Ministers accused of 'driving' Haneef case …..

Civil libertarians say any inquiry into the bungled prosecution of Dr Mohamed Haneef should focus squarely on the actions of Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock and Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews.

The terrorism-related charge against Dr Haneef was dropped yesterday after prosecutors abandoned their case amid revelations of mistakes in the case against him.

Defence recruitment drive 'offensive' …..

Military recruitment material featuring alluring cartoon characters is offending some service personnel.

Posters approved by the office of Chief of Army Lieutenant-General Peter Leahy send the wrong message, according to some military women, News Limited newspapers report.

An advertisement for the Royal Australian Army Dental Corps depicts the modern woman digger as a buxom, full-lipped wonder woman wearing a tight-fitting white nursing outfit, complete with dog tag.

This week Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia might sell uranium to India, despite the country not signing up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Federal Cabinet is to consider the issue in the next few weeks.

Australian anger as Greer attacks 'slow-witted and neurotic' Diana …..

Germaine Greer's fellow Australians will be choking on their breakfast cereal this morning as they read her latest piece of invective: an excoriating attack on the late Diana, Princess of Wales, whom she describes as devious, neurotic and stupid.

In an essay in today's Weekend Australian Magazine, the Melbourne-born author and academic claims that Diana was nicknamed Brian by her siblings after the slow-witted snail on The Magic Roundabout.

As astronauts fly drunk, as the case against Dr Haneef falls down, as the stock market feels the jitters of a 3 per cent wipe off, as some people have sabotaged computers for the international space station, as a private space port explodes in the Mojave desert, as more bombs explodes in wherever, the US president is steadfast.

He wants more bullets to shoot willy-nilly at sumpthin' but congress is not forthcoming with the dough & has cut his budget for European fancy footwork.

This TV soap plot was brought to you by the cat that smells death in a US nursing home.

There is a proverb in Europe that goes along the line that: "The Neanderthal with the biggest stick shall win the philosophical contest", meaning that "force shall prevail upon reason".

Labor's IR changes madness: Howard …..

Prime Minister John Howard has used a visit to Western Australia's mining heartland to declare that voting for the Labor Party would be madness because of its industrial relations (IR) policy.

Mr Howard told a fundraising lunch in Kalgoorlie that Labor's plans to abolish Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) will hurt the one in four workers in WA currently on an individual contract.

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Medicare; Private Health Fund costs; Higher Education costs: interest charges on HECS debts; the GST; the impact of the GST on prices, including fuel; no new taxes; Ethanol; Pensions; Foreign Debt; funding of Labour Market programs; reductions in government services; Children Overboard; Iraq & WMD; the funding of Party Political advertising; AWB; the length of Parliamentary sittings; David Hicks; Superannuation; Taxation; Immigration; the Ministerial Code of Conduct; Nuclear Power; the environment; Sorry …..

Bush to cede power to VP during colonoscopy

'The president has had no symptoms,' Snow says before Saturday procedure.

Bush to turn over power to V.P. temporarily July 20: President Bush will hand over power to Vice President Dick Cheney while he undergoes a colonoscopy on Saturday. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports.

Pesident Bush will undergo a routine colonoscopy Saturday and temporarily hand presidential powers over to Vice President Dick Cheney, the White House said.

There was no deal: PM's wife …..

Janette Howard says her husband never made a deal with Peter Costello in
1994 to step aside as Prime Minister after one and a half terms.

In a new biography of John Howard, which exposes the deep personal animus between the Prime Minister and his Treasurer, Mrs Howard says: "John wasn't into making firm commitments".

‘Many consider Mr Costello's comments in the new biography of Mr Howard to be poorly-timed and politically stupid.

Frontbencher Tony Abbott has told Lateline the comments are regrettable, but only a reflection of Mr Costello's mood when he did the interviews for the book last year.

‘At 10 a.m. on April 4, 2001, representatives of 13 environmental groups were brought into the Old Executive Office Building for a long-anticipated meeting. Since late January, a task force headed by Vice President Cheney had been busy drawing up a new national energy policy, and the groups were getting their one chance to be heard.

Costello plays down PM biography comments …..

Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has downplayed comments he made in a biography of Prime Minister John Howard.

Extracts of the book, published in Fairfax newspapers today, reveal Mr Costello remains bitter about a leaked 2001 memo from then Liberal Party president Shane Stone, in which he cops much of the blame for the Government's woes.

He is reported as saying he read it as "an attempt to finger him for the Government's maladies."