After Senator Barack Obama said Thursday that he might “refine” his Iraq policies after meeting with military commanders there later this summer, he hastily held a second news conference to emphasize that he remains committed to his central proposal for withdrawing all combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. 

As these anecdotes illustrate, Downer never learnt the lesson of his tenure as a failed leader of the opposition. His leadership of the Liberal Party was already in strife but it was his ill-judged joke about domestic violence - "the things that batter," Downer chortled - that brought his term to a rapid end.  

Police have told organisations planning to campaign during World Youth Day events they need to have placards, banners and T-shirts pre-approved or risk losing their protest "rights" - even those groups representing victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. 

Oil climbs peak, economies plumb depressions and the future will not imitate the past

To maintain any modicum of modern life, countries and individuals will increasingly turn to electricity generated from renewable sources. There is no way to dramatically increase the world’s oil production, now or in some dreamy future. All the major fossil fuels will be in declining supply by 2025 or sooner if we ramp up use of coal or natural gas to replace crude oil. 

The country's crumbling infrastructure might require an urgent overhaul, rampant corruption might need to be stamped out, and runaway prices might demand taming, but Russia's most pressing task, some observers say, lies in a completely different area. 

Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve heads a list of Tory MPs with sizeable shareholdings in companies accused of propping up Robert Mugabe's regime, The Independent on Sunday can reveal today. 

Prime Minister Gordon Brown calls for 'new deal' to solve oil crisis

The Prime Minister has unveiled a four-point plan, which would see leading oil markets – including China and India as well as the Middle East – functioning better to reduce volatility and renew efforts to make the most of the world's remaining reserves.

Obama supports supreme court reversal of gun ban

· Candidate's stance at odds with former position

· Democrat backs death penalty for child rapist

Barack Obama intensified his campaign to appeal to voters on the life-and-death issues of the American heartland yesterday by stepping away from his past support for gun control. 

Meanwhile in the Deep Blue Sea - too tainted of red blood from the dead:

'What about reasoning with them?' said one whale.

'Humans do not listen to reason, they're addicted to greed!' said another.

'Pity we don't have nukular weapons!' joked a sea cow.

In the world of advertising there could be a few nervous souls. McCain may or may not do it again... If you see my drift. The next presidential fight is about to start. Old John versus youth-ish Barack.

Rudd's big fraud: all symbols & no substance …..

Right at the heart of the Rudd Government is an emptiness - a vacuum between the rhetoric and the reality; between the empathy and the action. 

Two years ago, President Bush declared that America was “addicted to oil,” and, by gosh, he was going to do something about it.

Well, now he has. Now we have the new Bush energy plan: “Get more addicted to oil.” 

the legacy of a war criminal ….. 

“No individual president can compare to the second Bush,” wrote one historian.

*After Air Force One landed at Heathrow at 1.45pm, George Bush flew in his helicopter Marine One to Windsor Castle, where he spent 45 minutes with the Queen. She gave the President and Laura Bush a tour of her Berkshire palace's White Drawing Room. They were joined by the Duke of Edinburgh and America's ambassador to London, Robert Tuttle, and his wife Maria, for afternoon tea, sandwiches and cakes. 

When George Bush announced that he favoured keeping troops in Iraq for decades, the media apparently didn't think the opinion of Iraqis mattered.