U.S., citing use of chemical weapons by Syria, to provide direct military support to rebels

Vivid festival has ended as a spectacular success with a record-breaking attendance in Sydney, but behind the scenes the relationship between the popular event and photojournalism festival Reportage has soured amid accusations of censorship and breaches of contract.

Newly single and with a spring in his step, media mogul Rupert Murdoch was back on the dating market this morning, with an updated profile on singles site eHarmony.

In the profile, Mr Murdoch describes himself as a ‘regular guy’ with simple interests. “On the weekends I generally just pop out to buy a paper,” he says.

Whether it's the ABC, Fairfax or Murdoch, the media is desperately resolute in getting what it wants... The media does not want Gillard for a plethora of reasons, none of which make sense, but the media is gunning harder and harder to destabilise her leadership... One thing is for sure, behind all this, is a powerful religious lobby... The catholic hierarchy in Australia. Sure, they are not forward in overt claims in this affair, but they are in force behind the political scene.

The level of inequality around the world is truly staggering ….

Many now know the rhetoric of the 1% very well: the imagery of a small elite owning most of the wealth while the 99% take the table scraps. 

pointing the finger at the power of institutions...

Humans are the weirdo beasts of an unfit species where invention compensates for our weakness... 

The Opposition has been forced on to the back foot in the row over sexism in politics, after a Liberal Party fundraising menu which contained crude references to Prime Minister Julia Gillard's breasts, thighs and genitalia emerged online.

The Federal Government has been criticised for refusing to divert ships and aircraft to search for the bodies of dozens of asylum seekers believed to have drowned off Christmas Island.

Roughly 55 people seen on an asylum seeker boat that sank late last week are now presumed dead after a three-day air-and-sea search failed to find any survivors.

A refugee advocate has called for the Opposition Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison to end his “terrorism” witch-hunt, and for the government to instigate the leaking of information by Australian Federal Police.

More than 1,000 people marched past the main gates at Fort Meade in Maryland on June 1 in a demonstration against the impending start of a court-martial for WikiLeaks whistleblower Bradley Manning.

Martin Ferguson represents everything that is wrong with Labor today. Unlike Tony Abbott I will shed no tears for him. He is not, as Abbott claimed, an honourable opponent and great Australian.

Ferguson wasn’t Abbott’s opponent; he was Abbott’s ally.

The WTF? reaction of many Australians to the racist attacks on Adam Goodes – ape, King Kong – is but one further example of the systemic racism in our society that Harry O’Brien identified in a recent post, republished here.