An anti-coal activist says the Queensland Government's offer of incentives for mining companies in the Galilee Basin shows the projects are not economically viable.

Firefighters are overstretched and facing a “desperate” summer, according to New South Wales Rural Fire Service group captains who have lambasted the state government over what they see as cuts to the organisation’s salaried staff.

IT was all over in a few seconds, but the assassination of John F Kennedy on 22 November 1963 has generated five decades of "painstaking, and for some unsatisfying, analysis," the Daily Mail says.

London: Former Prime Minister John Howard has poured scorn on the "alarmist" scientific consensus on global warming, comparing those calling for action on climate change to religious zealots in a speech to a gathering of UK climate sceptics.

From the master of hypocrisy, Gerard Henderson...

The lucky country? Try selfish and deluded, too

Pakistan's interior minister has said the death of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud has destroyed the country's nascent peace process.

"This is not just the killing of one person, it's the death of all peace efforts," Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said.

Pakistan summoned the US ambassador to protest over Friday's drone strike that killed Mehsud.

It came a day before a Pakistani delegation had been due to fly to North Waziristan to meet Mehsud.

In opposition, Tony Abbott promised Australians they would get a "no-surprises" government.

Kevin Rudd made no secret of his fury at the strong anti-Labor editorial stance taken by News Corp papers during the 2013 election campaign, but a new book by one of his closest advisers reveals how hard he first tried to find favour with News after he returned to the prime ministership.

There is a report done for the Tassie Hydro in regard to birds being killed by wind turbines...  Of course the numbers are quite small (and can be counted on one hand on a good decade) as most of the bird species know how to avoid being hit by the spinning blades... But the monitoring goes on in order to get accurate statistical data...

"Facts are in the way of opinions" Allan Gus Jones.

------------------------

There is no better cartoon than this one by Stan Cross, first published in Australia in 1933, to illustrate the seriousness of our predicament and the stupidity of our leaders at present while being faced by global warming.  Here we are 80 years later, still clowning around...

The spying row between Germany and America is deepening, with fresh reports that United States president Barack Obama knew his country was monitoring the German chancellor's phone calls.