Kevin Rudd's world tour might be over, but his fingerprints were everywhere this week. Clearly emboldened by his receipt of a campy faux salute from Kevin Rudd a fortnight ago in Bucharest, the American President himself this week experimented with the Rudd tactic of high-level informality - on the Pope. 

The effects of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the downturn in the U.S. economy have cascaded into Mexico, causing a sudden, precipitous drop in the flow of money sent home by Mexican immigrants and highlighting this country's dependence on its wealthier northern neighbour. 

A wickedly funny faux-children's biography recounts Young Dick Cheney’s youthful lust for guns, oil, and the girl of his dreams. 

He was born among the big skies and cow pies of the Great American West.

And yet from these humble beginnings, he would grow to become the most famous, most powerful Dick ever to inhabit the Vice Presidency.

The war in Iraq has become "a major debacle" and the outcome "is in doubt" despite improvements in security from the build-up in U.S. forces, according to a highly critical study published Thursday by the Pentagon's premier military educational institute. 

Heavy security for torch in Delhi 

No exact times were given for the torch relay amid fears of protests. 

California is to mortgage lending what Chicago is to pork bellies. For years, that meant it was a place with soaring house values; today, the foreclosure rate across the state is twice the national average and going up fast. Riverside County, outside Los Angeles, may be the foreclosure capital of the country, with a rate close to six times the national average. And housing prices are in freefall. 

President George Bush today announced a new national goal to help tackle climate change: to stop the growth of US greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. 

Bush, in a speech devoted to climate change, said power stations would need to reduce emission levels to well below previously projected targets. 

Pope Benedict XVI is greeted by George W Bush on 15 April 2008.  

Pope Benedict XVI has received an unprecedented presidential greeting from George W Bush after arriving for his first official visit to the US. 

New Queensland research has found coral reefs can survive a nuclear explosion but may not be able to survive global warming. 

Scientists at Townsville's James Cook University have found healthy coral reef populations growing inside the Bravo atomic bomb crater in the Marshall Islands. 

President Bush often argues that history will vindicate him. So he can't be pleased with an informal survey of 109 professional historians conducted by the History News Network. It found that 98 percent of them believe that Bush's presidency has been a failure, while only about 2 percent see it as a success.  

Not only that, more than 61 percent of the historians say the current presidency is the worst in American history.

Nearly a year into his term President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has hardly mentioned the arts or culture. In late February he said that French cuisine should be added to the Unesco World Heritage list. 

One day after gasoline hit a record price of $3.29 a gallon, senior executives from the big five oil companies - BP, Chevron, ConocoPhilips, ExxonMobil, and Shell - sat before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming Wednesday to plead “not guilty” for high oil and gasoline prices. 

At a rare weekend cabinet meeting, the Premier hauled ministers over the coals and delivered a startling attack on journalists following the continuing fiasco about political donations and patronage. 

A senior MP privy to last weekend's meeting said Mr Iemma said he was not going to 'cop any more attacks from journalists and would be hitting back'. 

This 47-year-old White male, [redacted], died of blunt force injuries and asphyxia. 

The autopsy disclosed multiple blunt force injuries, including deep contusions of the chest wall, numerous displaced rib fractures, lung contusions, and haemorrhage into the mesentery of the small and large intestine.

Quentin Bryce is a great person ……

If I may say she is one of the quiet elegant sisters of feminism, in the sense she has empowered many women, by encouraging and mentoring them, to fulfil their careers. Her own family life has been a model for women who have big careers and family to balance - although these days, her position entitles her to some help, like her governor-colleagues, in exchange for hard work and utmost dedication.