NPR News 2011-01-03 加文本

NPR News 2011-01-03

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Raum.

Floodwaters in the Australian state of Queensland are finally starting to recede in some areas, while others towns are still bracing for the worst. Stuart Cohen reports from Sydney.

The city of Rockhampton in central Queensland is the next one in the path of the massive body of floodwater as it works its way downstream toward the ocean. Authorities there have closed the airport, shut off electricity to some parts and evacuated low-lying areas. Local resident Reg Wilson has taken refuge at an evacuation center.

"Well, there was a man came along in a car with a gun on his hip, and he said 'you'll be out of here by five o'clock or else'. And when a man with a gun talks to you like that, you get out."

Authorities are warning people in affected areas not to underestimate the danger of the floodwaters. A 41-year-old woman died in northern Queensland after her car was washed off a flooded causeway. In other parts of the state, two more people are still missing, one disappeared after going for a swim in a flood-swollen river. For NPR News, I'm Stuart Cohen in Sydney.

A new Congress convenes this week, one where the Republicans will control the House, and the Democrats will hold a smaller majority in the Senate. Republican Congressman Darrell Issa will have the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He said he intends to use his subpoena power to go after wasteful spending.

"The sooner the administration figures out that the enemy is the bureaucracy and the wasteful spending, not the other party, the better off we'll be."

Issa told "Fox News Sunday" the White House should hire more accountants than lawyers to deal with requests for information.

White House economic...