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UPDATE 11.05am: TWO Australian soldiers have been killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, it has been confirmed. Acting Defence Force chief David Hurley confirmed the deaths at a press conference this morning. It is first multiple casualty suffered by Australian troops serving overseas since the Vietnam War. The men were from the Brisbane-based 2nd combat engineer regiment of the Mentoring Task Force, which works with Afghan troops. One was killed instantly when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated yesterday morning in the Mirabad Valley. The second was given emergency first aid by his fellow soldiers and taken to a...

A GUNMAN wearing a full black burqa and sunglasses got away with a bag of cash following an armed robbery in a Sydney car park, police say. The burqa bandit and an accomplice allegedly stalked their 35-year-old victim after he withdrew a large amount of cash from a shopping centre in Miranda, in the city's south, about 5pm (AEST) yesterday. The victim drove to another shopping centre in Hurstville before the man wearing a burqa - traditionally only worn by women in the Islamic culture - drew his gun, grabbed the cash and fled. Police say the two men they...

"THERE is a God; this is worth checking out," says Glenn Stevens, governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). But God may not be omnipotent, for God was not responsible for the global financial crisis, Mr Stevens told Wesley Mission's Easter Breakfast today. Mr Stevens spoke of how his faith influenced his daily life and his role at the RBA. The governor, a regular churchgoer in southern Sydney who directs and plays guitar in the church band, said his faith was part of who he was. "If you're a Christian, God has given you certain capabilities to do a...

US Vice-President Joe Biden has let rip another of his legendary gaffes at a crucial moment for the Obama administration, whispering a profanity to the President right before Obama signed his $940 billion health care overhaul into law. After introducing Obama at the White House signing ceremony, the two men pulled close in an embrace and Biden could be heard whispering “This is a big f--king deal” to his boss. According to a blog on the Wall Street Journal, a T-shirt featuring the exclamation was available just hours later. "Yes Mr Vice-President, you're right..." White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs...

HILLARY Clinton says President Barack Obama's triumph over health care proved he could stick with a tough job - suggesting he would bring similar resolve to ensuring Israel's security. On a more personal level, the US secretary of state also offered Mr Obama a hug following his victory, after she tried and failed to pass similar legislation during her husband Bill Clinton's administration. The US secretary of state told the powerful US-Israel lobby that despite recent tensions between Washington and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, the administration could be counted upon. "From its first day, the Obama administration has...

TALIBAN militants have beheaded three men accused of spying for US forces, Pakistani police have told AFP. The bodies of three men were found near Mir Ali town in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal district, which borders Afghanistan. "Notes found with the bodies said the men were killed for spying for the US," police official Nisar Khan told AFP. Mr Khan said the three dead men had themselves killed "several Taliban and ordinary people". A local security official confirmed the incident. Militants frequently kidnap and kill local tribesmen for spying for the Pakistani Government or US forces, who are battling a...

Folks, November is a little over 7 months away. Each and every one of you knows what you have to do. JUST DO IT!!! The future of the Free World is in your hands.

A KENTUCKY cook put his five-week-old son in the oven overnight while he went to bed, CNN reported. Larry Long, 33, had been smoking marijuana at the restaurant where he works before returning home to share a fifth of whiskey with the baby’s mother, Brandy Hatton, McCracken County Sheriff Jon Hayden said. High and drunk, he put the baby in the oven - which he left switched off and slightly ajar - and went to bed. It wasn’t until he woke at 5.30am (local time) to hear the baby’s cries coming from the oven that he realised what he had...

AN electronic device small enough to fit in a shirt pocket and big enough to bring down an airplane can be easily bought over the internet for just $55. Fox News reports that all a terrorist needs is a credit card and $55 to buy a GPS jammer used by car thieves in the UK. Jammers transmit a low-power signal that creates signal noise and fools a GPS receiver into thinking the satellites are not available. They can be used to confuse police and avoid toll charges and some pranksters use them to nettle unsuspecting iPhone users. Experts say it's...

