Australia hit by floods, heavy rain

LONDON: Giving another clue Angela Merkel is in the final phase of her political career, the German Chancellor has announced she is closing down her Facebook page which has more than

2.5 million followers.

Merkel, who handed the leadership of Germany’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union to Annegret Kramp-karrenbauer in December, announced the move to give up her Facebook page in a short video on her official page on

Friday, The Guardian reported. “Today is the day I want to thank you for the strong support of my Facebook page,” Merkel said in the video. “You know I’m no longer the head of the CDU, and that’s why I will close down my Facebook page.” Merkel has used the Facebook page to inform her followers about her whereabouts and the latest issues she is focusing on, besides providing details on her favourites—books, films, others. Merkel will, however, continue to be active on Instagram. People will also be able to follow her work on the official German government’s Facebook page. Once-in-a-century flooding in part of the eastern Australian state of Queensland looks set to worsen as the nation’s weather bureau on Saturday warned of more heavy rain in the area.

Some residents have already been evacuated after days of monsoon rains lashed the region around the coastal city of Townsville in north Queensland, a spokesman for the Bureau of Meteorology said. Adam Blazak, a forecaster with the bureau, did not say how many people had been evacuated, but added that some areas had reached “major” flood levels.

“Normally a monsoonal burst might last a few days, but this one’s been going on over a week now and is set to continue for a few more days as well,” he said. Between 150 mm and 200 mm of rain is expected across Townsville on Saturday— equal to about a month’s average rainfall. Local authorities issued a number of flood warnings on Saturday morning and told residents to avoid using roads and consider moving to higher ground if conditions worsen. North Queensland has significant zinc reserves as well as major deposits of silver, lead, copper and iron ore, with Townsville a major processing center for the region’s base metals.

In stark contrast, wildfires in the southern island state of Tasmania have burnt through close to 190,000 hectares of land, fire officials said.