Residents of Australia's cyclone-battered tropical north east have emerged from their homes to find roofs lying in their yards, boats flung on to rocks and roads blocked by tangles of fallen trees and power lines.

An Indian-trained surgeon linked by health officials to the deaths of at least 87 patients in Australia over two years should be charged with murder, a government inquiry recommended today.

Australian police today abandoned using photographs of living people, including some Aborigines, for target practice after coming under fierce criticism.