In April this year Quartet Books published Kill Khalid: The Failed Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas. It was written by an Australian war correspondent, Paul McGeough, an expert on the Middle East.

The book had come out in the United States to ecstatic reviews. I had heard of McGeough and although I did not know him, when asked to provide a quote for the book's dust-jacket, I read the manuscript and was happy to do so.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has condemned the "tyranny and poverty" of North Korea, highlighting American ties with its southern neighbour.

She said US relations with the country would not change while its regime "insulted and refused dialogue with the Republic of Korea", using South Korea's official name.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7900792.stm

The main French opposition party, the Socialists - delighted to have an issue to distract from their own internal back-stabbing - have accused the President of "scandalous collusion" with parts of the media.

The Elysée Palace, dismissing calls for a parliamentary inquiry, has rejected the cries of scandal as far-fetched. "We order opinion polls. If newspapers buy the same ones, what can we do?" said M. Sarkozy's chief aide and secretary general, Claude Guéant.

In South Australia the Liberal Party has just elected its third leader in as many years. In the lead up to the ballot there was much discussion as to which of the three candidates would make the better leader, but few asked the question whether or not there was anyone in State Parliament who was worthy to lead their party, let alone be premier. Reflecting further I cast my eyes beyond the state and asked the question: where are our political leaders?

Former vice-president Dick Cheney could be forced to testify to Congress over allegations that a secret hit squad was set up on his orders, as Democrats press for inquiries into the conduct of the "war on terror". Paul Harris reports from New York.

America is bracing itself for a series of investigations that could see top officials from the administration of President George W Bush hauled in front of Congress, grilled by a special prosecutor and possibly facing criminal charges.

The US spends $100 million a day on the war effort in Afghanistan and a further $7 million a day goes into reconstruction. It has committed to spend $2.4 trillion over the next ten years. Big, expensive buildings have been constructed in Kabul, now "owned by the war lords". Illegal drugs going from Afghanistan into the US and Europe generate about $500 million a year.

From the green left

He occupied a (somewhat self-appointed) position as a hero of Australia's environment and Indigenous rights movements for decades. Yet these days, former Midnight Oil frontman and current ALP environment minister Peter Garrett works overtime to prove his credentials as a defender of big business and the big polluters.

In the early 1960s, Senator William J. Fulbright fought to force the American Zionist Council to register as agents of a foreign government. The Council eluded registration by reorganizing as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC has since become what Fulbright most feared: a foreign agent dominating American foreign policy while disguised as a domestic lobby.

When the Honduran military overthrew the democratically elected government of Manuel Zelaya two weeks ago, there might have been a sigh of relief in the corporate boardrooms of Chiquita. Earlier this year, the Cincinnati-based fruit company joined Dole in criticizing the government in Tegucigalpa that had raised the minimum wage by 60%.

Most libertarians agree that the American government is colossal, oppressive and a slayer of freedom and liberty.  There are certainly domestic influences and causes for the enormous growth in the statist tilt of American governance and concentration of power. 

It's hard not to feel sorry for this giant, iconic mammal.

So trusting! So vulnerable! So easily harpooned!

If you listen closely, the traces of the threatened behemoth's famous eerie song are still audible.

But the hunters care nothing, as they draw alongside with their cruel barbs.

It's like shooting fish in a barrel, and the hunters have no mercy.

I write, of course, of the brutal, thriving industry that is the modern Garrett hunt.

Was ever a politician easier to skewer?

Glenys Kinnock has done her old friend Tony Blair no favours by announcing he is ready to stand as President of Europe and has Gordon Brown's backing. The 'Stop Blair' campaign in both Britain and Europe will now move into top gear.

from Crikey .....

Turnbull's leadership is clawing back to terminal

Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes: