The diminutive singer told her more than one million followers on the site that she adored her supporters, but one among them was not her ‘lover’ — her nickname for her fans.

“I love 1,033,861 of you LOVERS, but 1 is not a lover, just a deluded weirdo making threat #andthatdoesnotmakeyouspecial So..police alerted,” she tweeted Tuesday.

The announcement prompted a groundswell of support for the 43-year-old on the social networking site, with fans vowing to protect her and offering support.

“I hope whoever’s threatening @kylieminogue knows there’s more than 1,000,000 of us ready to jump to her defence,” wrote one.

Former television soap star Minogue this year celebrates 25 years in the music business since her hit debut single “Locomotion” was released in 1987.

The singer, who has successfully battled breast cancer, has attracted unwanted attention in the past, reportedly receiving hundreds of threatening letters at her British home and office in 2003.

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The Australian dollar leapt to a six-month high but stocks turned negative after the central bank held rates steady at a review when markets had positioned for a rate cut.

Opinions were divided over whether the wrangling over Greece’s debt restructuring talks would eventually be resolved or trigger contagion across other vulnerable euro zone countries, tempering risk-taking investments.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose as much as 0.4 percent to its highest since September 1, then reversed direction, and last stood barely changed.

Australian shares were among the big losers, ending down 0.5 percent — having been up before the central bank’s afternoon decision to hold rates steady.

Financial spreadbetters expected Britain’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC-40 to open flat.

Japan’s Nikkei average ended down 0.1 percent, slipping from a three-month high just shy of 9,000 hit on Monday.

“Concerns over the Greece issue are limiting real risk taking from investors, even if the environment generally appears to be improving,” said Tetsu Emori, a fund manager with Astramax Co. in Tokyo.

“I’d expect all concerned parties to eventually strike a deal because it is in nobody’s interest if Greece defaults. But a further delay in the debt talks will really hamper sentiment,” he said.

After resisting terms of a proposed new bailout deal which demands strict labour reforms and other austerity steps, Greek political leaders face crunch talks on Tuesday to clinch an agreement needed to avoid a debt default.

The full package must be approved by the euro zone, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund before February 15 in order to complete legal procedures for a bond swap deal for a March 20 bond redemption.

Moreover, some euro zone countries require parliamentary approval to raise the bailout money.

RATE DIFFERENCES

The euro eased 0.2 percent to $1.3107, although it had recovered from an overnight low of $1.3026.

The single currency hit a new record low against the Australian dollar near A$1.2140, as wide interest rate differentials made the Aussie more attractive than the struggling euro.

The Australian dollar jumped more than one cent to a six-month high of $1.0812 after the Reserve Bank of Australia unexpectedly kept interest rates steady at 4.25 percent, although it kept the door open to an easing if conditions deteriorated.

“In the absence of a messy Greek default, there is nothing really at the moment that’s going to stop the Aussie from going and testing all-time highs,” said David Scutt, a trader at Arab Bank Australia. It hit a 30-year peak of $1.1081 in July.

The dollar was up 0.3 percent against the yen at 76.72. Data from Japan’s Finance Ministry on Tuesday confirmed that Tokyo conducted stealth foreign exchange intervention in October-December, even after a massive intervention on October 31 when the yen hit a record high around 75.31.

Commodities retreated with the dollar’s gain against a basket of major currencies.

U.S. crude futures eased after rising above $97 a barrel, while Brent slipped after trading above $116 a barrel.

Spot gold was up 0.1 percent to $1,722 an ounce, trimming gains made earlier on an initial modest rise in equities.

Asian credit markets remained subdued, with the spreads on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment grade index little changed, after tightening sharply on Monday.

The ECB’s generous funding in December and expectations ahead of another such liquidity operation scheduled on February 29 sent three-month Euribor rates, a main gauge of unsecured interbank euro lending, to 1.094 percent on Monday, the lowest level in nearly a year.

