US leaker Edward Snowden down to Venezuela, Bolivia for asylum
EDWARD Snowden's hopes of escaping his hiding place in the transit zone of a Moscow airport have shrunk with more than half the countries he had asked for asylum turned down his application. Only two...
View ArticleWinklevoss twins peddle mystery money
IN what may be the ultimate case of "money for nothing", Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are asking investors to put real currency into one that does not physically exist. They want to give investors...
View ArticleAcademics join election fact-checkers
ACADEMIC online publisher The Conversation is the latest to join the fact-checking party with plans to launch an Election FactCheck website. Managing editor Misha Ketchell today flagged the launch of...
View ArticleNovak Djokovic warns Andy Murray of 'best ever form' at Wimbledon
A DEFIANT Novak Djokovic prepares for his Wimbledon quarter-final tonight as the menacing presence favoured to deny British tennis the champion it cherishes above all others. Andy Murray carries the...
View ArticleM2 takes 12 per cent stake in Inabox
M2 Telecommunications will take a 12 per cent stake in wholesale telco aggregator Inabox after announcing its intention to invest $2 million in the companyÂ’s initial public offering. Inabox, which...
View ArticleChinese not on right path yet
GETTING impatient that it is taking so long to vote out an incompetent, self-interested left-wing government? Spare a thought for the Chinese. It may be true, as Tony Abbott argued when he last visited...
View ArticleRemoving 'race' from french constitution hard to stomach
NO subject is so apt to cause contortions in the minds of well-meaning liberals (and others) as that of race. Denying that race is a biologically valid way of categorising mankind, they also say that...
View ArticleAlbo chuffed at a taste of top job
FROM midday today the reins of power will be in the hands of Albo as the Prime Minister flies off to Indonesia. Anthony Albanese, the newly appointed Communications Minister, is "still pinching...
View ArticleRoll surge since change at top
KEVIN Rudd's return to the prime ministership has mobilised the youth vote and sparked a surge in people signing up to the electoral roll. The Australian Electoral Commission's Phil Diak said yesterday...
View ArticleKind Kev can't change his spots
IF you talk to a bunch of folks inside the Liberal Party, they will tell you so far everything is going according to Plan B. They always planned for a Kevin comeback, while they prayed for Julia...
View ArticleChina's rich get a taste for breast milk
A lingering cultural belief in the benefits of breast milk as an elixir is leading wealthy Chinese adults to hire wet nurses to provide them with daily doses of it, according to media reports. Young...
View ArticleHIV newborn results give scientists heart
FRESH data from several small trials presented at an AIDS conference yesterday provides encouraging news in the quest for a cure for HIV, scientists say. Giving an update in an eagerly followed trial,...
View ArticleTwo men cleared of HIV infection after bone marrow transplants
TWO men appear to have been cured of HIV infection after bone marrow transplants in an advance that experts say offers new avenues towards treatments for millions of patients worldwide. The men have no...
View ArticleIs Abbott facing ambush by SBY?
COULD Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono do to Tony Abbott what George W. Bush did to Mark Latham? It must surely be Kevin Rudd's fervent wish as he meets the Indonesian President in Bogor tomorrow. On June 3,...
View ArticleBelgium's King Albert abdicates amid paternity scandal
KING ALBERT II of Belgium has become the second European monarch to abdicate in three months, announcing that he will hand over to his son Philippe after 20 years on the throne. In a televised address,...
View ArticleAcademic's explicit harassment of economist Willem Buiter
A 44-year-old academic has been charged with harassing one of the world's most prominent economists and sending him more than a thousand e-mails, including explicit pictures of herself. Heleen Mees, a...
View ArticleAustralians keep the branders honest
AUSTRALIANS are relatively unlikely to pay more for designer brands if they can buy a cheaper, unbranded product that does the same job, a new study has found. Just one in four Australians (26 per...
View ArticlePrice of legitimacy my life, says Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi
EGYPT's armed forces were preparing to sack Mohammed Morsi last night unless he resigned, reports said, after the Islamist President warned that his electoral legitimacy was "the only guarantee against...
View ArticleNBN Co's pricing plan in jeopardy, ACCC warns
THE Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has warned the NBN Co it will reject its long-term pricing plan unless changes are formally made to allow the competition regulator to intervene in...
View ArticleAustralian Computer Society rejects government's 457 visa fix
A DECLINE in undergraduates studying information technology and a skills shortage, rather than the overuse of 457 visas, was the issue facing the IT industry, The Australian Computer Society said...
View ArticleSaviour bats on, but past won't go
AS much as he may want to start afresh as the new Labor saviour, Kevin Rudd cannot escape his past term as prime minister or the legacy of the Gillard government. On his arrival in Indonesia, where he...
View ArticleWIN cuts to get in shape
BRUCE Gordon's WIN Television is continuing to cut staff and take costs out of the business ahead of any takeover bid by Nine or Ten. The company is rumoured to be planning cuts in regional NSW...
View ArticleSlim chance of election win but Rudd provides hope
IN just one week as a resurrected Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd has reinvigorated Labor, given the ALP MPs and faithful new hope, regained the initiative on calling the election and directly confronted...
View ArticleGet over it, girls - Gillard just had to go
WHEN Kevin Rudd was ignominiously dumped from the prime ministerial position to which he had been elected, I strongly supported the candidacy of Julia Gillard. On the record and behind the scenes, my...
View ArticleHe's not dead, but rare night parrot nest stays secret
THE director of the CSIRO's wildlife collection has confirmed naturalist John Young has taken the first pictures of a live night parrot in more than 100 years. Mr Young is so concerned the publicity...
