Declaring that the United States had averted failure in Iraq, President Bush said on Thursday that the senior commander there could “have all the time he needs” before reducing troops further.

China sprays Rudd over Tibet human rights claims ….. 

Senior Chinese Government officials have publicly attacked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd over his comments on Tibet. 

No matter what happens in Iraq, Bushit & ‘play it again’ John McCain always have an answer - 6 more months. 

When the "surge" began a year ago, they told America things would get better by September. In September they said we'd know more by spring. And this week, General Betraeus was on Capitol Hill asking for - you guessed it - 6 more months. 

President Bush urged Congress on Monday to resist efforts by Democrats to pass a second economic stimulus package, saying that while the economy is “in a rough time right now,” he is confident it will begin to rebound by the end of the year.

Iraqi Prime Minister Threatens to Block Shiite Cleric's Party. 

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will pick up the pace again as he meets British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street and the Queen at Windsor Castle. 

Half way through his 18-day global tour, Mr Rudd had a brief reprieve from his heavy schedule.

For months, a debate raged at the top levels of the Bush administration over how quickly to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. But the discussion shut down soon after President Bush flew to Camp Arifjan, a dusty Army base near the Iraqi border in Kuwait, in January for a face-to-face meeting with the man whose counsel on the war he values most: Gen. David H. Petraeus. 

The head of the crisis-hit investment bank Bear Stearns has blamed short sellers and market manipulators for spreading negative financial rumours to induce a collapse of the 85-year-old Wall Street institution. 

In his bleakest economic assessment to date, the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said Wednesday that the American economy could contract in the first half of 2008, meeting the technical definition of a recession, and he encouraged Congress to help homeowners caught up in the mortgage crisis. 

When NATO leaders meet in Romania on Wednesday to decide whether to put U.S. allies Georgia and Ukraine on a path toward eventual membership, they will find themselves uncomfortably wedged between Washington's firm backing of the former Soviet states' bids and a Kremlin digging in its heels against any further eastward expansion by the alliance. 

Hillary Clinton has vowed to fight on in the contest to be the Democrats' presidential candidate, comparing herself to the film character Rocky. 

Speaking in Philadelphia, where the film Rocky was set, she said: "When it comes to finishing a fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit." 

Abdul Qader's suffering is part of the human toll of the worst violence in months in Iraq.  

While Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tours the United States, Europe and China, Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has launched a 'Listening Tour' of Australia with a message on YouTube. 

Dr Nelson's YouTube message promotes his three-week tour, where he says he will meet with Australians in service stations, shopping centres, farming communities and at barbeques and morning teas. 

Rudd owes US popularity to Coalition: Opposition

The Federal Opposition has welcomed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's warm reception in the United States but says he owes a lot of it to the Coalition. 

Mr Rudd announced today he will seek a seat on the United Nations Security Council from 2013 after an absence of 22 years.