Scientists baffled by arrival of rare seals

Taronga Zoo marine specialists are fighting to save the life of the second Antarctic leopard seal to be washed up on a Sydney beach in a week.

Found stranded yesterday morning at Clontarf, the gravely ill female had been badly mauled by a cookie-cutter shark. The zoo is already nursing a male leopard seal that was found on Tuesday last week on a beach at Wattamolla in the Royal National Park: it had also been attacked by a cookie-cutter shark.

Russia uranium deal makes good sense: Downer

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says the nuclear safeguards agreement signed today with Russia paves the way for the export of at least $1 billion worth of uranium a year.

The agreement has yet to be ratified by federal Parliament and by Russia's Duma.

It stipulates that Australian uranium cannot be sold on to any other nations or used for weapons.

11 charged over Chaser APEC stunt

Eleven people from the ABC TV program The Chaser's War on Everything have been charged with offences under the new APEC legislation.

Eight ABC cast and crew members and three hired drivers have been charged with entering a restricted area without justification.

The group was arrested after staging a fake motorcade through Sydney's CBD and were stopped near the InterContinental Hotel where US President George W Bush is staying.

Kevin Rudd -

Labor’s Mandarin-speaking leader Kevin Rudd upstaged John Howard today in a show of linguistic one-upmanship at a state lunch for China's President Hu Jintao.

The Prime Minister's own speech went down well. But when Mr Rudd started addressing the leader of one quarter of the world's population, fluently in his own tongue, the effect was stunning.

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.