Leonardo Da Vinci's remains are to be exhumed to allow scientists to establish whether the Mona Lisa is a disguised self-portrait.

Scientists and historians from Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage have sought permission to open the artist's tomb in France's Loire Valley.

They hope to find his skull which they can use to reconstruct his face to discover whether his famed masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, is in fact a self-portrait in disguise.

Mystery has surrounded the identity of the Mona Lisa for centuries.

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Last year I sat in my apartment trying to figure out what to do about Australia Day.

If you are in the UK the street surveillance is out of hand, does government really need a camera on every corner. The UK recently started a program enlisting covert human intelligence sources.

Children as young as eight have been recruited by councils to "snoop" on their neighbours and report petty offences such as littering, the UK Daily Telegraph disclosed.

The "covert human intelligence sources", as some local authorities describe them, are also being asked to pass on the names of neighbors they believe to be responsible, or take down their number-plates.

Cricket Australia's decision to nominate John Howard as its candidate for the top job at the International Cricket Council is as pitiful as it is disrespectful. Howard's knowledge of cricket is more characterised by enthusiasm than depth or imagination. Plain and simple, he is not qualified for the job. Moreover, the way in which he has been plucked from the sidelines shows CA in the worst possible light.

You will have read some of the reports. "His body is a mass of suppurating sores..." "A baby is on her back, her belly bloated and pronounced..." "This is what hell looks like and the people of Haiti are adrift in its lake of fire..."

The earthquake in Haiti has not only exposed the fragility of that Caribbean state - it has also revealed the British media to be stuffed with wannabe hack novelists more interested in providing horror-porn than factual analysis.

When President Barack Obama took office last year, he promised to "restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great." Toward that end, the president issued an executive order declaring that the extra-constitutional prison camp at Guantánamo Naval Base "shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order."

from Crikey .....

C'mon, Kev, show some guts: tell us where we're weak

Glenn Dyer writes:

Speaking to the Herald after announcing his plan on Thursday night for a permanent environmental workforce of 15,000, Mr Abbott said he would work out the details in conversation with green groups.

When asked how much an employee could expect to earn in the green army, Mr Abbott cited current standards for trainees and minimum wage-earners '' from $12,000 to $26,000''.

Media images appear to be prime motivation this week in a collective, mobilized response underscored by Western guilt. Bombarded with dust-covered corpses, blood and broken bones, and bodies rotting in the hot sun, millions around the world have donated their money to various relief organizations in support of Haiti. The United States has even organized a text message campaign which allows cell phone users to donate as little as ten dollars by texting the word "Haiti" to a central national phone line.

Palestinian resistance to the theft of their country reached a critical moment in 2001 when Israel was identified as an apartheid state at a United Nations conference on racism in Durban, South Africa. To Nelson Mandela, justice for the Palestinians is "the greatest moral issue of our time."