

The diminutive work - measuring just 32 by 27 centimetres (13 by 10 inches) - formed part of an exhibition featuring some 20 works by the 19th century artist.

The exhibition was due to come an end on 3 January before touring Italy and Canada.

Earlier this year, Degas' bronze sculpture of a young female dancer sold at auction in London for £13.3m.

happy new year 2010

Happy New Year 2010! My resolutions

Hope you all had a safe and and and happy celebration. Now's the time to set some resolutions (besides losing those extra pounds, the most borrrrrring pledge in the world). Here are a few of mine for 2010. I resolve to:
-- read at least one book from each of the continents. I'll even try for Antarctica, though its literary heritage is somewhat spotty. That should ensure that the whole year isn't spent re-reading the Twilight series.
-- read one book by Nobel Prize winner Herta Muller, to see what all the fuss is about. (I whiffed on this last year; two books by Le Clezio are still in my TBR pile.)
-- read at least one unread classic. (Yes, Nancy, that may mean that I finally get to "Pride and Prejudice.")
-- read every book assigned by my book club -- before the meeting. (If you're in a book club, that's harder than it sounds.)
There, I feel better already.

Adam Lambert Gridlock

It is not good news for Adam Lambert fans that the performance of their favorite star will not televised. Lambert will not be on television and will perform at the annual Gridlock New Year’s Eve Concert in Los Angeles, California but it will not televised.

So most of his fans will not be able to see the most amazing and talked about performance of Lambert. His performance at an Award show in last year November caused quite a hullabaloo and it was his first major performance after since being runner up on American idol.

He performed the title song of his first album, “For Your Entertainment” at the AMAs. His first album is a mega hit and since his launch over 415,000 has been sold. But ABC received about 1500 complaints about his performance at AMAs. After the complains ABC canceled Adam from his Good Morning America performance and The Jimmy Kimmel Show and also announced that ABC will not televised his live performance on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. After the cancellation Adam performed all over television and also been seen on David Letterman, Chelsea Lately and Jay Leno.