Pointing an accusing finger at the US, the Palestinians yesterday said Washington's backing for Israeli refusal to halt Jewish settlement expansion had killed any hope of reviving peace negotiations soon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, buoyed by new-found support from the Obama administration, urged the Palestinians to "get a grip" and drop their settlement freeze precondition for restarting talks suspended since December.

from Crikey ....

Drugs expert shown the door for disagreeing with government

Greg Barns writes:

from Crikey .....

Mungo: Tough stance on boat people borders on the ridiculous

Mungo MacCallum writes:

"Border protection" - the very phrase is ominous.

Former Howard government treasurer Peter Costello is to be appointed to the federal government's Future Fund Board of Guardians.

Mr Costello was treasurer from 1996 until the coalition lost the 2007 federal election to Labor.

The announcement of Mr Costello's appointment comes after former opposition leader Brendan Nelson was appointed as an Australian ambassador to the European Union in September.

'To have the experience of someone like Mr Costello on the Future Fund board will be of great benefit,' Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said in a statement.

By TOM ZELLER Jr.

NEW YORK — News last week of the first major influx of Chinese capital and wind turbine manufacturing expertise into the renewable energy market in the United States — a 600-megawatt wind farm planned for the plains of west Texas — had many readers of the Green Inc. blog in a state of agitation.

settlements or peace?

JERUSALEM: Dealing a blow to the Obama Administration's efforts to restart Middle East peace talks, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has failed to persuade Palestinian leaders to accept an Israeli proposal that would slow - but not stop - the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Former prime minister Paul Keating has criticised Kevin Rudd's decision to appoint Peter Costello to the board of the Future Fund.

Mr Keating says the former treasurer squandered 11 years of economic growth and stood by as Australia's overseas debt sky-rocketed.

Mr Keating says Mr Rudd is a "goodie two-shoes" who has shown disloyalty to the Labor Party by not considering former MPs for the job.

He has described the former treasurer as a "policy bum of the first order" who squandered 11 years of economic opportunity.

Was it Kim Jong-il? Or was it a fake North Korean leader that entertained Bill Clinton on that mission to Pyongyang to retrieve the two imprisoned American journalists?

In the absence of fact, the Hermit Kingdom has long been a free-fire zone for outlandish rumour. And they got more outlandish than ever after Mr Kim reputedly suffered a stroke in August 2008. Mr Kim was variously said to be close to death, about to be toppled by a coup, or desperately fixing the succession for his youngest son. Or was he really someone else?

By ETHAN BRONNER

JERUSALEM —Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cautiously endorsed on Friday American-backed efforts to limit Iran’s nuclear program through shipments abroad of its enriched uranium. He made his remarks as an intensive Middle East diplomatic effort got under way, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton due here on Saturday.

Next time you see a junkie sprawled at the curb in the downtown of your nearest city, or read about someone who died of a heroin overdose, just imagine a big yellow sign posted next to him or her saying: "Your Federal Tax Dollars at Work."

During the Vietnam War, the CIA, and its Air America airline front-company, were neck deep in the Southeast Asian heroin trade. At the time, it was Southeast Asia, not Afghanistan, that was the leading producer and exporter of opium, mostly to the US, where there was a resulting heroin epidemic.

Today, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which, despite including some important changes to the military commissions at Guantánamo, are still a far cry from restoring U.S. credibility when it comes to due process and international law. In a press release, the ACLU called on the Obama administration to "shut down for good" the commissions, "as they remain a second class system of justice that cannot shed the shameful legacy of Guantánamo and all it stands for."

Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Northern Rock will be broken up and parts of their businesses sold off to create three new banks, it emerged last night.

Government sources said ministers were "determined" to see more competition in the market, following the £1.2 trillion bailout of the sector which resulted in the loss of three independent banks and several building societies.

Yes, I am a survivor, for I have managed to survive all the scary accounts of the Holocaust: the one about the soap (1), the one about the lamp shades, the one about the camps, the mass shooting, the one about the gas (2) and the one about the death march (3). I just managed to survive them all.