At least 12 people have been killed by gunmen reportedly armed with Kalashnikovs and a rocket-launcher who opened fire in the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

French officials said 11 other people were injured, at least four seriously, in the shooting at the central Paris offices about 11.30am (local time) on Wednesday.

I read Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian every day. I want to know what the fruitcake faction of capital is up to. That includes not just Murdoch’s journalists and his major ‘serious’ newspaper outlet in Australia but the Abbott government they serve and influence and the Liberal base they feed and incite.

On this same day, the British press was honouring the Great Leader... Winston Churchill was being hailed. His Body was going to lie in state for three days in Westminster Hall (built 1097 we are told) before being buried in St Martin de Bladon, Oxfordshire... next to his mum and dad.

But the article about US victory is quite fascinating... Same about Peking demanding a new "peace Body"...

I went down an alley, and I found a curry shop
I went down an alley, and I found a curry shop
And I heard somebody singing
and the song just wouldn't stop

Chorus:
Seeya later alley raita, after a wild crock of dahl
Seeya later alley raita, after a wild crock of dahl
Can't you see I'm constipated?
Don't you know you cramp my bowel?

The Federal Government says a review of Australia's natural disaster funding system is not being motivated by the need to find budget savings.

Federal government departments are spending eye-watering sums to know what the public is thinking and what the media is saying about them, new documents show.

In some of the more surprising disclosures, the Department of Defence is spending more than $500,000 a year on pay TV and, between July and October 2014, splashed $454,125 - or about $5000 a day, on newspapers, magazines and other publications. Another department also spent nearly $90,000 on books over four months.

The poor face onerous rules while rich corporations avoid tax with impunity.

Australian politicians love the idea of mutual obligation. But the disparities underlying it are becoming more and more extreme. Welfare recipients are painted as getting “something for nothing”, and pushed into more and more restrictive versions of the social contract.

The effects of fracking could be as dangerous as asbestos, thalidomide, or tobacco toxins, the UK’s leading scientist has warned, claiming the government has adopted the process without considering the side effects.

In an interview with People magazine published on Wednesday, Mr Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, said that before moving into the White House nearly six years ago, they faced prejudice, stereotyping and had trouble catching taxis.

"There is no black male my age, who's a professional, who hasn't come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn't hand them their car keys," Mr Obama told the magazine, adding that this had happened to him.

Possibly the most lamentable outcome of the raised tension and insecurity that has accompanied the theatre of terrorism in Australia is the decline in our political culture, which will last for as many years as such a threat is declared – even if it is never fully demonstrated.

Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting fell into the "I'm not a feminist" trap and had to apologise to extricate herself.

A win for feminism or a win for anti-feminism? Maybe more like a win for tweet-shaming.

Cuoco-Sweeting, star of The Big Bang Theory, stepped into a wasps' nest when she made a mild comment about whether she considers herself a feminist in an interview with Redbook.

"Is it bad if I say no? It's not really something I think about," she mused. "Things are different now, and I know a lot of the work that paved the way for women happened before I was around. ... I was never that feminist girl demanding equality, but maybe that's because I've never really faced inequality."