Since 2003, the IAEA has consistently failed its obligations towards Iran as defined by the 1974 Safeguards Agreement. It has failed to facilitate refueling of a small reactor in Tehran, used mostly for short-lived medical isotopes. It has cancelled several key technical assistance programs with Iran, some of them related to nuclear safety issues, under pressure from the US.

from the Mayne Report .....

The campaign to get Woolworths to clean up its appalling pokies operation is gathering pace after the major hit at the AGM in Sydney on November 26.

We had a special briefing session on Manningham's new gaming policy last week and, in an unrelated exercise, I've just submitted the following motion to be debated at the December 15 council meeting:

Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce says he has accepted a job on the frontbench of the Federal Opposition.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, is expected to announce a reshuffle early this week.

Senator Joyce has told ABC1's Insiders, he has taken advice from several people before making his decision.

"I know what I'm going to be doing because I've had that discussion with Tony, but I'm going to leave it for Tony to announce it. I can tell you it won't be the Minister for Arts," he said.

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Radical change is coming to Harvard. Fewer professors, for one thing. Fewer teaching assistants, janitors and support staff. Shuttered libraries." The list goes on.

At Harvard! Which is, to quote a hedge fund manager who "counts Harvard among his investors," totally "fucked."

By now it has become clear why you were awarded the Nobel Peace prize -- a prize which was named after Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Is it any wonder that Gandhi did not receive the prize, and the likes of Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini were nominated? Mr. Obama, your Afghan announcement and your position on Iran has made you one dynamite war president.

from Crikey .....

With the Copenhagen talks almost upon us it seems like an appropriate time to launch a scoreboard on how the world is progressing in efforts to limit global warming and the not-for-profit Sustainability Institute has this week done just that.

Honestly, if it weren't so grim, despite all the upbeat benchmarks and encouraging words in the president's speech, this would certainly qualify as Monty Python in Afghanistan. 

Scientists say early predictions that Phillip Island would have a record number of penguin chicks this season, have proven tragically wrong.

Indications in October suggested more chicks would be born than ever before, significantly boosting the species' population.

But penguin biologist, Andre Chiaradia, says half of all hatchlings have died of starvation in recent weeks.

He says the local fish population moved offshore, forcing the adult birds to remain at sea for weeks at a time.

From the ABC

"But those who know me know that I would never attack Tony in front of Malcolm. I would reserve my vitriol for others."

She also said she was "saddened by these false allegations of disloyalty, given that I voted for Malcolm throughout the ballot process".

Mr Turnbull declined to comment when contacted last night.

Ms Bishop has now appeared beside three new Liberal leaders in just over a year, pledging loyalty to each in turn.

"People are calling her The Cockroach," one MP told ABC Online.

Dear readers

Glenn Dyer writes:

Greedy, greedy Westpac. The bank's move in increasing its standard variable home lending rate by 0.45%, almost double the Reserve Bank's rise of 0.25%, was nothing but a grubby grab for cash, dressed up with the usual banking bullsh-t about cost pressures.

From the BBC

US President Barack Obama has ordered 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan but warned America would begin to withdraw its military by 2011.

The new deployment over six months will bring America's troop strength in the country to more than 100,000, in the fight against Taliban militants.

Mr Obama also urged America's allies in Nato to send more troops.

Defending the war, he insisted there were no parallels with Vietnam and that world security was at stake.