Switzerland knew of Holocaust in 1942

SWISS officials knew in May 1942 that Jews were being exterminated in Nazi concentration camps, yet decided to tighten their asylum policies in the following months, Swiss television has reported.

"As of May 1942, we can prove that information about the killings of Jews reached Bern," Sascha Zala, the head of the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland (DDS) research project, told Swiss public broadcaster SRF.

Swiss diplomats gathered hundreds of letters, telegrams, pictures and detailed reports during World War II documenting the Nazi atrocities and passed them on to Swiss officials in Bern.

DDS has for the first time published a number of the documents showing that the Swiss government knew what was going on no later than May 1942, three years before the end of World War II.

Despite the reports it was receiving, the Swiss government decided in August of that year to carry out a mass return of civilian refugees to their home countries, SRF reported late Sunday, as the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The revelations add more evidence to the conclusions of a damning official report in 2002 on Switzerland's record before and during World War II.

The Bergier report showed that Swiss officials had at the time turned away thousands of people, most of them Jews, who were trying to flee Nazi-occupied Europe, sending them to certain death.

Yet Swiss historian Hans-Ulrich Jost told Swiss radio on Monday that there seemed to be in Switzerland "a sort of resistance to accepting (what happened) during this troubling period".

Swiss President Ueli Maurer for instance marked Sunday's Holocaust Remembrance Day by hailing neutral Switzerland's role during World War II as a "refuge" for those fleeing "during this dark period for the European continent".

Several Swiss Jewish organisations blasted him on Monday for not mentioning the "refugees who were pushed towards certain death".

"It is regrettable that the president of the confederation did not deem it useful to broaden indispensable Swiss self-criticism of its own past, especially its refugee policy," they said in a statement.

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Police arrest Brazil club owner after fire

AUTHORITIES have arrested one of the owners of a Brazilian nightclub where more than 230 partygoers perished in a blaze blamed by survivors on a band's pyrotechnics show.

Two members of a musical group also were arrested, and a warrant was issued for another owner of the club, Kiss, said police official Michele Vimmermann.

"There were three temporary detentions," Vimmermann said.

Vimmermann said those in custody were nightclub owner Elissandro Sphor, as well as the vocalist and another member of the Gurizada Fandangueira band.

The fire erupted during the group's performance, with some survivors saying its lead singer lit a firework that could have caused sparks and set off the inferno.

Allegations also surfaced that the club lacked the necessary emergency exits, that at least one fire extinguisher did not work and, according to firefighters, their safety licence had expired in August.

The club said in a statement, however, that everything was in order.

In comments to the media, a band member also ruled out responsibility.

Word of the arrests came as Brazil observed three days of national mourning in the wake of the tragedy in the southern university town of Santa Maria that mostly claimed the lives of young people.

As friends and family members bid farewell to their loved ones, officials revised the death toll from 233 to 231 and said at least 100 others remained hospitalised, 80 of them in a serious condition.

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Qld cops rising water as storm hits Sydney

THOUSANDS of homes are underwater in Queensland and NSW as ex-tropical cyclone Oswald closes in on Sydney.

The weather front is beating a devastating path down the coast and authorities are ramping up for another day of evacuations while floodwaters have already isolated hundreds of homes.

The crisis has claimed four lives so far, including a three-year-old boy who was hit by a falling tree in Brisbane's north.

Eighteen people have been rescued with the most recent operation taking place overnight at Lismore, where a man was plucked from the roof of his car.

State Emergency Services (SES) Deputy Commissioner Steve Pearce said some areas in northern NSW had been hit with over half a metre of rain, with more than 2000 people isolated by floodwaters.

After hitting the Hunter on Monday evening, the front was expected to hit Sydney around dawn on Tuesday, he said.

"We're expecting really damaging winds of up 100km/h; we're expecting torrential rain of up to 100mm and possibly 200mm in localised areas," Mr Pearce said.

"We're expecting flash flooding, we're expecting trees to be brought down, wires to be brought down by these winds.

"We're expecting a very challenging 24 hours in front of us."

Shortly before 7pm (AEDT) on Monday, about 1500 residents downstream of Grafton were ordered to leave their homes in Ulmarra, Cowper and Brushgrove districts.

Floodwaters have also cut off all roads between NSW and Queensland.

Meanwhile, more than 2000 homes are underwater in the worst-affected city - Bundaberg in central Queensland.

About 3000 people have also been evacuated two years after floods devastated much of the same areas of the state, resulting in 35 deaths.

Army choppers equipped with night vision were used to evacuate stranded residents into the evening.

"The water is everywhere ... it's the worst on record," the city's mayor, Mal Forman, told ABC TV on Monday night.

Brian Cox, from Queensland's Disaster Management service, said the greatest challenge was ever-rising floodwaters.

He said 190 patients would probably be flown out of Bundaberg Hospital on Tuesday morning.

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US stocks open higher

US stocks have opened higher as Caterpillar's positive forecast for 2013 helped overcome its fourth-quarter 2012 earnings disappointment and pushed up the Dow.

Five minutes into trade on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 15.40 points, or 0.11 per cent, to 13,911.38.

