In Australia there are no strong inhibitions or serious sanctions that would prevent media organisations publishing pictures of Duchess Kate's bosoms or cartoons of a nude Muhammad. Yet no one has.

In acting, Abbott made three gains. First, he dumped a senator few on his own side cared for or about. Bernardi had already put many of his colleagues offside with his Islamophobic writings and speeches.

A furious row has erupted over a French study claiming to have found tumours and other problems in rats fed on genetically modified maize and exposed to a common, associated herbicide.

Oh, Mitt. America's favourite bazillionnaire has stuck his Gucci loafer in it again, and as usual, it's money-related.

Mitt Romney is in damage control after a new video surfaced showing the Republican presidential nominee ruling out peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

BARRY O'FARRELL is taking every opportunity to remind us NSW is in a terrible financial state.

A day that was supposed to see Mitt Romney reboot his faltering presidential campaign ended in disarray last night, after he was caught telling a room full of wealthy donors “my job is not to worry” about attempting to appeal to poor people.

IT'S a tough competition to see which of Australia's political leaders can be more disliked but Tony Abbott has now clinched a big lead.

Abbott is more than twice as widely disliked as Julia Gillard, which is quite a feat; while the Prime Minister's net approval rating in today's Herald-Nielsen poll is minus 11, the opposition leader's is minus 23.

''This is the lowest for an opposition leader since August 2009, when Malcolm Turnbull was in the middle of the Godwin Grech affair and it was all falling apart for him,'' says John Stirton, of Nielsen.

Indeed, voters are looking on Turnbull with growing favour to replace Abbott.

Weather pushes allergy and asthma miseries to new level