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Mr Pyne confirms the meeting took place but says he can "not remember" ever having requested Mr Ashby's mobile number.

"I don't remember ever having asked for Mr Ashby's number," he said. "I have met Mr Ashby on three occasions, and I have never had any need to phone him."

The Liberal Party powerbroker continues to deny he had any prior knowledge of the claims Mr Ashby made in the Federal Court documents or that he had ever had a discussion with the staffer over his concerns about Mr Slipper.

The Vatican is facing a deepening controversy over the burial 22 years ago of a notorious crime boss, with reports emerging that the church accepted a one billion lire (£407,000) payment from the mobster's widow to allow his interment in a basilica.

Sadly, there is more information floating about the "hoax" of global warming than there is about real sciences... 

There is a lot of crap being pushed by climate change denialists, including Jo Nova — an intellectual pigmy trying to be as dicky as Alan Jones and as idiotic as Andrew Bolt. But she tries supporting Minchin's complete and utter mind-blowing cloddy mind by asking one of the scientists on the panel of Q&A (last Monday night) to apologise to Minchin for a so-called error: apparently this is what happened (I won't take you to her horrible website) :

ABC Biased. Scientist Matthew England, outrageous error or dishonest? Nick Minchin owed an apology

Rupert Murdoch called his News of the World tabloid an "aberration" overnight, accusing journalists of hiding phone-hacking from himself, his son James and his protegee Rebekah Brooks, and said he wished he had shut it down sooner.

Peter Slipper has taken a swipe at Tony Abbott on Twitter, saying he delivered him the key vote needed to become Leader of the Opposition.

illustrated presentation doing the email rounds...

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