Palestinian statehood bid signals long struggle ahead for equal rights .....

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas returned from New York to occupied Ramallah on the weekend as "an Arab leader of significant standing", according to writers from the liberal Israeli paper Haaretz.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the West practices double standards in regard to Israel's nuclear arsenal.

In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Erdogan noted that Israel is the only player in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons and asked, "Why is it that countries banning Iran from having nuclear weapons don't also ban Israel from having nuclear weapons?"

Turkey downgraded ties with Israel after Tel Aviv refused to apologize for its attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which left nine Turkish citizens dead on May 31, 2010.

I suppose I'm not alone in being part of a growing camp of media consumers who fall into the category of being perennially disappointed by the 21st century mainstream media's complete inability to produce any investigative material with real teeth. With all their access, budgets and resources, I still expect that once in while they will score a goal for the people who they are meant to be acting as 'watchdog' for.

Meet the London trader who is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. As the Greek economy verges on collapse and European leaders move to head off another recession, Alessio Rastani told the BBC overnight:

from Crikey .....

Port Paper company collapses after Oakeshott cries foul

Crikey senior journalist Andrew Crook writes:

Looking for a bookshop that was no longer there, I walked instead into a labyrinth designed as a trap. Leaving became an illusion, rather like Alice once she had stepped through the looking glass. Walls of glass curved into concentric circles as one "store" merged into another: Armani Exchange with Dinki Di Pies. Exits led to gauntlets of more "offers" and "exciting options." Seeking a guide, I bought a lousy pair of sunglasses: anything to get out. It was a vision of hell. It was a Westfield mega mall.

from Crikey .....

Wayne "World's Greatest Treasurer" Swan was humble and unusually charitable on The 7PM Project last night when he quipped he'd be happy to lend his shiny new award to Peter Costello "for a little while".

Which is more than you can say for Joe Hockey ...

Check out the company Swan keeps among the winners, Joe retorted: "Slovakian ministers, a Serbian, a Nigerian and a Bulgarian. In 2001 there was a Pakistani finance minister. That is quite an extraordinary one, that one."

One should remember.

The donation of £1m to a charity of the Dowler family's choice and compensation of a reported £2m for the family's distress is being linked by MPs to News Corp's fight to hold on the BSkyB broadcasting goldmine.

Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem deputy leader, has written to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom calling on it to intervene over the question of whether James Murdoch, the BSkyB chairman, is fit to hold the licence.