Former prime minister John Howard will be able to add "doctor" to his list of achievements and honours, when he is awarded an honorary doctorate in Sydney this afternoon for his contribution to public life.

Mr Howard is due to be made a Doctor of Letters honoris causa in a business and economics faculty ceremony at Macquarie University.

In his citation this afternoon, Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor Professor Steven Schwartz is set to pay tribute to Mr Howard's lifetime of public service.

The clergyman remained unmoved on gay marriage and climate change, but he said evolution was ''probably'' right, and that atheists could ''certainly'' get into heaven. Professor Dawkins declared he was ''trying to be charitable'' by suggesting there was no way Cardinal Pell meant the body would literally be resurrected.

George Brandis would no doubt like to be attorney-general, the first law officer of Australia, in the next Coalition government.

Senator Brandis is a barrister and a senior counsel, although the latter appointment was the subject of harsh criticism given it was awarded to him six years after he gave up active practice at the Queensland Bar.

But Senator Brandis's conduct in the Craig Thomson affair provides cause for concern about what sort of attorney-general he would be if the opportunity arose. Senator Brandis has pursed the ALP backbencher Thomson with a vigour that is disturbing on a number of levels.

International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde has implored the United States to bolster debt-ridden European countries.

Supreme Court Ruling Allows Strip-Searches for Any Arrest

By ADAM LIPTAK

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that officials may strip-search people arrested for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has rejected the idea of decriminalising narcotics, saying tough policing is necessary instead to prevent the devastating consequences of drug use.

But Ms Gillard's immediate rejection of calls for a rethink of drug laws is at odds with the views of her Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, and those of former police chief Mick Palmer.

Mr Carr called today for a "de facto decriminalisation" of some drugs, as a report declared Australia's "war on drugs" had failed.

from an alien-fearing Gerard Henderson...

Imagine the media reaction if the atheist Julia Gillard or the Christian Tony Abbott raised the possibility, in a major address, of extraterrestrial life on one or more planets beyond Earth.

TONY Abbott has been caught agreeing with Germaine Greer's nasty comments about Prime Minister Julia Gillard's dress sense.

There are a lot of very confused feminists out there right now. Tony Abbott, long seen by the sisterhood as Australia's foremost manifestation that we're all just monkeys in clothing - some more hirsute, and scantily-clad, than others- now wants to help women get back to work after childbirth.