Hosni Mubarak ceded power to the Egyptian military as a popular revolt swept away the leader of the Arab world's most populous state, throwing into question the future course of a reliable US ally in the Middle East.

Egyptians, who only hours earlier shouted anger that Mubarak was clinging to power, celebrated through the night in Cairo and other cities after an announcement that Mubarak had resigned, bowing to the demands of protesters who had occupied central Cairo for 18 days. In downtown's Mubarak subway station, revelers crossed out his name, replacing it with "Martyrs' Station."

When shit happens to Tony Abbott, as it has a lot lately, his first instinct is to run to the loving embrace of Alan Jones, the venerable broadcaster. So it was on Wednesday morning, after that now famous encounter on Seven News the night before. As ever, it was the Great Man - Jones, that is - who did most of the talking. ''If I could perhaps amplify and you might then just comment ...'' he began helpfully.

Cuba has welcomed the arrival of an undersea fibre-optic cable linking it to Venezuela as a blow to the US economic embargo.

The cable will transform communications in Cuba, which has among the slowest internet speeds in the world.

The new connection will make download speeds 3,000 times faster - at least for the small minority of Cubans who have internet access.

The head of the Federal Government's new Climate Change Commission says he is saddened by the Opposition's response to the body.

Scientist Tim Flannery has been chosen to chair the commission, which will help build community support for putting a price on carbon.

The Opposition says the Government is using the body to justify its plans to push up power prices.

Coalition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt says the public will question what value for money they will get from the $5.6 million body.

"The Climate Commission is just another piece in Labor's jigsaw puzzle to try to justify their plan for an electricity tax," he said in a statement.

from Crikey .....

Ralph Norris and a bad apples-and-oranges comparison

Glenn Dyer writes:

from Crikey .....

Abbott's bad week has been months in the making

Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

NSW Senator Doug Cameron made a speech yesterday in the Australian Senate in support of the people of Palestine and particularly referred to the terrible situation of the people of the Gaza Strip.

On taking office in 2007, Labor had the political savvy to get controversial decisions made quickly, while its reputation was still unsullied and before resolve could crumble under Canberra's lobbying system. And at the UN, it seized an early opportunity to signal that foreign policy was under new management, supporting a resolution calling on Israel to stop establishing settlements in the Palestinian territories and a resolution calling for the Geneva Conventions to apply there.

Former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted in an interview that the country "would've been better off" if he had quit after the 2004 Abu Ghraib scandal and spared no criticism of his colleagues in his new memoir published Tuesday.

In "Known and Unknown," Rumsfeld defends his handling of the war and recounts his government career serving Republican presidents from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush.

However the former Pentagon chief also admitted his biggest error during his tenure under Bush was his failure to convince the president to accept his resignation in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, we have lived through a historical period in which the United States relinquished its tenuous claim to democracy.

The frames through which democracy apprehends others as human beings worthy of respect, dignity, and human rights were sacrificed to a mode of politics and culture that simply became an extension of war, both at home and abroad.

It took just two days for the price of bananas to jump in supermarkets after Cyclone Yasi hit, but the early price rise is the result of a gesture from the major chains to help farmers recover.

Coles and Woolworths have back-paid farmers for bananas picked before the cyclone in anticipation of crop damage.

Banana Growers chief executive Jonathan Eccles says it is a positive move on behalf of the supermarket chains.

"What both supermarkets have done - the fruit that's already in their warehouses - they have backdated payments to the growers at well above what was the normal price they were paying," he said.

It was as unexpected as a red gum, impervious to all that could be thrown at it, suddenly toppling days after the storm.

Julia Gillard, scorned for weeks during the dreadful summer of natural disasters as lacking empathy, as wooden, as incapable of displaying emotion, finally could no longer withstand the strain.

Standing in the Parliament yesterday, she unfurled a muddied Australian flag recovered from the flooded Queensland town of Murphys Creek in the body-strewn Lockyer Valley & her voice began cracking.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has announced $2 billion of cuts that he says the Government should make instead of imposing a flood levy.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard proposes to raise money for flood reconstruction through a mix of the levy and spending cuts.

But Mr Abbott says there is enough room in the budget to find the money without the levy.

"I think Australians have suffered enough without having to suffer through a new tax," he said.

Mr Abbott says a Coalition government would save $600 million by deferring water buybacks in the Murray-Darling Basin.

There is a lot more behind Hosni Mubarak digging in his heels and setting his thugs on the peaceful protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square than pure politics. This is also about money. Mubarak and the clique surrounding him have long treated Egypt as their fiefdom and its resources as spoils to be divided among them.

NSW Labor will put the cost of living at the heart of its re-election campaign, promising to ease the impact of surging electricity prices with a $250 rebate on power bills and restrict increases in public transport fares and government charges.

The Premier, Kristina Keneally, has also promised to legislate to keep Sydney Water, Hunter Water and the desalination plant at Kurnell in public hands, prompting the Coalition to rule out privatising Sydney Water and Hunter Water if it wins on March 26.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/labors-900m-pitch-20110206-1aiey.html