At one point during the five and a half years John McCain spent as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, he was tortured and beaten so badly he tried to kill himself.  

After four days of this brutality, he gave in and agreed to make a false confession, telling lies to end the unbearable pain.  

For Senator Barack Obama, who came to Europe once in the last four years, making a stop in London on his way to Russia, the response of many Europeans to his potential presidency has been gratifying - emotional, responsive, replete with the sense of hope he seeks to engender about a more flexible, less ideological America. 

European governments and politicians are not so sure. 

Italy's parliament has given its final approval to a controversial immunity bill put forward by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government. 

The speculation-driven skyrocketing price of petroleum is savaging all Australian citizens, and destroying our agricultural and trucking industries, among many others. 

How can a government that maintains more than 800 military facilities in more than 140 different foreign countries be anything other than an imperial power?  

The Catholic Church has defended its handling of a secret Mass involving the Pope and four victims of sexual abuse early yesterday amid criticism that the sunrise meeting excluded hundreds of abuse survivors, their families and support groups. 

At 7am, hours before he flew out of Sydney, the Pope conducted a private Mass in a chapel attached to St Mary's Cathedral. 

The best thing about being in Sydney over the past week was seeing so many happy people.  

The pilgrims. I'm told by a senior police officer that crime was down in Sydney during the faith extravaganza. So much has been written about the papal visit I will move on, and address an issue of morality and faith that we have to live with every day: corporate honesty. 

Pope Benedict XVI conducted a Mass with four sexual abuse victims this morning, but the father of two other victims said he was "disgusted" to have been sidelined from the meeting. 

In the BBC series The Blue Planet, David Attenborough's epic documentary on the Earth's oceans first televised seven years ago, he nails us all.  

That is when Attenborough tells us there is now more carbon dioxide in our atmosphere than at any time "in the last 650,000 years".  

Quaint Arse has confirmed it will cut 1500 jobs as it grapples with higher fuel prices that have hit the global aviation industry. 

Transport Workers Union national airline officer Scott Connolly criticised for not consulting Qantas employees before the announcement. 

With the economic news of the week of July 14 - the continuing crisis among mortgage lenders, the onset of bank failures, the announced downsizing of General Motors, the slide of the Dow-Jones below 11,000 - we are seeing the ongoing collapse of the U.S. economy. 

Even the super-rich are becoming nervous as cries for an emergency suspension of short selling ring out. 

The co-ordinator of World Youth Day, Bishop Anthony Fisher, today responded to a question about Cardinal George Pell's handling of a sexual abuse case by saying people are 'dwelling crankily ... on old wounds'.

And this afternoon Cardinal Pell did not respond to reporters' questions about Bishop Fisher's remarks. 

The Federal Opposition has accused the Government of slugging consumers with more taxes and higher costs through its proposed emissions trading scheme and will not support a 2010 start-up date. 

Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says the cost of petrol, groceries and electricity will be pushed further up under the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, released by Climate Change Minister Penny Wong today. 

President Bush invoked executive privilege to keep Congress from seeing the FBI report of an interview with Vice President Dick Cheney and other records related to the administration's leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity in 2003. 

The president's decision drew a sharp protest Wednesday from Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of House Oversight Committee, which had subpoenaed Attorney General Michael Mukasey to turn over the documents.