He has been mocked for wearing stacked heels and standing on tiptoes in official photographs, and now Nicolas Sarkozy is embroiled in a new controversy over the alleged lengths he will go to in order to make himself look taller in public.

By DEXTER FILKINS and CARLOTTA GALL

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghans loyal to President Hamid Karzai set up hundreds of fictitious polling sites where no one voted but where hundreds of thousands of ballots were still recorded toward the president’s re-election, according to senior Western and Afghan officials here.

Venezuela has agreed to export petrol to Iran, in a sign of closer ties between two of America's most vocal adversaries.

At the end of a two-day visit to Iran, President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela would supply 20,000 barrels of petrol a day to the country.

Iran is a major oil exporter but lacks domestic refining capability.

Iranian leaders expressed support for the Venezuelan socialist leader's anti-American policies.

By THOM SHANKER

Tony Blair will be thrust into the controversy

over the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi with questions in Parliament over a secret meeting the then Prime Minister orchestrated that brought Libya in from the cold.

QandA Latest Program: Thursday 3 September 2009 at 9:30pm http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/

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Gus: There are times when one has to pay dues against one's ingrained beliefs. For example one has to admit that Senator Bill Heffernan has "improved"... Even one of my buddies who had seriously bad interaction with him way back in the wild 1980s told me in the afternoon before the show that Heffernam had mellowed and strangely grasped the major issues, including climate warming... Weird...

From the ABC

A new report has found pests cost Australia's agriculture industry more than $740 million a year.

Rabbits are considered the nation's biggest feral animal problem, causing $200 million worth of damage every year.

Birds cost the horticulture industry about $300 million annually.

Tony Peacock from the Invasive Animal Cooperative Research Centre says the total estimated cost is a conservative estimate, which does not include environmental or social impacts.

The Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, has warned that money to save endangered wildlife is limited and some species may have to be abandoned when funding decisions are made.

In one of the strongest speeches of his ministerial career he told an international conference of ecologists in Brisbane that the Government will shift its focus to protecting ''ecosystems'', rather than putting money into individual projects for endangered animals.

...

Mr Gibbons added that Mr Garrett and the Rudd Government had not yet been prepared to have a debate about ''the links between economic growth and the damage we are doing to our natural ecosystems''.

The Federal Environment Minister has toured the West Australian Government's preferred site for a gas hub in the Kimberley.

Peter Garrett yesterday met traditional owners at James Price Point, 60 kilometres north of Broome, as part of a two-day stopover.

Mr Garrett will have ultimate responsibility for signing off on the development after reviewing Aboriginal heritage and environmental impact studies.

He says an impartial approvals process will occur, irrespective of the demands of the State Government or industry.

Gus: Of course, if one believes Malcolm Turnbull, "he was conned" by a great puppet-meister — who, we all know, is a very sick public servant who has been a mole of the Liberal Party for years. Thus the Malcolm stance does not make sense, even if Grech was a complete dummy or a very devilish man.

Yet Malcolm and Abetz are pouring as much rubbish on Grech as they can put their hands on for the fake Ozcar email debacle...

US says hunt still on for bin Laden

As the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks approaches, the Obama administration is publicly staking out its strategy to defeat extremists.

It says it will use diplomatic, political and economic strategies to try to defeat Al Qaeda and maintain pressure on terrorist havens in Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia.

President Barack Obama's senior counter-terrorism adviser is also warning that Al Qaeda's intent to carry out attacks in the United States remains undiminished.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan have been cleared by the auditor-general of any wrongdoing in the OzCar affair.

But the auditor-general has criticised the public servant who sparked the investigation - Godwin Grech - and says he faces serious questions as to whether he breached the Public Service code of conduct.

The release of today's report coincides with the admission by Mr Grech that he created the fake email at the centre of the scandal and showed it to Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull.

Mr. Biden has now supplied evidence for two plotlines - a deep rift within the administration, or a "sophisticated game," said Andrei V. Ryabov, a political analyst at Moscow's Carnegie Center. This ambiguity, he said, plays into the conviction of Mr. Putin and his team that real events take place far from view, among a handful of powerful individuals, and that public politics are "no more than puppetry, decoration in the theater."