World News: Residents flee Brisbane as 20,000 homes under threat

Deadly floodwaters in northeastern Australia flowed on to the streets of the nation's third-largest city today, forcing people to flee suburbs and skyscrapers as rescuers elsewhere searched for 67 people still missing.

Almost 20,000 homes in Brisbane were expected to be swamped in the city of about 2 million by the time the Brisbane River reaches its expected peak tomorrow, Mayor Campbell Newman said.

At least 22 people have died in the northeastern state of Queensland since heavy rains that began in November sent swollen rivers spilling over their banks, inundating an area larger than France and Germany combined.

The crisis escalated when a violent storm sent an eight-metre "inland instant tsunami" - crashing through the city of Toowoomba to the west of Brisbane on Monday. Twelve people were killed in that flash flood, and 67 remain missing.

Officials have urged anyone in a growing list of low-lying Brisbane suburbs to prepare their homes, then get out to stay with friends and family.

"This is a truly dire set of circumstances," Prime Minister Julia Gillard said.

Star Eva sued over Vegas club

Desperate Housewives co-star Eva Longoria is being sued for at least 3 million over her financially troubled Las Vegas nightclub.

In a law suit filed in Los Angeles, a former partner in the Beso club, Mali Nachum, claims Longoria violated California usury laws.

Obama speaks at memorial

Barack Obama was today to speak at a memorial service in Tucson, Arizona, the site of a mass shooting that has rattled the United States.

The service will honour the six people, among them a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl, who were killed on Saturday after a 22-year-old gunman allegedly tried to assassinate congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

She remains in critical condition in hospital.

Jared Loughner is charged with the shootings.

We've got most oil says Hugo

President Hugo Chavez says Venezuela has dramatically increased its proven oil reserves, saying that the country is now a world leader.

Chavez says officials certified vast deposits of heavy crude in the Orinoco River basin in December so that "we have reached 253 billion" barrels of oil.

Drugs found on cruise ship

SNIFFER dogs found nearly 70,000 worth of cocaine and heroin aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship in an investigation of an employee smuggling ring.

US Customs said they uncovered the drugs aboard the ship Enchantment of the Seas while docked in Baltimore.

Taliban bike bomber hits spy minibus

A SUICIDE bomber on a motorbike blew himself up next to a minibus carrying intelligence service employees in the Afghan capital two, killing at least two people and wounding at least 20, authorities said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the powerful rush-hour blast, which shattered the windows of dozens of houses and buildings on the busy street in the western part of Kabul.