NSW police now have special emergency powers to bug or track people for up to four days without a warrant. 

Under the biggest shake-up to the state's surveillance laws, police will have up to four days to monitor people before needing to apply retrospectively for an emergency warrant from a Supreme Court judge. 

The Federal Government is continuing to attack the record of former treasurer Peter Costello, as speculation increases about him taking over the Liberal leadership. 

The US intelligence agencies provide a biannual report to Congress on the weapons of mass destruction developed by foreign states, which covers Iran, North Korea, India, Pakistan and others, but not Israel.  

In the first hours of dawn, Nader Elayan was woken by a call from a neighbour warning him to hurry to the house he had almost finished building. By the time he arrived, it was too late: a bulldozer was tearing down the walls. More than 100 Israeli security guards held back local residents. 

I'm on the road right now, will be back in a few days, with only sporadic contact with the virtual world of the blogosphere - and the hallucinated world of 'higher politics.' 

The US always likes to pretend it is the innocent victim, attacked or about to be attacked for no reason at all. Next on the list are the hapless Iranians ….. 

In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine.  

from Crikey ….. 

Mungo: Howard's detention regime diminished us all 

Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says he will lead the Coalition to the next election.

Dr Nelson's handling of the Coalition's policy on an emissions trading scheme has led to speculation his leadership is in trouble, with some MPs withdrawing their support.

However, today he told ABC Local Radio in Adelaide that he was sticking with the job.

The world has never looked better for the Big Five oil companies.  

After spending much of the summer searching for an effective line of attack against Senator Barack Obama, Senator John McCain is beginning a newly aggressive campaign to define Mr. Obama as arrogant, out of touch and unprepared for the presidency.

On July 18, 2008, The New York Times published an article by Israeli-Jewish historian, Professor Benny Morris, advocating an Israeli nuclear-genocidal attack on Iran with the likelihood of killing 70 million Iranians – 12 times the number of Jewish victims in the Nazi holocaust. 

Nikita Khrushchev said the Soviet Union would bury us, but these days, everybody seems to think that China is the one wielding the shovel.  

The People's Republic is on the march - economically, militarily, even ideologically. 

Can you enjoy the benefits of exercise without the pain of exertion? The answer may one day be yes — just take a pill that tricks the muscles into thinking they have been working out furiously. 

The banks are bankrupted.  

The government's debt has been pawned off to the Chinese.  

The nation's military, under the weight and demands of the Iraq disaster, is about to shatter into something like a gajillion bits 'n pieces.