Economic sanctions by the European Union and the United States can only be allowed a limited time period to prevent Iran from attempting to acquire a nuclear arsenal before a military strike must be contemplated, Israeli leaders have declared.

The tough public stance from Tel Aviv comes amid conflicting reports on the readiness of the Israeli military establishment to carry out an attack on Iran.

Tony Abbott's decision to wait until the Parliament had shut down at the end of last year before making it clear that he would block a conscience vote on any gay marriage bill could cost him in the long run.

Rapper and poet Omar Musa refused the Queanbeyan City Council's request for him to be an Australia Day ambassador because he said January 26 represented a date that had increasingly become the focal point of the country's culture wars.

Is American power in decline, relative to the rest of the world? That question is at the center of a provocative study by the U.S. intelligence community exploring what the world might look like in 2030. 

What is it about bankers' pay that makes the hard-pressed majority feel that finance capitalism is a conspiracy against them? Could it be that, more than three years after the credit crunch of 2008, we feel that the unfair rewards in the sector that caused the crisis continue unabated?

Forget Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine – Newt Gingrich wants to colonise the moon.

"By the end of my second term [2020], we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American," the Republican US presidential hopeful told a cheering crowd in Cocoa, Florida, a town with links to the space industry.

A whopping budget deficit and cuts to the military do not seem to have dampened Gingrich’s astronomically expensive plans for a lunar colony with 13,000 residents.

from Crikey .....

all's well in an intelligence community overseeing itself

Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

ASIO, ROBERT CORNALL, WIKILEAKS

from Crikey .....

Australia Day spirit: kill politicians. 

A Crikey reader sent in this nuanced and charming political message on a shop front in Southport on the Gold Coast. 

According to a CNN exit poll of South Carolina Republican primary voters, Newt Gingrich, a thrice-married Catholic, won twice as much support from evangelical Protestants as Mitt Romney, a Protestant. And among voters for whom religion meant “a great deal,” 46 percent voted for Mr. Gingrich and only 10 percent for Mr. Romney.

Neither Julia Gillard nor Tony Abbott were in any direct danger from Aboriginal protesters yesterday, but those concerned for their security must be appalled that they were allowed to be put in the situation they were in.

It had long been known that the 40th anniversary of the Aboriginal embassy would bring a major contingent of people to Canberra, and entirely predictable that some of them would notice comings and goings at The Lobby restaurant and that the presence of the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition (or in this case both - a real bonus) would be a magnet for those inclined to shout slogans or abuse, or wanting to wave their fists.

You are not allowed to visit Pheasant Island, which lies near the Atlantic Ocean terminus of the French-Spanish border. But "it can easily be seen from the Joncaux bank, on the Bay Path," the Web site for the local tourist office [1] suggests, without a hint of irony.

The Prime Minister has let us all down, particularly young people ....

Some things transcend politics and policy and the lust for power. Truth, honesty, integrity, decency and fairness are immutable values. They are the ethical substance of life. They ought to be cherished. To sell them out is to sell one's soul. It is even worse when a leader expediently betrays these values, because it undermines the entire community.