Apart from the rotten government - or more likely because of the rotten government - the root of our troubles is what we are told is the two-speed economy. Australians west of Alice Springs and north of Toowoomba are whooping it up in their McMansions and their Ferraris while the rest of us are battling to pay off the eight-year-old Camry. The latest slug, sky-rocketing gas and electricity prices, will have us huddled for warmth around the light of a guttering candle.

Five weeks ago Grace Yeats was a normal, happy child.

The Mail on Sunday can today reveal devastating new claims of abuse by British soldiers carried out at a secret network of illegal prisons in the Iraqi desert.

"If you want to know what God thinks about money, just look at the people he gives it to."

Dorothy Parker

A flyer sent out by Tony Abbott has potentially exposed small businesses to fines of up to $1 million each.

The latest fortnightly Newspoll - the first in some time to be released on Sunday rather than Monday night - has Labor's primary vote down a point on last time to 30%, the Coalition's up two to 46% and the Greens' down two to 12%, with the two-party preferred out from 54-46 to 55-45.

Julia Gillard has lost most of her lead as preferred prime minister, which narrows from 42-38 in her favor to 39-38, but the individual personal ratings are essentially unchanged, with Gillard down two points on approval to 30% and up one on disapproval to 59%, while Tony Abbott is down one on each to 31% and 58%.

A secret defence facility under construction at HMAS Harman outside Canberra has suffered a massive cost blowout.

The $163.5 million project is 80 per cent over its original budget and three years behind schedule, but has been exempted from parliamentary review on the grounds that it ''would not be in the public interest''.

The appearance of two large cranes at the HMAS Harman defence base has confirmed that work is under way on a new defence communications and intelligence centre.

Gina Rinehart hopes to be a ''white knight'' for Fairfax Media, but might sell her shareholding unless she is offered positions on the board without ''unsuitable conditions''.

The mining entrepreneur told the ABC's Four Corners program, via her company Hancock Prospecting (HPPL), that she would be prepared to sell the 18.6 per cent chunk of the company's stock that she holds and consider investing again if her demands were later met.

The following letter has been circulated mostly in the United States by Just Foreign Policy. It was hand-delivered to the Embassy of Ecuador in London by Just Foreign Policy Policy Director Robert Naiman on Monday, June 25. 

Read the press release.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she is "open'' to further discussions with the opposition on offshore processing but is standing by the government's Malaysia solution.

In an interview with ABC TV this afternoon, Ms Gillard said that people wanted to see MPs find a solution to people risking their lives at sea. "People want to see us put the politics aside and act to get something done," she said.

When George W. Bush was president of the United States, it was an article of faith among liberals that many of his policies were not just misguided but unconstitutional as well. On issues large and small, from the conduct of foreign policy to the firing of United States attorneys, the Bush White House pushed an expansive view of executive authority, and Democrats pushed right back - accusing it of shredding the constitution, claiming near-imperial powers and even corrupting the lawyers working in its service.