View ArticleReforming Labor a clever move though resistance inevitable
KEVIN Rudd's intervention into the NSW Labor branch to stamp out corruption is step one in his campaign for prime ministerial re-election as the anti-Labor Labor candidate. Eradicating corruption is...
View ArticleEgypt's fraught path to freedom
IT took Egyptians three decades to remove Hosni Mubarak from power and only three days to topple Mohammed Morsi, his successor and the country's first democratically elected president. The tens of...
View ArticlePunk finds nirvana in soundgarden of war
UNTIL this week, Jason Everman was generally regarded as a curious footnote in rock music history: a guitarist who played for Nirvana, but could not bear the heavy burden of being a rock 'n' roll...
View ArticleGermans embrace Angela Merkel's French
IT is probably Angela Merkel's fault. After the German Chancellor used the word to describe the eurozone crisis, "shitstorm" has been officially included in the standard German dictionary. Duden, the...
View ArticleLA mayor declares lack of film shoots a civic emergency
HOLLYWOOD is searching for a new action hero, a superman whose daunting mission will be to save Tinseltown. Los Angeles may boast movie star residents, but for years it has struggled to entice them to...
View ArticleMan charged over 'vampire' murder
POLICE have made a dramatic breakthrough in their 10-year-old investigation into the murder of self-described "vampire" gigolo Shane Chartres-Abbott after arresting the man they suspect of ordering...
View ArticleAlbanese to release NBN rollout targets
NEWLY appointed deputy prime minister Anthony Albanese has said he will soon release details of the NBN Co's politically sensitive rollout targets as he defended the company's chief executive despite...
View ArticleAussies cut fixed-line home phone cord
ONE in five Australian adults have cut the cord on their fixed-line home phone and gone mobile-only according to new statistics from the communications and media watchdog. More than 3.3 million...
View ArticleYou beauty: $9 an hour works for trainee and boss
AT the chain of beauty salons called Skin Deep in Perth, Chelsea Van Dyke, 17, is one of four teenagers learning the ropes. She is paid $9 an hour -- the lowest rate under the award governing the...
View ArticleWeinstein court drama set over what the White House butler saw
HARVEY Weinstein is a movie mogul straight from central casting: a bombastic, abrasive marketing genius, constantly alive to the possibility of garnering a little extra publicity. So when he was...
View ArticleDon't fall for China's spell, warns Howard
FORMER prime minister John Howard has warned Australia not to become mesmerised by China, and instead focus on maintaining an efficient and productive economy. In a major speech to the Australian...
View ArticleTony Abbott's silly game could cost the Coalition
TEN days after the extraordinary changeover of prime minister, Kevin Rudd and his small group of lieutenants have emerged unscathed from the Labor Party mushroom cloud. Behind them, careers and...
View ArticleSBY opens door to surge in beef exports
INDONESIAN president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has flagged a likely increase in Australian beef exports to Indonesia and invited Australian companies to invest in his local industry. Speaking after a...
View ArticleSwan's budget leaves Rudd little room to move
KEVIN Rudd has decided to govern at least for the time being - but he is now finding that governing is extremely difficult in the current political and economic environment where Labor has few good...
View ArticleGunslingers are gone, and the Ashes tumult and shouting have died
"THIS is war, same as usual," wrote The Guardian's cricket correspondent, Matthew Engel, before an Ashes series sometime in the 1980s. Would he say the same now? Possibly, but with a codicil. The...
View ArticleReturn of yesterday's man Rudd is no way to rebuild the road to credibility
THE dominant narrative of the past fortnight is the Rudd reinvigoration of Labor; which shows how the daily news cycle often misses the real story. History will look back on this as the moment Labor's...
View ArticleCall me lucky, but with Botham and Willis on board, who needed luck?
RAYMOND Illingworth, when provocatively asked if I was the best England captain, replied: "The luckiest captain, more like." Well, I don't know about luckiest, but I do agree about lucky. And as in...
View Article-21C wind chill? Snow problem
AFTER a very slow start to the season, most of Australia's alpine resorts are finally getting reasonable snowfalls this weekend, in time for the school holidays. Those in Melbourne, Hobart and...
View ArticleWe missed the immigration boat once, so now we must be nimble
I SUSPECT there's not a single person in Australia who can walk down the main streets of Campsie or Lakemba and read every sign on the shopfronts. The area where I've always lived is the heart of...
View ArticleWayne Swan is just a shadow of great treasurers past
PICTURE the scene. Wayne Swan is packing up his big office. He comes across the handsome plate engraved with Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year 2011, Wayne Maxwell Swan. "Ungrateful bastards," he...
View ArticleFriendly idea that may work
ONCE again Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has displayed the depth of his friendship for Australia. In a performance that was all class, SBY has made a serious contribution to finding a...
View ArticleEdward Snowden leaks reveal Barack Obama's foreign aims
THE continued leaking of classified information by the former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has provoked heated debate about privacy and international law, which,...
View ArticleShinzo Abe revision won't add up as election is watched by friends and foes
ALTHOUGH the result of this month's upper house election in Japan seems a forgone conclusion, neighbouring countries will be watching the contest like hawks. Campaigning began on Thursday for a poll...
View ArticleHP fined $3m for misleading conduct
THE Federal Court has slapped Hewlett-Packard Australia with a $3 million fine for misleading customers by making several false claims, described as "widespread and systemic" by the competition...
View Article$50 a month for family mobile bill: resellers dial up the deals
COMPETITION among mobile phone plan resellers has intensified to the point where a family of three can enjoy a plentiful supply of calling and texting for about $50 a month all up. But there are...
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