Analysts expect consolidation in several equity markets which have recently climbed to near resistance levels, which may then pave the way for a break higher.

India’s main 30-share BSE index is expected to find

major resistance at an October peak of 17,908, after rising as high as 17,829 on Monday.

Shanghai shares fell below a key support of 2,300 on Tuesday. A fall below 2,240-50 will reset the downtrend, while a break above 2,360 points to an eventual move higher.

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Prime Minister Julia Gillard said eight military helicopters would help in search, evacuation and resupply missions in the eastern state, where days of heavy rainfall have prompted hundreds of evacuations and dozens of rescues.

“The helicopters will be available to assist in rescue operations as required until the immediate crisis has passed,” Gillard said in a statement.

In the inland Queensland town of Charleville authorities are on alert amid fears a temporary levee will collapse as the Warrego River continues to rise, flooding the whole town.

The weather bureau’s Paul Birch told the ABC the situation was “touch and go” as the water will be “rushing in quick over the levee”.

“If it does that you find it tends to erode out part of the levee fairly quickly. So then it will just open up the river into town — it’s quite catastrophic,” Birch said.

Mayor Mark O’Brien said hundreds of people had been evacuated from their homes but so far Charleville itself was “high and dry”.

“We’ve just got an enormous body of water going down the river, but if this thing passes quickly people can just go straight back to the way they were before,” he told the ABC.

In the town of Roma to the east, police were continuing their search for a woman missing since Friday after her vehicle was swept off the side of a road.

“A boy was rescued from the car and a woman got out of the vehicle but rescuers could not keep hold of her,” police said in a statement. “The woman was swept away in fast flowing flood waters.”

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, who just over a year ago was dealing with epic floods that swamped the state, sweeping away entire hamlets and flooding thousands of homes, has warned the community faced dangerous new territory.

In New South Wales, the State Emergency Service said 16,550 people were stranded with the worst affected areas around Moree in the state’s far north where floodwaters are expected to remain at their peak for one or two days.

“At this height the properties on the north side of the Mehi River in Moree will remain isolated with many properties surrounded by floodwater and some, possibly in excess of three hundred, inundated,” the service said.

SES assistant commissioner Andrew Edwards said while the rain was easing, the amount of flooding in the region and to the north meant that “we can expect these floods to be going on for months” in some pockets.

Australia suffered epic floods late 2010 and in the January 2011 which swamped a huge area of Queensland, inundating thousands of homes and businesses, sweeping away small villages and leaving more than 30 people dead.

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The 238 known survivors arrived by five vessels at the city of Lae. Many were undergoing medical tests, according to Capt. Nurur Rahman, rescue coordinator with the country’s National Maritime Safety Authority.

About 350 people were aboard the MV Rabaul Queen when it sank Thursday, said Rahman.

The MV Rabaul Queen went down about 16 kilometers (10 miles) off Cape Fortification in the Vitiaz Strait after getting into trouble early Thursday, officials said.

The ferry is about 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) below the surface, Rahman said.

After an alert was sent out, boats and helicopters rushed to the scene to try to save scores of people left adrift at sea by the sinking. They had to deal with high winds and ocean swells.

Joanne Meehan of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority told CNN two of that country’s aircraft were assisting in the search.

Australia is Papua New Guinea’s closest neighbor minus Indonesia, with which it shares a border.

“I’m pleased that a large number of people have been rescued,” said Kevin Rudd, the Australian foreign minister. “We’re deeply concerned about those who are still missing.”

Rudd said he didn’t have any information on the nationalities of the passengers aboard the ship.

“This is a difficult operating environment,” he said. “We are doing everything within our power.”

The Rabaul Queen was ferrying passengers from the town of Kimbe on New Britain Island to Lae when it got into difficulty.

“Taking ferries is the most economic method of transport for people traveling between the islands and the mainland,” Rahman told CNN. “What I understand from local media is that a lot of students and their parents were traveling to schools that recently reopened on the mainland.”

