US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said she believes the Middle East is a better place for the policies of President George Bush. 

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Rice insisted that a US-inspired 'freedom agenda' had taken hold in the Middle East. 

President Bush will convene leaders of 20 nations in Washington on Nov. 15 for an emergency summit meeting to discuss the economic crisis, the White House said Wednesday.  

But the session, coming less than two weeks after the presidential election, could put Mr. Bush on a collision course with his successor. 

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Glenn Stevens says he supports the Government's move to guarantee unlimited bank deposits. 

A newspaper report today claims the RBA is concerned the Government's recent decision to provide an unlimited guarantee of all bank deposits is distorting the market.

from Crikey ….. 

This morning Treasury Secretary Ken Henry talked - when permitted to by Coalition senators - about the Rudd Government’s bank guarantee and the claims, made with alarming prominence in The Australian yesterday, that the RBA had always wanted a cap on it.  

On the brief occasions when the President now appears in the Rose Garden to "comfort" or "reassure" a shock-and-awed nation, you can almost hear those legions of ducks quacking lamely in the background.  

Ordinary Cubans could reasonably be excused for wondering why the fates have dealt them such a rotten hand over the years, but at last it seems that their luck may have changed.  

US President George W Bush's first Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has endorsed Democratic election candidate Barack Obama for the White House. 

Backing Mr Obama over John McCain, the Republican Party's choice to succeed Mr Bush in November, he said the Democrat had the 'ability to inspire'. 

President George W Bush has invited world leaders to gather in the US by the end of the year to discuss reform of the global financial system. 

The summit would be the first of a series announced after talks between Mr Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and EU Commission chief Manuel Barroso. 

Democratic Party circles are in raptures over Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama.  

So, we Australians don’t trust politicians. Tell us something we don’t know. 

If Sen. Barack Obama wakes up as the president-elect on Nov. 5, he will immediately assume responsibility for fixing a shredded economy while the Bush administration is still in office.

Financial workers at Wall Street's top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year - despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis since the 1929 stock market crash, the Guardian has learned.

from Alan Ramsey …… 

The Rudd Government this week "dealt" with the gravest "global financial crisis" since the Great Depression of the 1930s by ignoring Parliament. 

Scanners being tested at Melbourne Airport will not blur the genitals of passengers.

Transport security authorities are trialling the new 'X-ray backscatter' body scanner, which has been described by critics as a 'virtual strip search'.