from Crikey .....

Who stopped Robinson? The inhibition of responsibility

Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

Rupert Murdoch's grip on his media empire was dramatically challenged yesterday after his company was labelled a "toxic shadow state" which launched a dirty tricks campaign against MPs and now faces a salvo of phone-hacking claims in the United States.

On a tumultuous day for the media mogul, the lawyer who brought the first damages claims against the News of the World in Britain said he had uncovered new allegations of the use of "dark arts" by News Corp in America and was ready to file at least three phone-hacking lawsuits in the company's backyard.

International summit split over cost-cutting exit strategy that would see security forces radically depleted as soon as West leaves

A senior Israeli army officer has been removed from his post after he was caught on film striking a Danish pro-Palestinian activist in the face with a rifle.

Since being sent to the Opposition benches in 2007, the Coalition has fought almost every effort by Labor to means-test or otherwise curb welfare entitlements.

from Crikey .....

Australian human rights lawyer and WikiLeaks supporter Jennifer Robinson appears to have been placed on a travel watch list and was prevented from leaving the UK this morning until approval was secured from the Australian High Commission.

Robinson was returning to Australia to speak at the same conference as Attorney-General Nicola Roxon tomorrow - the Commonwealth Lawyers' Association's Regional Law Conference - on the apt subject of "Lawyers in the firing line". Roxon is giving an address on human rights.

When the lead organiser for the Health Services Union, Monique Irvine, complained last year that she was having trouble meeting her childcare costs, the union's boss, Michael Williamson, gave her a $22,000 pay rise.

Every student agitator is a terrorist, every internet hacker, cafeteria dissident, freedom fighter and insurgent leader.

This from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where I’m watching the war crimes tribunals going through pre-trial motions for Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, the man accused of the bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000.

Johnson & Johnson has been fined $1.2 billion over sales of Risperdal, an antipsychotic drug. Tim Fox, a circuit judge in Arkansas, ruled that the company has to pay $5,000 for each of the 240,000 prescriptions that were paid for by the state’s Medicaid program. (The program provides health care for low-income citizens, financed by the taxpayer)

from Crikey …..

Foxtel-Austar merger the worst competition decision in years

An interesting sidelight to Monday night’s Q&A appearance by Cardinal George Pell -- the Catholic cleric has made the front page of the Australian Jewish News with comments described as "troubling".

The common good must motivate our nation at every possible level.

Peter Costello, in his ''Sermon without substance'' opinion piece yesterday, does not fully address the key points of my Good Friday article.

By all means let us have vigorous and forthright debate, but let it be on the substantive and critical issues facing our nation.

I'm not given to conspiracy theories, incompetence being so much easier to imagine, but one thing gives credibility to Clive Palmer's otherwise nutty CIA phantasm about US influence in Australia.

It is Julian Assange, a story that hinges on the uncomfortable relationship between truth and power.

We expect truth-telling from our four-year-olds but not from our politicians. In the case of Assange, truth is actively and repeatedly punished.

This implies that, as you move up through society's power strata, there's a point where morality flips.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr is not ruling out expelling the Syrian ambassador as part of Australia's response to ongoing violence in the Middle East nation.

In the meantime, Australia will contribute $5 million to meet humanitarian needs in Syria and neighbouring countries.

European envoys say that Syria has failed to comply with UN special envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan and that international measures must be studied.

Senator Carr said he was "not ruling out" expelling Syria's ambassador as a symbolic gesture, but emphasised any responses would be measured.