Jurgen Ruh, the chief executive of Manolos Aviation Ltd. in Lae, was in one of the helicopters that helped with the rescue effort.

“I could see the survivors on the debris,” he said, noting that the passenger ship had sunk completely by the time he reached the scene.

There were about 10 life rafts visible, each with roughly 10 people on them, the first time his helicopter flew overhead, he said. However, when the helicopter returned to the area after refueling, no more survivors were spotted.

The weather was likely to be a contributing factor in the ferry’s sinking, Ruh said, as there were high winds at the time in what is a notorious area.

Papua New Guinea had a population of 6.7 million in 2010, the U.S. State Department says, with about 190,000 people living in Lae. Most of the population is scattered in small settlements across the state’s many islands.

The largely Christian country is part of the Commonwealth and has Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. The bulk of the estimated 2,000 American residents in Papua New Guinea, are missionaries and their families, the State Department says.

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Defence Minister Stephen Smith joined a string of cabinet ministers to offer support for Gillard despite media suggestions that she could face a leadership challenge this year from Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, who she replaced in June 2010.

Some political analysts now believe Gillard is unlikely to lead the party to the next election, due in the second half of 2013, with a move against her most likely in the latter part of the year.

“MPs are starting to think the boat is going down, and they’re starting to panic,” Monash University political analyst Nick Economou told Reuters. “I don’t think she’ll lead the Labour Party to the next election.”

The first major opinion polls for 2012 found government support stalled near record lows, while online bookmakers Sportsbet Friday said odds on Rudd returning as leader by the end of the year have shortened to just $1.20 for a $1.00 bet.

“I’m a strong supporter of the Prime Minister. I think she’s doing a very good job in very tough circumstances,” Smith told Australian television from Brussels.

He joined Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, and Regional Affairs Minister Simon Crean, who have all called for an end to party dissent, with Crean saying Rudd was not a team player.

Rudd is seen as a lone operator by his Labour colleagues and was toppled as prime minister in a party room coup after his government struggled to pass reforms, but polls show he remains popular with voters.

Adding to the government’s dilemma is the fact Gillard governs with support from two independents and the Greens, and any leadership change could force a change of government or an early election if a new leader can’t negotiate similar support.

That means a leadership spill could trigger a change of government, with the conservative opposition promising to scrap a new 30 percent mining tax and a carbon tax, both due to start on July 1 this year.

Gillard dismissed the latest rumblings Friday, saying she was focused on delivering good policy.

“I don’t worry about chatter in the media, I get on with the job,” she said.

DISASTROUS NEW YEAR

Gillard finished 2011 strengthened after a disaffected opposition lawmaker became parliamentary speaker, effectively bolstering her majority from one vote to three.

But she has had a poor start to 2012.

She lost the support of one independent in January after she reneged on a promise to change gambling laws, and then lost a staffer who quit over his role in promoting a rowdy protest against Opposition Leader Tony Abbott that turned into a security scare.

That means the government is back to square one, commanding only a one seat majority in parliament and with one lawmaker under a cloud, due to an ongoing police investigation over the use of union money to pay for prostitutes.

At the same time, house prices are falling and manufacturers continue to cut jobs, although Gillard may get a reprieve if the central bank cuts interest rates next week as economists expect.

Australian Financial Review political editor Laura Tingle said the past week had seem a shift in support away from Gillard, although most Labour lawmakers were still deeply hostile about Rudd.

“The tide has turned with a sharp but silent menace against Julia Gillard,” Tingle wrote Friday.

Economou said any move against Gillard would be unlikely before July, when the carbon tax and mining tax both start. That would allow Labour to deliver its budget in May, and to campaign for the March 24 Queensland state election, where polls suggest Labour will be thrown from office.

“The dangerous time is after the carbon tax comes in,” Economou said. “If things don’t improve by then, she’ll have to go.”