The broad-based S&P 500 continued its streak of gains, adding 7.46 points, or 0.50 per cent, to 1,502.28.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 5.31 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 3,155.02.

Caterpillar was up 2.2 per cent, as it pointed to a better 2013 amid an uncertain global outlook.

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US durable goods orders higher

NEW US orders for durable manufactured goods surged higher in December, led by a jump in commercial aircraft orders, government figures show.

Orders for durable goods - long-lasting products such as vehicles, computers and machinery - rose to $US230.7 billion ($A221.6 billion), up 4.6 per cent from November, the Commerce Department said on Monday.

It was the seventh increase in the past eight months, following a 0.7 per cent gain in November, and well above the 1.6 per cent rise expected by analysts.

Excluding transportation equipment orders, which can be volatile month-over-month, durable goods orders rose 1.3 per cent.

Transportation equipment orders leaped 11.9 per cent after two consecutive months of declines, almost entirely due to commercial aircraft and parts orders, up 10.1 per cent.

Non-defence capital goods orders excluding aircraft, or core capital goods orders, an indicator of future capital spending, rose 0.2 per cent.

Shipments climbed 1.3 per cent.

"Substantial declines in unfilled orders of non-defence capital goods excluding aircraft over the past few months will continue to put downward pressure on shipments growth," Briefing.com said in a research note.

On a 12-month basis, durable goods orders were up 4.1 per cent.

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US woman swept away by 'sneaker' wave

A WOMAN has been swept out to sea by a large wave and drowned on a California beach in the third such tragedy in the region this winter, authorities say.

The 32-year-old was walking with her boyfriend and dog on Sunday when the wave pulled her out to sea, the US Coast Guard said.

"The ocean today was extremely hazardous," Duty Officer Cheryl Antony said. "The waves were about 10 to 15 feet (3.0 to 4.5 metres). It was very, very hazardous for them to be out there."

So-called "sneaker" waves, the kind that suddenly roar ashore, have washed four people into the region's waters this winter.

A man and his wife were walking on a California beach on New Year's Day when a wave overtook their dog. The couple went into the water to rescue the dog, and the man was swept away.

In November, three family members drowned at another California beach while trying to save their dog.

"Winter is an especially dangerous time, and sneaker waves can catch beach goers by surprise, washing them into the sea," the Coast Guard said in a statement. "People walking along the beach should not turn their back to the ocean."

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Yemen suicide bomb kills 10 soldiers

A SUICIDE car bomb at a checkpoint in central Yemen has killed at least 10 soldiers, as the army leads an offensive on al-Qaeda militants suspected of holding European hostages.

The attack targeted a checkpoint manned by members of a battalion of the elite Republican Guards on the road between Rada and Manaseh, where the army military operation was taking place, tribal sources said.

A local official told AFP there were at least 20 casualties, adding that wounded in critical condition had been evacuated to hospitals in Sanaa.

Three people were killed earlier in an army offensive launched late on Sunday against al-Qaeda-linked militants suspected of holding an Austrian and two Finns hostage in Manaseh, in Bayda province, tribal sources said.

They said the victims were apparently caught in crossfire.

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US to raise Sri Lanka human rights at UN

THE US will bring a fresh resolution to the UN Human Rights Council in a bid to force Sri Lanka to deliver on promises to investigate its troops for war crimes, top US diplomats say after talks with Colombo.

"The US has decided to sponsor a procedural resolution (against Sri Lanka) at the March 2013 sessions of the UNHRC," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State James Moore said on Monday.

The US recognised Sri Lanka had made "some progress" since the previous US-led censure of Sri Lanka at the March 2012 UNHRC sessions in Geneva, but Washington believed more needed to be done, Moore said.

"The US and the other 23 members of the UNHRC who voted for that resolution in 2012 believe that the government of Sri Lanka needs to fulfil its commitments made to its own people," Moore said.

He said the fresh resolution to be moved in March was a reflection of "US commitment" to the people of Sri Lanka, which emerged from nearly 37 years of ethnic bloodshed in May 2009 after security forces crushed Tamil rebels.

The US has been highly critical of Sri Lanka's human rights record and has refused to train several of its senior military officers, saying they were linked to credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Another top US diplomat, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence Vikram Singh, said the US wanted to keep Sri Lanka's case fresh at Geneva by moving a new resolution against the Indian Ocean island.

He said the government's impeachment of the country's chief justice, despite two court rulings that the process was illegal and against the constitution, also contributed to the US decision for a fresh resolution.

"It is safe to say that the impeachment of the Chief Justice also contributed to the decision to ensure that the record (against Sri Lanka) stays fresh in Geneva," Singh told reporters in Colombo.

The US has asked Sri Lanka to reconsider the sacking of Shirani Bandaranayake following an international outcry over the impeachment earlier this month, in what activists have said was an assault on the independence of the judiciary.

Sri Lanka has been accused of killing up to 40,000 civilians in the final months of fighting separatist Tamil rebels who were known for their trade mark suicide bombings. Colombo has denied any civilians were killed by its troops.

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