Australia experienced a devastating flood caused by rainfall, which is being described as one of biblical proportions leaving at least 16 people dead and among them a 13 year old boy who sacrificed his life to save his younger brother, after a rescuer tried to help him out of the flood but he directed him to his brother instead. The brother was rescued but the young hero, Jordan Rice, and his mother were swept away by the current before they could be rescued.
As if taking cue from Australia, Brazil also experienced deadly flooding and mudslides caused by extreme rainfall and if the Australian floods are biblical, this one should be termed apocalyptic! At least 500 hundred people are confirmed dead and hundreds more missing. The flood which happened in the dead of the night, took the Brazilians by surprise and hampered rescue efforts, seriously damaging lives and property! Search and rescue efforts are still underway but with forecast of more rainfall in both Brazil and Australia we can only hope that worst is behind us.
Then we have violence in the North African state of Tunisia, where a coup d'etat has occurred ousting the president of 23 years. The frustrations in the country reached a height that forced it's people to demonstrate on the streets and riots broke out as a result. Clashes between security forces and the demonstrators left both sides with injuries and at least 42 detainees dead in a prison fire. Fouad Mabezaa, the speaker of the parliament has assumed office as the acting president while the former president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has taken exile in Saudi Arabia.
And on a lighter note, incumbent president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, defeated his party rival and former vice president of the country, Atiku Abubakar, in the party primaries to become sole flag bearer for the 2011 presidential elections. The in-house rivalry was hyped to be close call election between the two delegates because of the party's (Peoples' Democratic Party) constitution of rotation of power between ethnic and religious zones of the country. Delegates argued that President Jonathan, who is from the South South Zone and only became president because of the death of the his superior, Umaru Yar'Adua, a Northerner, is ineligible to run for office until the North has exhausted it's 2 tenures ending in 2015 and should step aside despite his being very popular among the masses. V.P. Atiku on the other hand was the Northern consensus candidate and was surprisingly swept in the nationally televised voting event in the country's capital, Abuja.President Jonathan will go on to compete against other presidential candidates from other parties which include the highly popular Nuhu Ribadu, former minister of the capital province, Abuja and also against the former military head of state and 3 time presidential aspirant, General Buhari (Rtd) in the upcoming elections.
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