Almost everything seems to be going wrong for the American economy at once. People are buying less, but most things are costing more. Mortgage rates are rising, the dollar is falling and prices of key commodities like oil are leaping from one record high to the next. 

The moral bankruptcy of our new cardboard cutout Prime Minister has been revealed to all those with eyes that see. 

Yesterday, slavishly abetted by the feeble & inept ‘leader’ of the opposition, Brendan Nelson, Kevin Rudd perpetrated one of the most shameful & immoral acts ever committed in our nation’s Parliament, casting a stain on our country & its people. 

Five years since the conflict in Darfur began, BBC News website's World Affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds asks why international concern has not been translated into effective intervention. 

The deep concern about Darfur felt internationally has not been matched by a similar determination to intervene. 

New South Wales Attorney-General John Hatzistergos says the Government is considering extending the life of special powers given to police during last year's APEC summit. 

A review of the APEC meeting, discussed in Cabinet yesterday, has concluded the event was conducted peacefully, largely due to the scale of the police operation and the powers available under the Act. 

Although Putin stressed continuity in foreign policy in his statements, Merkel's meeting later with Medvedev had a somewhat different character. The two met at his government residence, located near Putin's and bearing the German name of Mayendorf, or 'May Village.' 

McClatchy reports that an "exhaustive" Pentagon-sponsored review of "more than 600,000 Iraqi documents" captured after the 2003 invasion "has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network."  

It has been decades since calls for greater independence in Tibet have been so vocal. Now acts of defiance against Chinese rule in the region are springing up all over the world. 

I felt like I wanted to cry because it made me feel like I wasn't an Australian, like I wasn't wanted there. 

Lust, gluttony, greed and the rest of the seven deadly sins gathered in the 6th century will have to get used to a modern companion. A Vatican official has articulated seven new categories of sin “due to the phenomenon of globalization.” 

We were warned by billionaires who know how the global financial casino works and don't like what they see, even as they prosper. You've got to love Warren Buffet, the most successful investor of this era, when he talks about the financial speculators and manipulators operating under the polite title of 'hedge funds'. 

The Bush family did not have a distinguished history before Samuel Bush ingratiated himself to the wealthy and powerful. Although they appear to have been present in this country from the early Colonial period, they had gained no distinction.  

The federal Opposition Leader, Brendan Nelson, has staked his leadership on a radical overhaul of conservative party politics, including the merger of the Liberal and National parties and allowing party members to elect the leader. 

Nelson Stakes His Future On Lib-Nat Merger

from Crikey ….. 

Mungo: What a difference a month makes 

Mungo MacCallum writes: 

In the first insider account of Pentagon decision-making on Iraq, one of the key architects of the war blasts former secretary of state Colin Powell, the CIA, retired Gen. Tommy R. Franks and former Iraq occupation chief L. Paul Bremer for mishandling the run-up to the invasion and the subsequent occupation of the country. 

Nationals MP Mark Vaile has broken his silence to vigorously defend his right to take on a private sector consultancy while still in Parliament. 

As he took a swipe at Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson, the former deputy prime minister said he may quit office before the next election.