In the real world outside the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Barack Obama’s pledge to close Guantánamo and scrap the military commissions (the system of trials for “terror suspects” that was established in the wake of the 9/11 attacks) has provoked a rare outburst of frenzied media coverage.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has temporarily put aside hostilities on the final scheduled parliamentary sitting day to wish the Opposition a Merry Christmas.

Mr Rudd has used a parliamentary speech to thank all parliamentary staff and his Labor colleagues for their efforts during the Government's first year in office.

In the much praised career of Eric H. Holder Jr., President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to be attorney general, there is one notable blemish: Mr. Holder’s complicated role in the 2001 pardon of Marc Rich, a billionaire financier who had fled the country rather than face federal tax evasion charges.

Barack Obama should act from the moment of his inauguration to restore a U.S. image battered by allegations of torturing terrorism suspects, said a group of retired military leaders planning to press their case with the president-elect's transition team on Wednesday.

2008 marks the 20th anniversary of Multinational Monitor's annual list of the 10 Worst Corporations of the year.

In the 20 years that we've published our annual list, we've covered corporate villains, scoundrels, criminals and miscreants.

During the 1960s and 1970s British governments, Labour and Tory, tricked and expelled the entire population of the Chagos Archipelago, more than 2,000 British citizens, so that Diego Garcia could be given to the United States as the site for a military base. It was an act of mass kidnapping carried out in high secrecy.

"It is particularly disappointing to see the Opposition engaging in a persistent pattern of vicious personal attacks on the key regulators in Australia's financial architecture.

Several weeks ago we had the attack on the Reserve Bank governor [Glenn Stevens], clearly suggesting the bank's decisions were driven by political bias. [Then] we had the Secretary of the Treasury [Ken Henry] accused by the Leader of the Opposition of lying, then the following day accused in the Senate of lying.