President Nicolas Sarkozy would like to emerge as the economic “president” of Europe until 2010 - overseeing a united response to the world financial crisis by the 15 Eurol and nations and Britain.  

The French president has launched a diplomatic and media campaign to suggest that his current role as conductor of the European Union economic orchestra, due to expire in December, should be extended informally, until the end of 2009.

from Alan Ramsey ….. 

as the murray-darling collapses ….. 

The Federal Opposition says the Government needs to provide evidence that its new industrial relations laws will make people's jobs safer. 

Workplace relations spokesman Michael Keenan says many businesses are seeking answers, particularly in the context of the international credit crisis.

US President George W Bush has said he and Barack Obama will discuss issues such as the global financial crisis and the war in Iraq "early next week". 

In a speech at the White House, Mr Bush congratulated the president-elect and said he would make every effort to ensure a smooth handover on 20 January. 

from Crikey ….. 

Tears and laughter. This is what Obama means 

From Washington DC, US correspondent Guy Rundle writes: 

from Crikey ….. 

Banks dig in over RBA cut 

Some serious misunderstanding has arisen between Kevin Rudd's office and George W. Bush's White House. It concerns a telephone conversation between Bush and Rudd. Let me give you the chronology. 

The bubble world of George W. Bush was bound to burst.  

Based on fantasies, false promises, lies, and bait-and-switch tactics, it was destined for foreclosure.  

New South Wales Small Business Minister Tony Stewart has been stood down from Cabinet over allegations he verbally abused and touched a female staff member at a charity event last month.  

The Premier's office moved the female staffer out of Mr Stewart's office as soon as the allegations emerged.  

It isn't long since Burg was a blue-chip member of that same Zionist establishment. The son of a long-serving government minister, from the time of David Ben-Gurion's government, he has a classic top-drawer Israeli profile.  

President Bush has been making a big hullabaloo over the fact that the Iraqi regime has not signed on to an agreement that would authorize U.S. forces to remain in Iraq after December 31.  

Bush says that if an agreement is not signed between him and the Iraqi government, he will cease military operations in Iraq, keeping his military forces inside U.S. bases within Iraq.  

NEWS Corporation Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch has warned Australia will miss out on an approaching 'golden age' of prosperity and freedom unless we undertake radical reform, scale back Government and embrace the free market.

Delivering the first of six Boyer lectures at the Sydney Opera House today, Mr Murdoch declared Australia was not prepared for future challenges it faced such as the global financial crisis and lamented many would learn the hard way as a result. 

Muscle man-turned-actor-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger has called on Barack Obama to beef up his policies - and his body - at a high-voltage campaign rally for Republican John McCain. 

Senior CIA officers could be put on trial in Britain after it emerged last night that the Attorney General is to investigate allegations that a British resident held in Guantanamo Bay was brutally tortured, after being arrested and questioned by American forces following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in 2001. 

Despite the fact that al-Qaeda recently endorsed John McCain, the Bush administration is warning that (deep from within Cheney's bunker) bin Laden is about to release a pre-election tape.  

'Magine that! Who saw this coming?