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An airplane from Australia, three helicopters and six ships were scouring the search area after the MV Rabaul Queen went down while traveling from Kimbe on the island of New Britain to coastal town of Lae on the main island, Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard called the incident a “major tragedy” and said her country was providing assistance to its near neighbor.

“Given the likely very high loss of life here, I think when this news comes to the attention of Australians around the country they will be thinking about the people of PNG as they respond to this tragedy,” she added.

The Australian maritime agency initially detected the ferry’s distress beacon and alerted the PNG Maritime Rescue Coordination Center, which is coordinating the rescue effort. The Australian statement said “approximately 50 people have been rescued so far.”

It said 350 people were believed to be on board, but Papua New Guinea’s National Maritime Safety Authority (NMSA) rescue co-ordinator Captain Nurur Rahman said the true figure was likely lower.

“I cannot confirm or deny the 350 missing number. It is hearsay,” Rahman said. “I have not seen the manifest as yet, but it is likely around 300.”

Rahman said he was being fed information from an NMSA agent on board one of the ships.

“The dynamics of this thing are changing all the time, minute by minute,” he said.

Ship operator Star Ships could not be immediately contacted for comment.

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If the court rejects his case, the 40-year-old Australian will have exhausted all his options in Britain but he could still make a last-ditch appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, prosecutors have said.

The Supreme Court, England’s highest, granted Assange permission to appeal in December.

It said his case raised an issue of “great public importance”, namely whether Sweden’s state prosecutor had the right to sign the European arrest warrant under which he was held.

The case will be considered by seven judges, rather than the usual five.

The Supreme Court usually takes about 10 weeks to deliver a judgement but the parties have requested that this case be speeded up.

Wednesday marks 421 days since the arrest of the former computer hacker, who has been living under tight bail conditions at the country mansion of a wealthy supporter in Norfolk, eastern England.

Assange was arrested in Britain in December 2010 after two women made allegations of sexual molestation and an accusation of rape in Sweden, which he strongly denies.

He says the sex was consensual and claims the allegations are politically motivated, linked to WikiLeaks’ release of hundreds of thousands of classified US files about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as diplomatic cables.

Assange’s extradition to Sweden was initially approved by a lower court in February. An appeal to the High Court was rejected in November, but it subsequently granted him permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

If this appeal fails, the WikiLeaks founder will have only one other option to stop his extradition — an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

“If the ECHR takes the case then his current bail conditions would remain in force and he would remain in the UK until the proceedings at the ECHR have concluded,” the Crown Prosecution Service said in a commentary on the case.

“If the ECHR declines to take the case then he will be extradited to Sweden as soon as arrangements can be made,” England’s state prosecutor said.

Concerning Assange’s case before the Supreme Court, Julian Knowles, an extradition law specialist with the Matrix Chambers law firm, said the question of whether a public prosecutor was a valid judicial authority had been comprehensively tested.

“The courts have always reached the clear answer that while it may look odd to English eyes … European systems don’t have the same structure,” he was quoted as saying Tuesday in The Guardian newspaper.

“The courts have always said that to make extradition work, you have to be flexible in your approach to what extradition is.”

Were Assange to win, the consequences would be “very profound”, he said.

“It would basically mean, until the law is rewritten, that extradition to Europe (would) become very difficult, if not impossible.

“Because in the vast majority of European extradition requests, the arrest warrant is issued not by a court, as it would be in England, but by a prosecutor.”

Assange announced last week that he was launching his own television chat show and promised interviews with “key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries”.

No guests have been unveiled, but a statement on the WikiLeaks website said the show would go on air in mid March in 10 weekly half-hour episodes.

Russian state television channel RT said it had the rights to show the episodes first.

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In the lead-up to her first Grand Slam final, Victoria Azarenka has been hard at work practising her moves. Dance moves that is.

“I’ve been working on it every warm-up before my match. It’s getting better,” said Azarenka who will play Maria Sharapova in the final.

