President Barack Obama is to nominate retired Gen James Clapper, a top Pentagon official, as his next intelligence chief, an administration official has told the BBC.

Gen Clapper would replace Adm Dennis Blair, who resigned in May after a run of security failures, as director of national intelligence (DNI).

He would oversee 16 agencies in the intelligence community as the new DNI.

Gen Clapper is expected to be nominated at a White House ceremony on Saturday.

Mixed reviews

Tony Blair, the international community's Middle East envoy, yesterday issued his strongest call yet for an easing of the "counterproductive" blockade of Gaza as Israeli ministers met to consider relaxing the three-year-old embargo.

In his first newspaper interview since the Israeli navy halted a pro-Palestinian activist flotilla on Monday, Mr Blair called for a strategy for Gaza which "isolates the extremists and helps the people and not one that operates the other way round".

The Israeli government and its supporters are trying to turn negative attention onto the groups behind the pro-Palestinian aid convoy that was caught in a deadly raid earlier this week.

The Free Gaza Movement has been trying to sail cargo-laden ships into Gaza since 2007, but it was not until they teamed up with a Turkish charitable organisation that the mission reached critical mass, both in terms of support and attention.

Israel says the Humanitarian Relief Fund (IHH) is a radical Islamic and anti-American group that has been linked to Al Qaeda.

From the BBC

Nick Bryant

Kangaroos skipping playfully through the bush, a barbie on the beach, a brace of surfers waiting for the first big wave of the day, a local pub "where everyone's your mate," a sea plane skimming over the Great Barrier Reef, an Aborginal elder stood in front of Uluru, a ferry carving through Sydney harbour, with the Opera House and bridge in the background, and, of course, the mandatory koala. All to the bouncy refrain of a catchy new song, "There's Nothing Like Australia".

At least nine pro-Palestinian activists died when Israeli commandos raided the six-ship convoy early on Monday.

Israel says its troops acted in self-defence, but campaigners deny this.

The incident has sparked widespread concern and led to calls for Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Israel has maintained control of Gaza's airspace and territorial waters, as well as most of its land borders, since withdrawing troops and settlers from the territory in 2005.

According to the UN, Gaza receives about one-quarter of the supplies it used to receive in the years before the blockade was tightened in 2007.

The nation's biggest miners are descending on Canberra today armed with new ammunition in their fight against the mining profits tax.

The Minerals Council is holding a two-day conference in Canberra, which coincides with the release of a new study on the profits tax.

The council's spokesman, Mitch Hooke, says the report by accounting firm KPMG shows gold and copper mines will not be viable under the new tax, while the net present value of new coal mines will be more than halved.

"They will either be deferred, shelved, or just simply cut," he said.

Multiple answers question: one of them isn't:

a) wise

b) a monkey, but is a liar

C) listening

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from David Marr

''PHO-NEY!'' yelled the government benches in perfect harmony as Tony Abbott came to the despatch box. The daily brawl was under way. To a wall of howls, groans and snatches of song, the Prime Minister battled to say nothing new about pink batts.

Two Liberals were thrown out. "On yer boat," yelled Labor's Sid Sidebottom as the opposition spokesman for punishing refugees, Scott Morrison, headed for the sin bin.

“When was the last time you had sex?” all candidates for the seminary are asked. (The preferred answer: not for three years or more.)

“What kind of sexual experiences have you had?” is another common question. “Do you like pornography?”

Depending on the replies, and the results of standardized psychological tests, the interview may proceed into deeper waters: “Do you like children?” and “Do you like children more than you like people your own age?”

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The chance that some oil will continue to leak for months was underscored by the managing director of BP, Robert Dudley, who described plans to put in place a second version of a containment dome, a strategy that failed earlier this month. Mr. Dudley, speaking on ABC’s “This Week” program, said that attempt had given the company’s engineers valuable lessons that would be applied to the new dome. But he added that even if it worked, some oil would seep out until the relief wells provided an “end point” by cutting off the flow beneath the seabed.

Britain's new coalition government has suffered a blow as high-profile finance minister David Laws resigned, following revelations over his expenses claims.

Mr Laws stepped down as chief treasury secretary after the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported he had channelled more than 40,000 pounds ($68,000) of taxpayers' money in rent to his long-term male partner.

"I do not see how I can carry out my crucial work on the budget and spending review while I have to deal with the private and public implications of recent revelations," Mr Laws said at a brief press conference.

Kakadu... Picture by Gus

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett says he would like to seize the opportunity to expand Kakadu National Park, following a request from traditional owners.

The French mining company Areva wants to mine the Koongarra deposit for uranium.

The site is surrounded by Kakadu National Park and home to the Djok Aboriginal clan.

For years, traditional owners have rejected the company's requests to mine the site, but now they are taking their fight even further.

On behalf of Aboriginal land owners, the Northern Land Council has submitted an application for the site to be included in the national park.

By CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON — Deficits finally matter.

After years of citing national security, social necessity and economic crisis as sufficient justification to pass costly legislation without paying for it, members of Congress are getting cold feet about continually adding to the national vat of red ink.

International Cricket Council (ICC) president-elect Sharad Pawar has sought to defuse the row over the nomination of former Australian prime minister John Howard as an ICC vice-president.

Pawar is set to take over the presidency of world cricket's governing body from Welshman David Morgan next month, with former politician Howard becoming a vice-president.

Under ICC procedures, Howard would normally become ICC president in two years' time.

Germany’s commitment to the European Union has been central to its postwar rehabilitation and its economic success. For years, Germany played the role in Europe that America so frequently plays globally — the locomotive whose dynamism and demand helps turn around recessions before they deepen into depressions.