Rudd calls for 'restraint' in golden handshakes …..

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says it is disappointing that some corporate leaders do not show wage restraint. 

The head of Macquarie Bank, Allan Moss, will walk away with a $50 million package when he retires later this month. 

After basking in a showy celebration of America’s close ties with Israel, President Bush criticized other Middle East leaders on Sunday, prodding them to expand their economies, offer equal opportunity to women and embrace democracy if they want peace to become reality.

Turnbull pledges support for petrol tax cut plan …… 

The Opposition's Treasury spokesman, Malcolm Turnbull, has been forced to publicly declare his support for the Coalition's policy to cut petrol tax, after a damaging email leak.

from Crikey ….. 

Dubya unites the Democrats 

US correspondent Guy Rundle writes: 

While its propaganda machine might be sounding a little shrill lately, China's foreign policy is hitting all the right notes.  

In the past few weeks, President Hu Jintao has met twice with leading politicians from Taiwan following the election of Ma Ying-jeou. First Hu met with VP-elect Vincent Siew and then with KMT bigwig Lien Chan.  

He will soon play a major role in deciding the fate of one such bill, to help struggling homeowners, that the House passed, 266 to 154, on Thursday. 

Burma wants supplies but not foreign aid workers, its foreign ministry says, hours after the UN chief urged military leaders to prioritise relief work. 

Burma is 'making strenuous efforts' to get aid to affected areas by itself and was not ready for foreign teams, a statement in a state daily says. 

With a bill like a duck, a tail and fur like a beaver and snake-like venom hidden in heel spurs, the platypus could be the result of some strange genetic experiment.

It is: evolution. 

Two Men's Lives Reflect Divergent Fortunes of Jewish, Palestinian Peoples

By Griff Witte 

Sixty years ago, Dror Gurel and Nabil Zaharan were born into a land at war. 

Senator Barack Obama won a commanding victory in the North Carolina primary on Tuesday and lost narrowly to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in Indiana, an outcome that injected a boost of momentum to Mr. Obama’s candidacy as the Democratic nominating contest entered its final month. 

Picture, if you will, a tree-lined plaza in Baghdad's International Village, flanked by fashion boutiques, swanky cafes, and shiny glass office towers.

Like Kiribati and Tuvalu, the islands of the Torres Strait are slowly being submerged. But unlike their Pacific neighbours, the plight of their inhabitants is being overlooked. 

It is crunch time for the Bush administration as it continues to hold out hope for a peace agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis. 

But even US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice let out a sign of her frustration at the lack of progress on the ground, particularly on the part of the Israelis. 

Iemma to push ahead with privatisation plan ….. 

New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma is planning to defy the will of his own party and push ahead with electricity privatisation. 

Yesterday the state conference of the New South Wales Labor Party voted 702 to 107 against privatisation of electricity assets. 

The world's most dangerous terrorist, who has already slaughtered hundreds of thousands of innocent people, has launched yet another campaign of murder and destruction.