The Mail on Sunday can today reveal devastating new claims of abuse by British soldiers carried out at a secret network of illegal prisons in the Iraqi desert.

"If you want to know what God thinks about money, just look at the people he gives it to."

Dorothy Parker

The latest fortnightly Newspoll - the first in some time to be released on Sunday rather than Monday night - has Labor's primary vote down a point on last time to 30%, the Coalition's up two to 46% and the Greens' down two to 12%, with the two-party preferred out from 54-46 to 55-45.

Julia Gillard has lost most of her lead as preferred prime minister, which narrows from 42-38 in her favor to 39-38, but the individual personal ratings are essentially unchanged, with Gillard down two points on approval to 30% and up one on disapproval to 59%, while Tony Abbott is down one on each to 31% and 58%.

A secret defence facility under construction at HMAS Harman outside Canberra has suffered a massive cost blowout.

The $163.5 million project is 80 per cent over its original budget and three years behind schedule, but has been exempted from parliamentary review on the grounds that it ''would not be in the public interest''.

The appearance of two large cranes at the HMAS Harman defence base has confirmed that work is under way on a new defence communications and intelligence centre.

Gina Rinehart hopes to be a ''white knight'' for Fairfax Media, but might sell her shareholding unless she is offered positions on the board without ''unsuitable conditions''.

The mining entrepreneur told the ABC's Four Corners program, via her company Hancock Prospecting (HPPL), that she would be prepared to sell the 18.6 per cent chunk of the company's stock that she holds and consider investing again if her demands were later met.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she is "open'' to further discussions with the opposition on offshore processing but is standing by the government's Malaysia solution.

In an interview with ABC TV this afternoon, Ms Gillard said that people wanted to see MPs find a solution to people risking their lives at sea. "People want to see us put the politics aside and act to get something done," she said.

When George W. Bush was president of the United States, it was an article of faith among liberals that many of his policies were not just misguided but unconstitutional as well. On issues large and small, from the conduct of foreign policy to the firing of United States attorneys, the Bush White House pushed an expansive view of executive authority, and Democrats pushed right back - accusing it of shredding the constitution, claiming near-imperial powers and even corrupting the lawyers working in its service.

One hundred years ago, prelates and parsons and other assorted killjoys were up in arms against a frightful evil sweeping the Western world.

"It is revolting and disgusting. Only those persons who have lost all moral sense can endure it," thundered Cardinal Aristide Cavallari, the patriarch of Venice. "It is the shame of our days. Whoever persists in it commits a sin."

Arriving in a village in southern Vietnam, I caught sight of two children who bore witness to the longest war of the 20th century. Their terrible deformities were familiar. All along the Mekong River, where the forests were petrified and silent, small human mutations lived as best they could. 

Australia's population has topped 21.5 million, according to the 2011 census results, although there has been a further decline in the proportion of people holding Australian citizenship.

The initial census results give a glimpse into the changing face of Australia, including its multicultural background.

from Crikey …..

Qantas pleads for govt protection from the Joyce discount

It's time to end the blame game - and it's time Tony Abbott made it possible for Julia Gillard to implement the policy she insists will make tragedies like the one that unfolded last night less likely.

It's also time both sides recognised that the shrill, tit-for-tat debate about who bears responsibility for the spike in boat arrivals is not just undermining public support for asylum seekers and Australia's humanitarian program. It has become its own pull factor.

World leaders at the Rio+20 Earth summit in Brazil delivered a "new definition of hypocrisy" for standing in the way of progress and failing so far to challenge the text of the draft outcome document, NGO leaders said on Thursday.

First for Australia – a law to stop governments stacking the ABC Board

A ground-breaking bill was passed in the Senate last night and is expected to be carried by the House of Representatives.

Bishops are claiming up to £27,000 a year in fixed-rate allowances to attend sessions of the House of Lords on top of their travel costs. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and The Independent has found that some bishops are claiming up to the maximum fixed allowance for attending sessions in the second chamber while having full-time jobs in their dioceses. Others attend sessions in the House without making any claim on the public purse.