Rupert Murdoch's grip on his media empire was dramatically challenged yesterday after his company was labelled a "toxic shadow state" which launched a dirty tricks campaign against MPs and now faces a salvo of phone-hacking claims in the United States.

On a tumultuous day for the media mogul, the lawyer who brought the first damages claims against the News of the World in Britain said he had uncovered new allegations of the use of "dark arts" by News Corp in America and was ready to file at least three phone-hacking lawsuits in the company's backyard.

International summit split over cost-cutting exit strategy that would see security forces radically depleted as soon as West leaves

A senior Israeli army officer has been removed from his post after he was caught on film striking a Danish pro-Palestinian activist in the face with a rifle.

Since being sent to the Opposition benches in 2007, the Coalition has fought almost every effort by Labor to means-test or otherwise curb welfare entitlements.

from Crikey .....

Australian human rights lawyer and WikiLeaks supporter Jennifer Robinson appears to have been placed on a travel watch list and was prevented from leaving the UK this morning until approval was secured from the Australian High Commission.

Robinson was returning to Australia to speak at the same conference as Attorney-General Nicola Roxon tomorrow - the Commonwealth Lawyers' Association's Regional Law Conference - on the apt subject of "Lawyers in the firing line". Roxon is giving an address on human rights.

By WILLIAM NEUMAN and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

CARTAGENA, Colombia — At the Ligueros Club, one of many busy bordellos in this seaside tourist city, prostitutes dressed in lingerie wait for a bell to ring, signaling the arrival of men on the prowl. But the next group of American visitors to walk in the door may not be customers at all.

American investigators seeking to get to the bottom....

This image from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital IDppmsca.02160.

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When the lead organiser for the Health Services Union, Monique Irvine, complained last year that she was having trouble meeting her childcare costs, the union's boss, Michael Williamson, gave her a $22,000 pay rise.

THE Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has upset Australia's Olympic chief and been accused of disappointing athletes by turning down invitations to the London Olympics and the team's key fund-raising event.

Every student agitator is a terrorist, every internet hacker, cafeteria dissident, freedom fighter and insurgent leader.

This from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where I’m watching the war crimes tribunals going through pre-trial motions for Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, the man accused of the bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000.

Johnson & Johnson has been fined $1.2 billion over sales of Risperdal, an antipsychotic drug. Tim Fox, a circuit judge in Arkansas, ruled that the company has to pay $5,000 for each of the 240,000 prescriptions that were paid for by the state’s Medicaid program. (The program provides health care for low-income citizens, financed by the taxpayer)

from Crikey …..

Foxtel-Austar merger the worst competition decision in years