Sharapova, who at 24 is two years Azarenka’s senior, has been through all this before. Five Grand Slam finals for three victories, including the Australian Open title in 2008, more than gives Sharapova the edge in experience. And she will not be going easy on Azarenka on Saturday night.

“Even though Victoria hasn’t really been in that stage of a Grand Slam before, she’s certainly won big titles and she has the experience.

“This is a stage she’s wanted to be at for a long time, so I do expect her to play really good tennis,” said Sharapova after she defeated her Wimbledon conqueror Petra Kvitova in the semifinals.

Speaking ahead of Saturday night’s final, Azarenka said this is the moment she’s been waiting for.

“[I] worked hard to be in this situation, so why stress about it? I want it and that’s what I’m looking for, so I’m just going to go out there and try to do my best.”

The world No.3 doesn’t see her lack of Grand Slam final experience a problem and with the career head-to-head count split 3-3, Azarenka knows she’s in for a tough time.

“I think she’s a very tough opponent. She’s been in the finals here, she won here, so definitely she has a lot of experience.

“We always had difficult matches, so really looking forward to that battle. It’s not going to be easy.”

It’s a battle that many are saying will be the loudest ever heard at Rod Laver Arena, with both players known to grunt as big as they hit.

“Oh, my God,” exclaimed an exasperated Azarenka. “Every, every press conference. Can you surprise me sometimes with a different question?

“No, I mean, whatever people call us, you know. I respect every opinion.”

So far opinions on Azarenka have been mixed. Over the past fortnight, many in the crowd have taken to mimicking her signature high-pitched grunt between points. Loud and aggressive on court, the likeable 22-year-old is anything but off the court.

It’s a situation that could potentially cause a player new to the tour more than a few sleepless nights. But with six years on the tour under her belt, Azarenka has found a new level of maturity and is coping exceptionally well.

“I had, how do you call that, meltdowns?” smiled Azarenka.

“Yeah, I had some. For sure you can see some on YouTube. But, you know, I grow as a player, I grow as a person, and I try to learn from my mistakes and make it better.”

Azarenka will need to channel all her energy into keeping her cool against ice queen Sharapova. And to help keep her mind clear as she prepares for the biggest battle of her life, she’ll start by thinking about anything but tennis.

“I just relax, try get my mind off the tennis court, you know. I think I can do it quite well. Watch few movies, read a little bit. Just do something different.”

And if the belter from Belarus can break through for her first Grand Slam title on Saturday night, we may just see some of those dance moves in action

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No.2 seed Petra Kvitova has advanced to the semifinals of AO2012 with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Italy’s Sara Errani at Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday.

Despite making numerous unforced errors Kvitova took the first set in 53 minutes as she looked too strong for the 48th-ranked Italian.

Errani bounced straight back in the second set, taking an early break and racing out to a 4-1 lead. With the underdog hitting fluent winners and pushing Kvitova around the court it looked certain to be heading for a decider.

However, the Czech player rallied and regained her stride from the opening set to take five straight games and close out the match.

It was a courageous effort from the unseeded Italian, who hit 75 percent of her first serves to Kvitova’s 65%, and made only 25 unforced errors to the Czech’s 44. But it was the winners column where the No.2 seed accounted for those statistic, hitting 36 to Errani’s 17.

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In 35 minutes Lisicki won the first set 6-3 after being down 0-3. Lisicki found her length and power to break Sharapova five times to win the set in enthralling fashion. Sharapova had no answers to the Lisicki strokes as she ended up losing 6 games in a row.

Sharapova took the second set 6-2 to square the match at 1 set all. Sharapova played much better tennis than her German counterpart in all aspects. Lisicki was not at her level best and could not keep the tempo up. Sharapova was very aggressive on the Lisicki serve. She smashed 9 winners in this set that lasted for 42 minutes

The final set was also a close encounter with Sharapova needing just one break to seal the match. Both players were attacking the serves and tried breaking the other one. Sharapova next faces Ekaterina Makarova, who dispatched Serena Williams in straight sets for a place in the last 4.

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