US report slams security in Iraq

There has been another sobering assessment about Iraq, with a new report saying the country's security forces will not be able to operate on their own within the next 18 months.

The independent study was done by 20 retired senior military officers and chiefs of police at the request of the US Congress.

It says while the Iraqi Army shows promise, it will not be able to take over security on its own within the next 12 to 18 months.

"Yes, it's a very bad poll for the Coalition ... I recognise that," Mr Howard told Sky News today.

"What it does though is to encourage me, enthuse me to work even harder to convince the Australian public that the future prosperity and security of this country would be better under a Coalition government."

Bush hails success on trip to Iraq

US President George W Bush raised the possibility of a reduction in US troops in Iraq during a flying visit to the war-ravaged nation en route to the APEC conference in Sydney.

But he insisted combat force levels would be decided based on the recommendations of his commanders in Iraq, and not by "nervous" politicians in the Democratic-led US Congress.

Life in claustrophobic Baghdad 'jail ....

Thousands of volunteers - all Sunni Arabs - have been stepping forward and offering to protect their own neighbourhoods. Some are former insurgents who have switched sides.

Others are young unemployed men who have had enough of the violence.

It is a remarkable turn-around that so many now want to co-operate with the Americans, the very people they had previously been trying to kill.

Paul Keating, the former prime minister and architect of the current APEC structure, said those complaining should "grow up, count yourselves lucky".

"Here you have leaders representing 60 per cent of the world gross domestic product, a massive power grouping, coming to your city to discuss world affairs, and we think it's a bother? Really?" he told the Herald. "Look who's here - the President of the US, the President of China, the Prime Minister of Japan, the President of Indonesia, the President of Russia.

It's worth comparing the vital statistics (though not on CNN or Fox News): Syria has accepted almost one and a half million Iraqi refugees - caring for them, providing them with welfare and free hospital services - while Washington, when it isn't cursing Iraq's prime minister, has accepted a measly 800 Iraqis.

I'm buggered if I'll take my shoes off for APEC: Whitlam

Gough Whitlam ... "Ordinarily they know me there and they just let me through, but with APEC they're going to be extra officious so I decided not to go."

Former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was unable to attend an event in Darwin today because of what he described as "overly officious" APEC security at Sydney airport.

"He is a man of steel, because he’s a person of conviction & principle: whether it be Afghanistan or Iraq, we've got more work to do."

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bush to savour sydney and side-step election debate

US President George Bush has told of his excitement about visiting "beautiful" Sydney - and dodged suggestions ally John Howard could be defeated at the coming election - in an interview with Sky News today.

"I'm looking forward to coming to one of the most beautiful cities in the world," he said.

Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report. The document questions whether some aspects of a more positive assessment by the White House last month adequately reflected the range of views the GAO found within the administration.

Prayers, protests and a lingering disgust with the government's response to Hurricane Katrina marked the disaster's second anniversary Wednesday, with a presidential visit doing little to mollify those still displaced by the storm.

Clarence Russ, 64, took a dim view of politicians' promises as he tried to put the finishing touches on his repaired home in the city's devastated Lower 9th Ward.

"There was supposed to be all this money, but where'd it go? None of us got any," said Russ, whose house was the only restored home on an otherwise desolate block.

Tainted chief attorney felled by US political storms …..

US Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales was one of President George W Bush's closest advisers and a chief architect of the country's tough anti-terrorism laws, accused of redefining the word "torture".

His uncompromising stand, which led him to argue that terror suspects held at the US base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba had no rights under the Geneva Convention, drew fire from international rights groups.

Kevin Andrews's CV was not playing it by the book …..

Kevin Andrews has fudged his CV. Both his parliamentary and ministerial websites claim he was "co-author" of three books in the days before he entered Parliament. All appear to have been pumped out by the then Melbourne barrister in a remarkable creative outburst in 1990.