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.

Pope Benedict has slammed America's economic embargo on Cuba, saying it unfairly burdens the Cuban people.

Americans often ascribe to economics effects that are in fact caused by politics. Before the Espionage Act, for instance, there were hundreds of radical newspapers, many of them socialist or communist - or just sympathetic to the plight of workers. After the war, most disappeared. That wasn't the result of market forces. The US government went to great pains at great expense to persuade Americans to embrace an approved ideology while it silenced dissidents with old-fashioned censorship. The Masses, along with 70 other radical publications, went out of business, because the US Post Office wouldn't deliver it.

Yet they were the lucky ones.

'A turnkey totalitarian state'

A report into executions has found capital punishment decreased by a third over the past decade worldwide, but spiked last year in the Middle East and North Africa.