Australia remains committed to the war in Afghanistan, despite the rising death toll, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says.

"Jamie Larcombe was taking the fight to insurgents," Ms Gillard told reporters in Canberra, noting that the whole nation would mourn his death.

But it's in the nation's interest to remain in Afghanistan, Ms Gillard said.

"It's a hard mission and I'm not underestimating the costs."

"I am immeasurably sad, but I am certainly very determined to see the mission through.

"We have the men and the means to acquit our mission," she added.

Would you change your diet - even if it damaged your health - to save the environment? Australians have never been asked the question, although it's a fair bet most would answer with a resounding "no."

What if the environmental benefit was uncertain and the data said to support it held secret?

A hand-picked group of Australians on a secretive sub-committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council have answered yes for you and are determined you will not get to make up your own mind.

The Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences in New Zealand says there has been a major earthquake in the city of Christchurch.

The institute is still trying to confirm the magnitude.

All phone lines to the city are down.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/22/3145320.htm?section=justin

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Nick Xenophon is refusing to be treated the government's fool a second time as the independent senator continues to hold out on the controversial flood levy.

Labor needs the senator's vote if it wants parliament to approve its $1.8 million taxpayer impost. [note the SMH editor missed a few zeros... it's 1.8 BILLION]

But Senator Xenophon is not prepared to back the levy on a promise state governments, especially Queensland, will consider taking out disaster insurance.

"A few months ago I may have been happy with that approach," he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

Security forces and protesters have clashed in Libya's capital for a second night, after the government announced a new crackdown.

Witnesses say warplanes have fired on protesters in Tripoli.

To the west of the city, sources say the army is fighting forces loyal to ruler Col Muammar Gaddafi, who appears to be struggling to hold on to power.

Libya's deputy envoy to the UN has called on Col Gaddafi to step down, and accused his government of genocide.

Ibrahim Dabbashi said that if Col Gaddafi did not relinquish power, "the Libyan people will get rid of him".

The University of Arizona — whose Tucson campus President Obama used for his nationwide address on civility after the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords last month — will announce on Monday that it is establishing an institute to promote compromise among opposing political parties and views, the organization’s director said on Sunday.

On a night in late January when he should have been in the Swiss village of Davos, James Murdoch went to dinner here with his father, Rupert, and several journalists from The Sun, the tabloid that the Murdochs have owned since 1969.

In the private room at Wheeler’s of St. James’s, father and son politely argued about the lesser of the public controversies swirling around the Murdoch empire: the firing of Andy Gray, the chief soccer pundit for their Sky Sports network, for making sexist comments.

“Can we stop firing people for making a joke?” Rupert Murdoch asked.

Abbott faces battle telling NSW Liberals what to do

PHILLIP COOREY

Tony Abbott will have no quibble with a finding in part two of Labor's post-election review, the unreleased section that deals with the election campaign.

In the words of a member of the ALP national executive who read the review on Friday, a key reason Labor fell over the line on August 21 last year was because the NSW division of the Liberal Party ''fluffed it''.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/abbott-faces-battle-telling-nsw-liberals-what-to-do-20110220-1b0xr.html

After speaking with many hundreds of Party members and supporters today we released the 2010 ALP National Review Report.

Review 2010 was the largest in the history of the party thanks to the participation of members like yourselves who contributed online, through a formal submission or at one of the consultation forums.

What is clear is that members and supporter are passionate about our great Party, but very concerned about its future.

That is why the Review Report recommends significant changes in Labor's organisation including:

Did you hear about the uprising?

Not the one in Tunisia, or Egypt.

No, not the one in Libya, though what has been happening there is certainly riveting. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in several cities, defying the forty-year rule of Muammar el-Qaddafi under threat of death.

Not the similar one in Bahrain, where several died and many more were injured.

Not the similar one in Yemen, which has been going on for more than seven days.

Scott Morrison, the Liberal frontbencher who this week distinguished himself as the greatest grub in the federal Parliament, is the classic case of the politician who is so immersed in the game of politics that he has lost touch with the real world outside it.

This week it was race. Morrison decided to see if he could win some political points by inflaming racism and resentment. More specifically, he zeroed in on some of the most vulnerable people in the country for political advantage. Indeed, is there anyone more vulnerable than a traumatised, orphaned child unable to speak English, held in detention on a remote island?

from Crikey .....

Former NRMA director: insurance industry hiring "a conga line of spin doctors"

Crikey senior journalist Andrew Crook writes: