from Crikey .....

Australia rolls out the welcome mat for war criminal retirees

Antony Loewenstein writes:

When Obama's elderly envoy George Mitchell headed home in humiliation this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated his departure by planting trees in two of the three largest Israeli colonies around Jerusalem. With these trees at Gush Etzion and Ma'aleh Adumim, he said, he was sending "a clear message that we are here. We will stay here. We are planning and we are building." These two huge settlements, along with that of Ariel to the north of Jerusalem, were an "indisputable part of Israel forever."

Tony Blair was heckled today as he refused to express any regret for the Iraq war and insisted Britain would ultimately be able to look back on the conflict with 'immense pride'. 

There were cries of consternation from witnesses watching the official inquiry into the conflict as the former prime minister rejected the chance to note his sorrow at the loss of British lives.

Chairman Sir John Chilcot had to tell audience members to be quiet during Mr Blair's closing comments, in which he insisted he stood by his actions in the run-up to the 2003 war, despite the 179 British troops killed in the conflict.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has blamed failings by Nigerian leaders for increasing "radicalisation" among young Nigerians.

She pointed to poor living standards and "unbelievable" corruption.

Mrs Clinton was speaking after a young Nigerian man from a wealthy family was accused of trying to blow up a plane over the US on Christmas Day.

She said she believed that bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was "disturbed by his father's wealth".

The Nigerian government has not responded to Mrs Clinton's criticism.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says comments he made about when a woman should lose her virginity were meant only as advice for his three daughters.

When asked by the Australian Women's Weekly in a wide-ranging interview published today what advice he would give his daughters on sex before marriage, Mr Abbott replied that he would advise them not to give away their virginity lightly.

Leonardo Da Vinci's remains are to be exhumed to allow scientists to establish whether the Mona Lisa is a disguised self-portrait.

Scientists and historians from Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage have sought permission to open the artist's tomb in France's Loire Valley.

They hope to find his skull which they can use to reconstruct his face to discover whether his famed masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, is in fact a self-portrait in disguise.

Mystery has surrounded the identity of the Mona Lisa for centuries.

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Last year I sat in my apartment trying to figure out what to do about Australia Day.

If you are in the UK the street surveillance is out of hand, does government really need a camera on every corner. The UK recently started a program enlisting covert human intelligence sources.

Children as young as eight have been recruited by councils to "snoop" on their neighbours and report petty offences such as littering, the UK Daily Telegraph disclosed.

The "covert human intelligence sources", as some local authorities describe them, are also being asked to pass on the names of neighbors they believe to be responsible, or take down their number-plates.