These days, IA is – according to online resource Alexa – probably the third most popular independent news and opinion website in Australia in terms of traffic (behind Crikey and On Line Opinion).

One hundred years ago, prelates and parsons and other assorted killjoys were up in arms against a frightful evil sweeping the Western world.

"It is revolting and disgusting. Only those persons who have lost all moral sense can endure it," thundered Cardinal Aristide Cavallari, the patriarch of Venice. "It is the shame of our days. Whoever persists in it commits a sin."

Arriving in a village in southern Vietnam, I caught sight of two children who bore witness to the longest war of the 20th century. Their terrible deformities were familiar. All along the Mekong River, where the forests were petrified and silent, small human mutations lived as best they could. 

Australia's population has topped 21.5 million, according to the 2011 census results, although there has been a further decline in the proportion of people holding Australian citizenship.

The initial census results give a glimpse into the changing face of Australia, including its multicultural background.

from Crikey …..

Qantas pleads for govt protection from the Joyce discount

It's time to end the blame game - and it's time Tony Abbott made it possible for Julia Gillard to implement the policy she insists will make tragedies like the one that unfolded last night less likely.

It's also time both sides recognised that the shrill, tit-for-tat debate about who bears responsibility for the spike in boat arrivals is not just undermining public support for asylum seekers and Australia's humanitarian program. It has become its own pull factor.

World leaders at the Rio+20 Earth summit in Brazil delivered a "new definition of hypocrisy" for standing in the way of progress and failing so far to challenge the text of the draft outcome document, NGO leaders said on Thursday.

First for Australia – a law to stop governments stacking the ABC Board

A ground-breaking bill was passed in the Senate last night and is expected to be carried by the House of Representatives.

Bishops are claiming up to £27,000 a year in fixed-rate allowances to attend sessions of the House of Lords on top of their travel costs. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and The Independent has found that some bishops are claiming up to the maximum fixed allowance for attending sessions in the second chamber while having full-time jobs in their dioceses. Others attend sessions in the House without making any claim on the public purse.