It is not news that the United States is in great trouble.

The pre-emptive war it launched against Iraq more than five years ago was and is a mistake of monumental proportions—one that most Americans still fail to acknowledge. Instead they are arguing about whether we should push on to “victory” when even our own generals tell us that a military victory is today inconceivable.

Federal Liberal frontbencher Joe Hockey says petrol prices will always be lower under a Coalition government.

Mr Hockey says Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson's pledge to cut fuel excise by five cents a litre will guarantee lower prices for motorists. 

Tomorrow a number of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay will finally get their day in court - although, alas, not literally. Thirty-five Americans who were arrested at the US Supreme Court last January during a demonstration protesting the illegal detention center will go on trial in Washington.

They are charged with "causing a harangue." Instead of entering their own names, each defendant will enter the name of a prisoner held at Guantanamo. 

Former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer says he is still to make up his mind about his political future. 

Mr Downer was widely expected to retire by the next election, but newspaper reports today suggest he has told his colleagues he is considering staying in Federal Parliament with an eye on Malcolm Turnbull's current job as treasury spokesman. 

As of May 20, the website for the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), the American neoconservative think tank based in Washington, D.C., is no longer operating. 

A digital vault containing information about every email, internet visit and phone call made in Britain is to be created in a European bid to battle terrorism. 

The plan, which will widen legislation governing the record-keeping responsibilities of telecommunications and internet companies, has alarmed civil libertarians who are already anxious about a proposed ID card scheme. 

Oil prices continue to rise and rise, with no end in sight. Virtually all other commodities seem to be following to be the same suit.  

On October 16, 2004 President Bush signed into law the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act, which establishes a special department within the US State Department to monitor global anti-Semitism, reporting annually to Congress.

As one of the major steps in the implementation of that law, Secretary of State Condi Rice swore in Gregg Rickman as head of the State Department’s office of global anti-Semitism on May 22, 2006. 

Rudd calls for 'restraint' in golden handshakes …..

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says it is disappointing that some corporate leaders do not show wage restraint. 

The head of Macquarie Bank, Allan Moss, will walk away with a $50 million package when he retires later this month. 

A shareholder revolt at ExxonMobil led by the billionaire Rockefeller family has won the support of four significant British institutional investors who will call on Monday for a shakeup in the governance of the world's biggest oil company.  

After basking in a showy celebration of America’s close ties with Israel, President Bush criticized other Middle East leaders on Sunday, prodding them to expand their economies, offer equal opportunity to women and embrace democracy if they want peace to become reality.

Oliver Stone, the Hollywood director known for his controversial movies about John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, is less than six months away with his film about George W. Bush.  

Filming of W starts this month and Stone has cast Josh Brolin, the actor who starred in the Oscar-winning film No Country for Old Men, as Mr Bush.  

Turnbull pledges support for petrol tax cut plan …… 

The Opposition's Treasury spokesman, Malcolm Turnbull, has been forced to publicly declare his support for the Coalition's policy to cut petrol tax, after a damaging email leak.

The NSW Police Minister, David Campbell, and two of his staff spent $40,000 on a 12-day, five-star, surf-and-turf romp across the United States, splashing out on steakhouses in Hollywood and oyster bars in New York. 

Their official engagements included briefings by the New York Police Department on Tasers, gangs, terrorism, identity theft and radicalisation; meetings with the FBI in Washington; and a visit to the Davis Training Facility in California.