US House Speaker John Boehner will resign from his leadership position and give up his seat at the end of October.

Mr Boehner made the decision while praying on Friday morning - a day after hosting Pope Francis at Congress.

Fighting back tears, the 65-year-old said at a news conference that "turmoil" over his leadership would do lasting damage to the House.

Mr Boehner has been under pressure from the conservative wing of his party ever since he took the job in 2011.

He suggested a private moment with the pontiff was partly behind the decision.

Yes, Elizabeth Farrelly, "Time's right for a flag we can be proud of" (September 24),  but that is not a flag taken from Australia's Indigenous people, as your favoured one is.  

Surely in the 21st century we can arrive at something that will include the First Australians but also look to the Australia of now.

The UN was itself criticised this week for a decision to appoint a Saudi Arabian government representative, Faisal Trad, as the chairman of a new human rights panel. The panel will be responsible for choosing experts to report on human rights violations across the world. Amnesty International likened the appointment to "making a pyromaniac the town fire chief".

It could be an impression, but it seems that our new Treasurer Scott Morrison has a short fuse... He appears as if he is sitting on a powder keg or is a powder keg himself while defending his views rather than explaining them... We'll see.

How do you doodle, I said to the poodle

and how do you whatsit the whosit?

Tony's turned turtle, which Malcom did hurtle

and Bill's about to lose it.

Malcolm's little babies love Shorten, Shorten,

ALP Caucus vote Shorten dead

Volkswagen, the world's largest automaker by sales, has admitted it rigged emissions tests in diesel-powered vehicles in the United States.

US regulators have charged the German giant with manufacturing vehicles designed to evade government pollution controls.

The pope is visiting the White House on the day of Yom Kippur, eclipsing the importance of this important day in the mind of Jewish YameriKans... For some YameriKans, Obama is a Muslim... He is not, but this makes a good addition to Mr Trump's three words oratory support group... Meanwhile the Jewish philosophorers of religion tells us that god is calling Kitty home... Boy... Do we have a weird inflated view of our insignificant button-hole fluff in the universe?...

The new so-called “Special Minister of State” Mal Brough made a complete mockery of claims by newly appointed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that his was a government for the 21st century.

Social media users have barely been able to contain their delight at claims in a new biography that British Prime Minister David Cameron put "a private part of his anatomy" into the mouth of a dead pig at an initiation ceremony while he was a student at Oxford University.

Here the drivel by today's Miranda (20 September 2015) reaches the top of amazing graceful Abbottitude... We are told that Abbott was self-flagelling on his bicycle while playing a game of golf with Hockey as his old number 7 iron...

His infinite loyalty could only stretch so far and he was about to dice Joe with his dignity intact by making a dirty deal with his number 4 iron called Morrison...

1. Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch media mogul and prolific tweeter, has made no secret that he preferred Tony Abbott as leader of the Liberal Party. Murdoch's tabloids made no secret of it either. "Malcolm Turncoat," said the Herald Sun, "Smiling Assassin," said the Daily Telegraph after the party room spill.