Qantas has posted a $235 million half-year loss and announced that 5,000 jobs will go.

Australian Cardinal George Pell has been appointed to one of the most Vatican's senior roles, Prefect for the Economy of the Holy See.

He will be responsible for management and reform of the Vatican's sprawling administration and finances, reporting directly to the Pope.

One of his first tasks will be cleaning up the mess exposed by the 'Vatileaks' scandal, in which private letters to Pope Benedict leaked by his personal butler revealed infighting and allegations of corruption among a territorial and rebellious bureaucracy.

A witness to violence at the Manus Island detention centre last Monday night says guards from the security firm G4S allowed locals armed with makeshift weapons into the facility.

In an open letter to Mr Nile, PhD student Angela Williams wrote that she was "disgusted" by [his] post.

She said her post labelling the comments "inappropriate" had been removed from the Facebook page.

"Since you choose to remove my dissenting comments on your Facebook post I am writing to you here to ask why you think it is appropriate to continue the bullying of Charlotte Dawson after her tragic death," she wrote.

As one is aware, the federal regime places feelers out to gauge the mood of people on cuts... Medicare, education, science, all are destined to have some rind taken off, then sent to the gulags. Profit is the name of the game...

German prosecutors are currently looking in to pressing charges against several men believed to have been accomplices to murder at Auschwitz. Some in Germany are asking if justice can still be served almost 70 years after the war.

The Chief Justice of the High Court has written to the Prime Minister, warning him that any move to cut the court's funding would significantly affect its ability to carry out its work.

The beleaguered bumblebee faces a new threat, scientists say.

Researchers have found that two diseases harboured by honeybees are spilling over into wild bumblebees.

Insects infected with deformed wing virus and a fungal parasite called Nosema ceranae were found across England, Scotland and Wales.

Writing in the journal Nature, the team says that beekeepers should keep their honeybees as free from disease as possible to stop the spread.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair offered to act as an "unofficial adviser" to Rebekah Brooks and Rupert Murdoch during the phone-hacking scandal, a London court has heard.

In Australia, unfortunately, some workers don't realise the value of unions because their working conditions are "okay" and "fair". The workers don't realise unions fought hard to improve workers conditions to these standards — standards that could slip very quickly under the relentless pressure from the Liberals (CONservatives).

Now workers who enjoy safety and rights don't value as they should the organisations that brought them these essential benefits. It's a sad case as the Liberal (CONservative) government — on behalf of employers — has been trying hard to demonise unionism under Rattus Howard and now with renewed vigour under Little Shit Abbott. 

8-10-13-16-19-22-23 — the beauty of consciousness.... (The numbers refer to the chart in "a simplified history of religion"... WAR)

... and wars...

Here I was, this morning, thinking that, soon, global warming was going to hit us for six, relent, let a couple of doosies go to the keeper and hit us for four... In the next over, global warming would hit us in the head, in the balls and for another six beyond the reporters boxes... And the ball is lost on the roof...

Does the Earth go around the sun, or does the sun go around the Earth?

When asked that question, 1 in 4 Americans surveyed answered incorrectly. Yes, 1 in 4. In other words, a quarter of Americans do not understand one of the most fundamental principles of basic science. So that’s where we are as a society right now.