Asylum seekers branded security threats by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation have been involved in a spate of suicide attempts inside the nation's detention network.

Two Tamils given adverse assessments by ASIO have attempted to kill themselves at a detention centre in Melbourne's north in the past month - one of them twice.

A third man stood screaming with an electrical cord clutched in one hand late on Sunday at the same spot where a friend had swung by the neck until he almost died three nights earlier.

There has been a revolution in Australian economy over the last three decades that has seen millions of people move into insecure jobs without any prospect of permanent employment, the ACTU Congress in Sydney has been told.

Former deputy prime minister Brian Howe, in his keynote address this morning to around 1000 ACTU delegates gathered at the Sydney Convention Centre, said the internationalisation of the Australian economy had no doubt improved living standards.

from Crikey .....

As Attorney-General Nicola Roxon prepares to head to the United States to further integrate Australia's role in the War on Terror into the American security apparatus, the powerful Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has knocked back her terms of reference for an inquiry into the further widening of intelligence-gathering laws, including the controversial data retention proposal.

The Australian Labor Party is against the wall... It's time for Labor to fight back.

Anyone, especially anyone in Greece, hoping for a Franco-German showdown over “growth” when François Hollande meets Angela Merkel today will be disappointed.

Former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks and her racehorse trainer husband Charlie have been charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to the phone hacking scandal.

Ged Kearney 

from the Power Index

from Crikey …..

Did Joe Hockey and Barry O'Farrell watch Packer on 60 Minutes?

from Crikey …..

Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

JULIA Gillard's carbon tax budget bribe has backfired spectacularly, with the majority of voters believing they will be worse off despite thousands of dollars a year in extra handouts and tax cuts.

from Crikey ….

Coles aren't missing many in bombing out their new Flybuys cards to every man, woman and child. But just how they're getting the information is an interesting question. One mum offers some interesting clues: