Pakistan was teetering on the brink of civil war last night, following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto by suspected Muslim extremists. 

Ms Bhutto was shot in the neck and chest by a suicide bomber who then blew himself up, moments after the former prime minister addressed supporters in the city of Rawalpindi. 

Isn't it lucky that Hicks is being released during the slowest news period of the year? Last Christmas season they hung Saddam, no doubt propping up othewise sagging newspaper sales. This year it appears that a media scrum following a man who is legally prevented from speaking to them, vieing for shots of a pissed-off terrorist, that are going to help sell the discount laptops at department store sales.

The Adelaide Advertiser has just posted a story explaining how some of David's schoolmates have told how the ex-Guantanemo inmate "dabbled in Satanism" during his formative years. The only corroboration to the story I can find is a similar phrase in a piece from a few months back. The only reason I can think of for publishing such a piece of information is to incite suspicion of an "Agent Of Satan" being released into the community.. Maybe we can be inflamed into a lynch mob?

Gather ye now among thy tribes and among thy families and then shalt thou rest, for the year runneth its course.

Put aside therefore thy labours and place thy trust in thy investments, and possibly thy investments in thy trust. 

For it came to pass that there were great changes in the land.

Police were forced to block the entrance of a public meeting in Camden last night when up to 800 people showed up to attend a protest against plans for an Islamic school in the suburb. 

The meeting was also attended by Fred Nile of the Christian Democratic Party. 

At least four top White House lawyers - Alberto Gonzales, Harriet Miers, John Bellinger & David Addington - "took part in discussions with the" CIA "between 2003 & 2005 about whether to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations."  

In about turn, Bush signs climate change bill 

President George Bush, after years of holding out against proposals to combat climate change, yesterday signed into law an energy bill establishing higher fuel-economy standards for new cars and other conservation measures. 

Sixty percent of Americans believe that the next generation will be worse off than their own.

A majority of Americans have no confidence in the government's ability to solve the nation's problems.

Greenspan predicts recession in US  

As the credit crisis continues to bite around the world, two eminent economists have predicted the United States will most likely fall into a recession next year. 

During the full two week period of the Bali Climate Conference, Mister Bush and his people did their best to undermine any and every attempt made at achieving a consensus on how best to combat and reduce the impacts of global warming.

There are several vital points raised by the new revelations in The New York Times that "the N.S.A.'s reliance on telecommunications companies is broader and deeper than ever before" and includes both pre-9/11 efforts to tap without warrants into the nation's domestic communications network as well as the collection of vast telephone records of American citizens in the name of the War on Drugs.

Zeffirelli offers Pope a makeover

Franco Zeffirelli, the Italian film, stage and opera director, has said Pope Benedict XVI needs a makeover of his 'cold' image and 'showy' clothes. 

Zeffirelli told La Stampa newspaper that the Pope communicated in a cold way that was little suited to what was happening around him. 

The Attorney General,                                    

The Hon Robert McClelland MP,                               

Parliament House,

Peter Costello is maintaining the rage against John Howard and his Liberal Party colleagues by blaming the election loss on their reluctance to make him the leader. 

In a sign his bitterness has not abated in the three weeks since the election, Mr Costello used yesterday's declaration of the polls in his Melbourne seat of Higgins to say a lack of "renewal" had cost the Coalition the election. 

I did like it [soldiering] in the old days, back when the prerequisite of a British campaign was that the enemy should under no circumstances carry guns.

Even spears made us think twice....  

The kind of people we liked to fight were two feet tall and armed with dried grass.... 

Finally, Howard admits McKew has it

“The 33-year parliamentary career of John Howard ended today when he finally conceded defeat in Bennelong and congratulated the woman who beat him, Labor's Maxine McKew ....