from Crikey .....

Two detainee deaths 10 years apart ... what have we learned?

Crikey intern Inga Ting writes:

Celebrations have taken place in Israel to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary organisation which paved the way for the establishment of the state of Israel and the Israeli Defence Forces. A headline in the Jewish Chronicle refers to "the generation that established Israel" above a photograph of some elderly veterans rather sadly wearing military uniforms.

In writing Diet for a Small Planet, I learned one simple truth: Hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but a scarcity of democracy. But that realization was only the beginning, for then I had to ask: What does a democracy look like that enables citizens to have a real voice in securing life's essentials? Does it exist anywhere? Is it possible or a pipe dream? With hunger on the rise here in the United States - one in 10 of us is now turning to food stamps - these questions take on new urgency.

News Ltd bias this year never approached the levels of 1975 when, for the only time in our history, the company's journalists went on strike to protest against editorial distortion.

Bill Hayden joked that if Gough Whitlam had walked across Lake Burley Griffin, The Australian's headline would have been ''Gough can't swim''.

A controversial Republican candidate for the US Senate is trying to play down revelations that she dabbled with witchcraft in high school.

"How many of you didn't hang out with questionable folks...?" said Christine O'Donnell, a day after a clip of her discussing the occult was rebroadcast.

Ms O'Donnell is backed by the right-wing, grassroots Tea Party and known for her conservative Christian views.

Last week she beat a veteran politician for the Senate nomination in Delaware.

In the biggest ticket scramble since the 2000 Olympics, Oprah is planning for an audience of about 3000 people for two episodes in the forecourt of the Opera House.

This will include the 300 loyal audience members, who were told at the opening show of Oprah's farewell season yesterday that they were being treated to the trip.

Ticketing for the summer telecasts will be finalised by Oprah's Harpo Productions next month, with fans to log their interest online on a date to be advised.

Amid frenzied scenes on the Chicago set of her show, the TV host sent a personalised message to Australia sharing her wish list for the "dream vacation".

Cracks have appeared in the agreement between the country independents and the major parties over parliamentary reform, after independent MP Rob Oakeshott dropped his bid to be speaker of the House of Representatives.

Mr Oakeshott announced his plans to seek the job as speaker last week, but changed his mind after meeting Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and manager of Opposition business Christopher Pyne yesterday.

He said he was backing a Liberal to take the speaker's job but accused the Opposition of moving away from the spirit of the reform agreement hammered out in the wake of the inconclusive federal election.

From Gerard Henderson...

Pope Benedict XVI expressed his ''deep sorrow'' yesterday for the ''immense suffering'' of children abused by Catholic priests, in a homily on the third day of his state visit to Britain.

''I think of the immense suffering caused by the abuse of children, especially within the church and by her ministers,'' he said during Mass at the Catholic Westminster Cathedral in London.

''Above all, I express my deep sorrow to the innocent victims of these unspeakable crimes, along with my hope that the power of Christ's grace, his sacrifice of reconciliation, will bring deep healing and peace to their lives.

''I also acknowledge, with you, the shame and humiliation which all of us have suffered because of these sins.''

I referred to the opposition's manager of business in the House of Representatives, the South Australian Liberal Christopher Pyne, as "that yapping poodle". I confess the analogy wasn't original; Julia Gillard called him a mincing poodle in the Old Paradigm Parliament last year.

On reflection, I would like to withdraw the remark. It was a cheap and thoughtless shot that offended a number of Herald readers. Quite a few emailed me to protest that poodles did not deserve it.

So criminal within itself, it flinches from upholding the rule of international law. So corrupt, it happily outsources its foreign policy to terrorists in Tel Aviv. The idea that America acts as an honest broker for peace between its fellow cut-throat Israel and their victim, Palestine, on whose neck the Zionist jackboot is firmly planted, is a joke that is only funny in the hysterical sense.

The idea that any country, let alone America, would promote talks where one party is expected to make concessions to another which is bent on land-theft and whose government can only survive if it continues to defy international law, is madness. But Barack Obama is up for it.

America prides itself on religious freedom, the Constitution's First Amendment stating:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

WASHINGTON - Tea Party darling Christine O'Donnell's Delaware win triggered angry GOPer-vs.-GOPer backbiting Wednesday and gave Democrats new hope of avoiding disaster in November.

O'Donnell followed up her 6-point victory over veteran Rep. Mike Castle for the Republican Senate nomination by thumbing her nose at party establishment types and mocking the GOP feud with the Tea Party as "Republican cannibalism."

"There are a lot of people who are rallying behind me who are frustrated that the Republican Party has lost its way," O'Donnell said.

Malcolm Turnbull has laid out clearly why the Federal Government needs to do more to show that its planned $43 billion National Broadband Network is not a waste of taxpayer funds.

Back in the saddle as a senior Opposition frontbencher for the first time in nine months, Turnbull lost no time in carrying out the riding instructions of his leader Tony Abbott - to ''demolish'' Labor's political and policy case for the NBN.

But there is just one problem for Abbott.