 A drenching winter storm swelled rivers in northern California to their highest levels in seven years, causing power outages and forcing some residents to evacuate. Flood warnings were in effect for the northern half of the state after the storm swept through Tuesday and Wednesday. One person was killed in a car crash caused by a mudslide."It's been several years since we've had this widespread of flooding, and we're not done," said Rob Hartman of the National Weather Service's California-Nevada River Forecast Center in Sacramento.The last significant flooding in the region was during the El Nino year of 1998 and a year earlier, when three people died after levees collapsed north of Sacramento. The danger is lower this time because there is relatively little snow in the Sierra Nevada to be melted by the warm rains, officials said....
http://www.usatoday.com
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Editor - 11:13:00 12-30-05
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 China reforms its currency market |
China has approved 13 domestic and foreign banks to act as market-makers for yuan trading, in another move towards a more flexible currency. China plans to bring in a market-making trading system for the yuan early in 2006, letting it float more freely against foreign currencies. According to reports, the 13 banks include foreign lenders Citigroup, HSBC, ABN Amro and Standard Chartered. The market-makers could begin their roles as early as next week. Critics have complained that the government's tight control of the yuan has kept it undervalued, making Chinese exports artificially cheap and damaging other countries' trade balances. China changed its exchange rate policy last summer, revaluing the yuan 2.1% higher and getting rid of its tie to the dollar. It is now allowed to rise or fall by 0.3% a day against a basket of other currencies, including the Japanese yen and the UK pound. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4568498.stm
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Editor - 11:04:00 12-30-05
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| Twin blasts hit central Baghdad |
At least five people have been killed and 23 wounded in two explosions in central Baghdad, Iraqi officials say. The cause of the explosions could not be confirmed, though some reports said the first was a car bomb and the second, very soon afterwards, a mortar. At least one of the attacks happened near a minibus stop, where passengers were waiting to travel to Shia areas of the city, officials said. The blasts sent a column of thick black smoke into the sky, witnesses said. "These people were just sitting here. What did they do to deserve this?" said a man called Hussein, who said he saw a coffee shop wrecked by one blast, leaving tables and chairs shattered and a pool of blood. The attacks came after a US military spokesman warned on Thursday that violence in Iraq might increase over the coming weeks, following a lull around the 15 December election. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/4569540.stm
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Editor - 10:59:00 12-30-05
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| Russia says gas cut won't hit EU |
Russian energy giant Gazprom has renewed a threat to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine - but says it will not hit deliveries to western Europe. Moscow and Kiev are holding talks over Gazprom's decision to quadruple prices. Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko called for the price to be frozen until 10 January while talks continue, but Gazprom reportedly rejected the offer. State-owned Gazprom is threatening to cut off Ukraine's gas at 0700GMT on Sunday if there is no breakthrough. But Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said there was a "detailed plan" to ensure that supplies transiting Ukraine to the EU would not be disrupted. EU governments are convening a meeting of their gas industry experts in Brussels on 4 January to coordinate their response. Ukraine at present receives cheap gas from Russia and in return, Russia uses Ukraine's pipeline network to transport most of its gas exports to western Europe. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4568288.stm
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Editor - 10:53:00 12-30-05
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| Twenty die as Egyptian police end Sudan protest |
Some 2,000 Egyptian riot police stormed a camp of Sudanese refugees on Friday, sparking clashes that left at least 20 Sudanese dead and more than 100 police and others injured, officials and witnesses said. Witnesses said police beat those in the camp with truncheons after officials had failed to persuade them to board buses to move them from an affluent part of Cairo to another site. The Interior Ministry said the Sudanese died in a stampede at the camp, where 3,500 Sudanese live in squalid conditions. It said 75 police officers were injured. Pools of blood were visible on the pavement as men in the camp fought back with sticks and hurled bottles at the police, who fired water cannon to try to disperse them, witnesses said. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1456368
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Editor - 10:50:00 12-30-05
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| China confirms new bird flu death |
China has confirmed its latest bird flu fatality following tests carried out on a factory worker, state media reported. Xinhua news agency said the 41-year-old woman from the southern Fujian province had contracted the lethal H5N1 strain of the virus. It raises to seven the number of human bird flu cases in the country, which include three fatalities. China has so far escaped lightly from the virus which has killed more than 70 people throughout Asia since 2003. Results of the tests on the woman, who died on 21 December, were released by the Chinese Health Ministry. No further details about the circumstances surrounding her death were provided. The country is about halfway through the vaccination of its all domestic poultry - some 14 billion chickens and ducks. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4567304.stm
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Editor - 10:47:00 12-30-05
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