Assad made grave error on reform: Medvedev

SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad made a "grave, perhaps fatal error" by delaying political reforms, Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev says.

"He should have acted much more quickly and reached out to the peaceful opposition, which was ready to sit at the negotiating table with him," Russian news agencies quoted Medvedev as saying.

"It's a grave error on his part, perhaps fatal," he said, in a rare criticism of Assad by Syria's traditional ally Moscow.

"It seems to me that his chances of staying (in power) are shrinking day by day," Medvedev said in remarks to CNN television on the sidelines of the Davos World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

He reiterated Russia's position that only the Syrian people can decide the fate of Assad, whose departure the West has long called for in the face of the nearly two-year-long conflict in Syria.

"I repeat once again: It is for the Syrian people to decide. Not Russia or the United States or any other country."

Moscow has long opposed any foreign intervention in the conflict that the United Nations says has killed at least 60,000 people since March 2011.

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NSW land valuations to be examined

MORE than two million official land valuations in NSW will be examined by a new inquiry, prompted by concerns that property owners are overpaying land tax and council rates.

The concerns have been sparked by reports indicating the system used by the Office of the Valuer-General is out of step, Fairfax Media reported on Monday.

It said the inquiry would examine confidential data for all 2.4 million land valuations between 2000 and 2012 to pinpoint council areas with the biggest discrepancies between official estimates and market values.

A land valuations analysis conducted by a private firm hired by competitive tender will help the inquiry by parliament's joint standing committee on the Office of the Valuer-General decide whether to recommend changes to the system.

The consultant will be asked to test whether official valuations have outstripped market values and if property owners have lost out in particular local government areas.

The inquiry opens in Broken Hill on Thursday and will take public submissions until March 8.

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Mozambique flood toll rises to 40

THE death toll from heavy flooding in Mozambique has climbed to about 40 after four more bodies were discovered in the worst-hit southern town of Chokwe, its mayor says.

"They found four bodies in the last 24 hours," Jorge Makwakwa told AFP, adding that Chokwe's flood-ravaged streets were littered with rotting animal carcasses.

"I am mobilising workers to remove the bodies but we need masks and gloves," he said.

According to a toll from the United Nations on Friday, the severe flooding in the impoverished country had killed at least 36 people and displaced nearly 70,000, most in the southern province of Gaza.

The deadly floods, which have also hit neighbouring South Africa and Zimbabwe, are the result of days of torrential rains this month that swelled the Limpopo river.

UN agencies said on Sunday that 23,000 families had sought shelter in camps in Gaza and the World Food Program had begun feeding some 75,000 flood-affected people.

UNICEF said it had set up three field hospitals and was broadcasting radio messages urging locals to take basic hygiene measures to ward off diarrhoea and cholera.

While the Limpopo river started to recede in Chokwe on Sunday, the 9000 residents who had stayed behind were in urgent need of clean water and food, mayor Makwakwa said, as a major clean-up operation got under way.

While some tried to salvage what they could and laid their possessions out to dry, others walked through the streets inebriated, having helped themselves to alcohol in flood-damaged stores, an AFP reporter on the scene said.

With relief efforts focused on the camps, some locals said they were struggling to get their hands on emergency supplies.

In the village of Guija, children told AFP they had had no water or food since Wednesday, while a doctor said two mothers had given birth on rooftops after they were marooned by the rising waters.

Mozambican authorities were also scrambling to protect the partly inundated coastal tourist city of Xai-Xai on the Limpopo river, where some 45,000 people were thought to be at risk from the deluge.

Helicopters would be dispatched to try to rescue those trapped by the floodwaters, Disaster Relief Management Institute spokeswoman Rita Almeida told AFP.

"Our biggest priority is to reach the people (who have taken refuge) in trees," she said.

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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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Syria opposition seeks deal on PM-in-exile

SYRIA'S opposition umbrella group, which most Western and Arab powers opposed to the Damascus regime have recognised, is meeting in Istanbul in a bid to name a prime minister-in-exile, one of its leaders says.

The Syrian National Coalition is discussing the idea of a government-in-exile but differences have emerged between members of the group, including over who should lead the new executive, an opposition official told AFP.

"A proposal was made to name Riad Hijab but it has run into much criticism," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Hijab is a former prime minister under President Bashar al-Assad who defected in August last year and has since worked closely with Turkish leaders to help restructure the fragmented Syrian opposition.

He is now based in Jordan.

The Istanbul meeting is also scheduled to discuss what the opposition leader said were unkept promises by countries that had pledged diplomatic, military and financial support to the coalition.

The National Council, which is the leading component of the Cairo-based umbrella group, has called for the establishment of an interim government with full executive powers in areas of Syria controlled by the rebels.

The group is also due to meet on January 28 in Paris, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday.

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Assad's mother in Dubai: Syrians

ANISA Makhluf, the mother of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has left the war-torn country and joined her daughter in Dubai, expatriates in the United Arab Emirates and an activist say.

Makhluf has been living next to her daughter, Bushra, the only sister of Assad, in Dubai for about 10 days, Syrian expatriates told AFP.

Bushra's husband General Assef Shawkat, an army deputy chief of staff, was killed along with three other high-ranking Syrian officials in a July 18 bombing at the National Security headquarters in Damascus.

In September, Syrian residents in the Gulf emirate said that Bushra had enrolled her five children at a private school in Dubai where she had moved.

Makhluf's "departure from Syria is another indication of Assad losing support even from within his family," said Ayman Abdel Nour, head of the newly-formed group Syrian Christians for Democracy and editor-in-chief of opposition news website all4syria.com.

Analysts say that Assad is increasingly relying on the tightly-knit circle surrounding him, which includes Maher, his only brother still alive and who commands the army's notorious Fourth Brigade.

Assad's two other brothers Bassel and Majd are dead. The embattled president also relies on relatives from his mother's side, analysts say.

A large number of businessmen and wealthy Syrians who had close ties with the regime have fled the deadly bloodshed in Syria to Dubai in the past few months.

More than 60,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria's 22-month conflict, according to the United Nations.

The conflict has sent some 600,000 people fleeing the country, most of them to neighbouring countries, according to the world body.

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Gillard speech to have China, cyber focus

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard will reportedly seek to boost Labor's defence credentials in a speech singling out China and cyber attacks as key security concerns.

Ms Gillard will make the comments in her first important speech of the election year to the Australian National University's National Security College in Canberra on Wednesday, The Australian newspaper reports.

She will also outline Australia's national security objectives, actions and priorities over the next five years.

Sources familiar with the document told the paper it was a "much more substantial" contribution than former prime minister Kevin Rudd's 2008 national security statement to parliament.

The document focuses on Australia's strategic environment - in particular, the growing economic, political and military clout of China - and a massive escalation in cyber attacks against government and industry.

It's not expected to contain new policy initiatives or resource commitments, the paper said.

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