Flooding in northeastern Australia caused thousands of homes to lose power Tuesday and prompted authorities to start evacuations, around a year after deadly floods devastated the region.

Up to a dozen homes were evacuated on Brisbane's northern outskirts as Australia's third-largest city was hit by heavy rain, reports said, and authorities urged more people to leave their homes.

Almost 10,000 homes were blacked out and rising waters forced the closure of roads in Brisbane, which ground to a halt for several days in early 2011 due to flooding.

Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to commemorate the first anniversary of the Egyptian revolution that toppled their long-time ruler, Hosni Mubarak.

It is a year since Egyptians, inspired by an uprising in Tunisia, took to the streets to call for reform and to demand the resignation of Mubarak, Egypt's president for 30 years.

"Down with military rule" and "Revolution until victory, revolution in all of Egypt's streets" were chanted by one group of mainly youths in an area of Tahrir on Wednesday.

Sherine Tadros, reporting from Tahrir Square, said: "For a section of people demonstrating here, it's really just about military hijacking the revolution, and about Islamist parties and movements now making the gains instead of those who actually initiated the revolution."

"But others say it is a rocky transition but it is still a transition pointing out to the fact that Egypt had first free and fair elections in decades and people's assembly which reflects will of the people."

The White House has confirmed that United States Special Forces carried out a nighttime raid in northern Somalia and freed two hostages while killing a reported nine pirates.

A statement released on Wednesday from US President Barack Obama read, "Thanks to the extraordinary courage and capabilities of our Special Operations Forces, yesterday Jessica Buchanan was rescued and she is on her way home."

The statement continued: "The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will spare no effort to secure the safety of our citizens and to bring their captors to justice."

The two aid workers, US citizen Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Dane Poul Hagan Thisted, 60, had been working for the Danish Demining Group. They were abducted in Galkayo in the semi-autonomous Galmudug region in October.

Mohamed Ahmed Alim, president of Galmudug, told the Reuters news agency that nine pirates were killed and five captured during the operation near the pirate haven of Haradheere.

The head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in the northern town of Idlib was shot dead on Wednesday, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"We just learned a few minutes ago of the death of Mr Abdulrazak Jbero, head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent branch in Idlib. Mr Jbero was on his way by car from Damascus to Idlib. He was shot. Circumstances are still unclear," Beatrice Megevand-Roggo, the head of ICRC operations for the Middle East, told Reuters.

Colombia:

Colombia Reports: Colombia insisted Tuesday it would expand the use of military tribunals despite warnings from Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the proposed reform "threatens to facilitate impunity for military abuses."  Colombia's Justice Minister Juan Carlos Esguerra said in a press release that the government will maintain the proposal and that the government will not change legislative procedures "to accomodate" HRW.

Colombia Reports: Colombia's neo-paramilitary groups continue to enjoy the protection of elements of the state, the director of a leading think tank said Tuesday.  In an interview with Colombia Reports, Leon Valencia, director of Corporacion Nuevo Arco Iris, which monitors Colombia's illegal armed groups, said "it is impossible to exhibit such a degree of illegal activity without the protection of the security forces and without ties to politicians. The day the state as a whole is directed to pursue all of these people is the only time it can be over," he added.

Tim's El Salvador Blog: Violence and intimidation continue in El Salvador against environmental activists and defenders of human rights who have publically opposed metallic mining. The latest round of threats was focused against a Salvadoran Catholic priest, Father Neftalí Ruiz, and a community radio station, Radio Victoria.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) -- Uruguay's president has approved a $513,000 payment to Macarena Gelman, who was illegally adopted during the dictatorship after her mother was tortured and disappeared.  The payment complies with an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling that accuses Uruguay of delaying justice for crimes committed by its dictatorship in the 1970s, according to a brief statement posted Tuesday on the presidency's website.

Aguachile: How many children does Peña Nieto really have?  According to him, six - with various women, to be sure.

Central American Politics: The Miami Herald has a new editorial, Central America's free-fire zone, calling for stronger action against Honduras in light of escalating violence and corruption. (...) In my opinion, the editorial is poorly framed. First, why all this talk about civil wars, armies returning to their barracks, and insurgents laying down their arms when, in the case of Honduras, it didn't experience a civil war, the army returned to its barracks but never relinquished power, and few insurgents ever posed a threat to the survival of the regime.

UNPO: Argentina's push for energy threatens the life and culture of Mapuche communities, says member of Neuquen Mapuche Confederation.

"The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is -- and I mean this seriously -- the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been,"

And, who knows? The Adelsons are billionaires. They might decide to put in another $5 million or perhaps $20 million into Gingrich's Super Pac. The point is, there's no limit.

Do you know who Sheldon and Marian Adelson are? Do you know what Gingrich has promised them, or what they think they'll get out of a Grinch presidency? I don't. But if Newt becomes President of the United States, they'll be singularly responsible. And we better find out, because Newt will owe them big time.