World AM News Briefs For Monday, 28 August 2017

Good Morning Australia!! - Hurricane-devastated Texas Gulf Coast towns settle in for a week of flooding - The tweet that rescued 25 elderly people - Argentinians fear a return of political disappearances - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Rescuers have pulled thousands of Texans from flooded homes and cars along the submerged gulf coast of Texas, south of Houston.  Tropical storm Harvey has diminished from its peak as a category four cyclone, but it dumped more than 60 centimeters/2 feet of water on some places.  And the worst is still to come because the city of Houston could get ANOTHER "40 to 50 inches"/1.25 meters of rain before this is over on Friday, according to the US National Weather Service.  There are three confirmed deaths, but more are still being investigated as people had to be plucked off of roofs and out of second-storey windows.  No one knows how many made the very bad decision to try to hide in their attics.  Entire towns and neighborhoods are underwater, and flights are halted at both Houston airports.

With highways flooded, escape at this point is impossible.  Houston officials are telling people not to drive and not to call emergency services unless they are in immediate need of rescue.

It appears that social media prompted authorities to conduct an urgent rescue at a nursing home in one of the hardest hit town, Dickinson, Texas.  Timothy McIntosh, whose mother-in-law owns the La Vita Bella Nursing Home, posted the photo to Twitter on Sunday morning in the US and pleaded for emergency help.

"Need help asap emergency services please RETWEET," wrote McIntosh.  His tweets caught the attention thousands on social media and the national guard was notified of the nursing home’s situation.  Authorities rescued the two-dozen seniors by early Sunday afternoon. 

Back in Australia, the ABC is reporting that Victorian Nationals MP Russell Northe will resign from the party today because "significant personal debts, partly linked to gambling".  The 51-year old MP reportedly approached several Gippsland business people seeking loans:  "He said he desperately needed the money because he was in financial stress," one source told the ABC.  Mr. Northe released a statement citing issues that had a "significant emotional impact" on him, including the Black Saturday fires, the Morwell mine fire, and others.  He will continue as an independent.

Guatemala's top court blocked the president and former TV comedian Jimmy Morales from expelling a United Nations commission investigating illegal funding to his 2015 campaign.  He also fired his foreign minister for failing to carry out the expulsion.  The conservative Morales ran under the banner of "Neither corrupt nor a crook".  The country's top prosecutors is asking the Supreme Court to recommend stripping Morales of his immunity from prosecution in order to investigate the case herself.

In Argentina, activists are demanding answers in the disappearance of an indigenous-rights protester at a demonstration in the southern Patagonia at the start of August.  Witnesses said 28-year old Santiago Maldanado was arrested and they haven't seen him since then; and thousands have joined protests around the country, holding signs that ask, "Where is Santiago Maldanado?"

The subject of disappearances is still a hot button in Argentina, where 30,000 people were "disappeared" by the right-wing military junta that ruled from 1976 to 1983.  Security Minister Patricia Bullrich is trying to assure people that "The police are not the same as 40 years ago".  But a conservative government is back in power; the opposition, led by former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, is demanding answers:  "Santiago must reappear. And he must reappear alive," she tweeted.

It was a deadly weekend in the European Alps:  Five mountain climbers died on Sunday on Mount Gabler, east of Innsbruck, Austria.  Authorities say one climber fell and took the others with him.  This group was reportedly from Germany.  Another three fell to their deaths in a crevasse while climbing on a glacier in Adamello Brenta Park near Trento in northern Italy.

Up to 96 people died in violence in Myanmar's restive northwestern Rakhine state.  The government says most of the dead were Rohingya Muslim attackers, but also twelve security forces were killed.  The fighting sent thousands of Rohingya, an oppressed minority in the predominantly-Buddhist country, fleeing to safety towards the Bangladesh border.