Politicians could be in for a pay raise but the government is shying away from responsibility because the decision is in the hands of an independent tribunal.

The independent Federal Remuneration Tribunal is undertaking a comprehensive review of politicians' pay.

It is expected to recommend MPs trade their current generous allowances for increases in base salaries.

Backbench salaries are tipped to almost double to $250,000.

And the pay packets of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, her ministers and also shadow ministers could be a whole lot fatter.

It was first reported in January of last year that the Obama administration had compiled a hit list of American citizens whom the President had ordered assassinated without any due process, and one of those Americans was Anwar al-Awlaki. No effort was made to indict him for any crimes (despite a report last October that the Obama administration was "considering" indicting him). 

Tony Abbott is a sore loser, afflicted by ''innate and deeply embedded sexism and misogyny'', and would use a future prime ministership to impose his simplistic views on the country, according to a provocative new book to hit the shelves tomorrow.

The new polemic by academic Susan Mitchell paints an intensely unflattering portrait of the man who would be Australia's next prime minister, sketching Mr Abbott as a graceless, obsessively competitive ''man's man''; a ferocious partisan imbued with conservative Catholic social values.

Randwick residents prepared a petition and wrote 37 separate objections opposing plans by the Coach and Horses Hotel to play amplified music in an outdoor area seven nights a week.

But when they turned up to voice their complaints to a full council meeting, the council refused to hear them with half of the councillors claiming conflicts arising from political donations made by the pub.

Seven of 14 councillors present claimed pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests prevented them deliberating on the application and, with no quorum to consider the issue, the frustrated residents were turned away.

Palestinian statehood bid signals long struggle ahead for equal rights .....

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas returned from New York to occupied Ramallah on the weekend as "an Arab leader of significant standing", according to writers from the liberal Israeli paper Haaretz.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the West practices double standards in regard to Israel's nuclear arsenal.

In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Erdogan noted that Israel is the only player in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons and asked, "Why is it that countries banning Iran from having nuclear weapons don't also ban Israel from having nuclear weapons?"

Turkey downgraded ties with Israel after Tel Aviv refused to apologize for its attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which left nine Turkish citizens dead on May 31, 2010.

I suppose I'm not alone in being part of a growing camp of media consumers who fall into the category of being perennially disappointed by the 21st century mainstream media's complete inability to produce any investigative material with real teeth. With all their access, budgets and resources, I still expect that once in while they will score a goal for the people who they are meant to be acting as 'watchdog' for.

Meet the London trader who is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. As the Greek economy verges on collapse and European leaders move to head off another recession, Alessio Rastani told the BBC overnight:

from Crikey .....

Port Paper company collapses after Oakeshott cries foul

Crikey senior journalist Andrew Crook writes:

Looking for a bookshop that was no longer there, I walked instead into a labyrinth designed as a trap. Leaving became an illusion, rather like Alice once she had stepped through the looking glass. Walls of glass curved into concentric circles as one "store" merged into another: Armani Exchange with Dinki Di Pies. Exits led to gauntlets of more "offers" and "exciting options." Seeking a guide, I bought a lousy pair of sunglasses: anything to get out. It was a vision of hell. It was a Westfield mega mall.

from Crikey .....

Wayne "World's Greatest Treasurer" Swan was humble and unusually charitable on The 7PM Project last night when he quipped he'd be happy to lend his shiny new award to Peter Costello "for a little while".

Which is more than you can say for Joe Hockey ...

Check out the company Swan keeps among the winners, Joe retorted: "Slovakian ministers, a Serbian, a Nigerian and a Bulgarian. In 2001 there was a Pakistani finance minister. That is quite an extraordinary one, that one."

The donation of £1m to a charity of the Dowler family's choice and compensation of a reported £2m for the family's distress is being linked by MPs to News Corp's fight to hold on the BSkyB broadcasting goldmine.

Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem deputy leader, has written to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom calling on it to intervene over the question of whether James Murdoch, the BSkyB chairman, is fit to hold the licence.

To get to the federal government's position on the asylum seeker question takes time. This sort of political and policy mess is built on much talking, manoeuvring and internal confusion, and its gestation period is long.

The confusion about values and direction was on display very early in Julia Gillard's time as Prime Minister. On the day she assumed the Labor leadership in June last year, Gillard expressed solidarity with Australians who favoured a hard line. ''I am full of understanding of the perspective of the Australian people that they want strong management of our borders, and I will provide it,'' she said.

Parliamentary privilege is used as the WikiLeaks of sex scandals more than anything else. Under its banner, Craig Thomson was named as the misuser of his union credit card on brothels. Senator Bill Heffernan falsely accused the great High Court judge Michael Kirby of using his Commonwealth car to pick up rent boys. Kirby accepted the ungracious apology and held out his hand in the ''spirit of reconciliation''. Deirdre Grusovin named the late John Marsden as a paederast when it was clear the accuser was more saucy than source, causing Channel Seven to pay lawyers more money than they did in the network's failed Foxtel case.

The two independents who were once thought to be weak props to Julia Gillard's minority government are no longer holding weekly meetings with Tony Abbott, and both have denounced his political conduct.

Tony Windsor has criticised Mr Abbott for exploiting a "redneck" politics that is "damaging our institutions".

Rob Oakeshott has described the Liberal leader's political style as based on "fear and loathing" and said he was encouraging "nutjob" elements.