Iran will take the extraordinary step of sharing with Australia secret intelligence gathered by its operatives fighting Islamic State extremists in Iraq. 

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop revealed the co-operation after a meeting with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, during which she said he described Islamic State as the "most significant global threat at present".

Intelligence sharing with Iran - which would have been unthinkable during the years the country was branded part of the "axis of evil" - has also become more likely as optimism grows that Iran, the US and world powers will strike a grand bargain to ensure the Islamic Republic will not build a nuclear weapon.

From Victoria Rollison

The legend of Icarus is a weirdo. 

Not mentioned here are Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan and a lot of "North" Africa...

Tony Abbott has admitted at the highest international level that Australia's policies towards China are driven by two emotions: "fear and greed".

The Prime Minister's candid appraisal of Australia's primordial motivations, given with a grin in private conversation with Germany's Angela Merkel last November, is a long way from the prolix platitudes of official documents.

And it sits in awkward contrast with Mr Abbott's personal assertions of friendship, such as the one that he made to his Chinese counterpart the following day.

Late in life, William F. Buckley made a confession to Corey Robin. Capitalism is "boring," said the founding father of the American right. "Devoting your life to it," as conservatives do, "is horrifying if only because it's so repetitious. It's like sex." With this unlikely conversation began Robin's decade-long foray into the conservative mind. What is conservatism, and what's truly at stake for its proponents? If capitalism bores them, what excites them? 

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The Federal Government has formally revealed it will not go ahead with a promised company tax cut for big businesses.

But nor will larger companies be forced to pay a levy that was designed to help fund the Prime Minister's dumped paid parental leave scheme.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, pulled no punches Monday evening when he hammered home his message against a potential 2016 presidential candidate rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton. "Yesterday is over, and we are never going back," he declared in his formal announcement of his 2016 presidential bid.

The origins of humans (homo sapiens) makes for legends in our own minds, including denaturing life with rabid religious beliefs. Here, there is some resonance between the Abrahamic religions and the "myths" of ancient Greece and Rome, with equivalents of various legendary origins, in the region — especially in Mesopotamia, but also in Egypt.