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama is under pressure from colleagues in his own party to ditch the revised trip to Australia, Indonesia and Guam because they fear it will torpedo their landmark healthcare bill. After eight months of struggle, Mr Obama and backers in his Democratic Party are battling to gain enough support to pass the healthcare legislation. Friday is viewed as a crucial deadline, but with 26 House Democrats still wavering on the reform there is talk a final vote may not take place until early April. Mr Obama summoned some of the wavering lawmakers to the White House yesterday...

THE Australian Greens have described as "despicable'' a suggestion that Australia needs to have a serious discussion about the growth of its Muslim population. At least one Liberal frontbencher has distanced the party from the views of the last immigration minister in the previous Howard government, Kevin Andrews. Mr Andrews says the issue of a growing Muslim population is a topic that has to be discussed. "To have a concentration of one ethnic or one particular group that remains in an enclave for a long period of time is not good,'' the Liberal backbencher told Macquarie Radio Network today. "You...

UNIONS say prison officers are entitled to make offensive comments about their boss outside of work hours and should not be penalised for doing so. Six prison officers have been threatened with the sack for posting derogatory comments about New South Wales Corrective Services Commissioner Ron Woodham on a Facebook page titled "Suggestions to help Big Ron save a few clams", the Public Service Association (PSA) confirmed. The page was set up in October last year when prison officers decided to vent their anger over Government plans to privatise two of the state's prisons - one at Parklea and another...

CRAZY Horse, the upmarket Paris cabaret that insists its strip show is art, is revamping its decades-old revue to include a number that presents clothes removal as a solution to economic crisis. The cabaret off the Champs Elysees, which has seen stars like Madonna, U2 and Gerard Depardieu sip champagne in its red velvet seats as they watch women undress, has hired star choreographer Philippe Decoufle to update its show. Decoufle, who staged the 2007 Rugby World Cup and the Albertville Winter Olympics ceremonies in 1992, will launch the new revue next Monday after months of rehearsals. "We work with...

GAY rights activists are outraged over a church conference that aims to help people struggling with "unwanted homosexuality". Activists have vowed to protests outside this weekend's Lovelinx conference at Mitcham Baptist Church, the Whitehorse Leader reports. The conference, organised through various Christian ministiries and the Exodus Global Alliance, aims to heal "sexual brokenness" Their website says the event is not homophobic, but offers "hope and practical help to people struggling with sexual struggles or unwanted homosexuality". But gay rights campaigner Tim Wright said the conference was hurtful and encouraged people to repress their sexuality. Start of sidebar. Skip to end...

LEFTIST leaders from Venezuela and Ecuador thundered against a US military presence in Latin America today, warning the "winds of war" were blowing across the increasingly polarised continent. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez led the charge, attacking Colombia's decision to host American forces at seven of its bases, a move also condemned by Chavez's Ecuadoran counterpart and ally Rafael Correa during the inauguration of his second term. Speaking in Quito, Ecuador, at a regional summit, Mr Chavez said he was fulfilling his "moral duty'' by telling fellow leaders that the "winds of war were beginning to blow,'' because of the July...

Dr. LeRoy Carhart, one of the nation's few providers of late-term abortions, called on the federal government to treat as hate crimes all activities by "anti-choice domestic terrorists," compared the slain Dr. George Tiller to Martin Luther King and said planting crosses was equivalent to actions by the Ku Klux Klan. "This is the equivalent of Martin Luther King being assassinated," Dr. Carhart said of the May 31 slaying of one of America's best-known late-term abortion providers. "This is the equivalent of Pearl Harbor, the sinking of the Lusitania and any other major historic event where we've tolerated the intolerable...

INDONESIAN Muslims have a beef with beef jerky. Authorities have discovered that five companies selling the popular dried meat product have been substituting beef with pork, which Muslims are strictly forbidden from eating. Indonesia's National Food and Drug Monitoring Agency, or BPOM, made the discovery after conducting DNA tests on jerky samples from traditional markets in Java and Sumatra. Some of the pork products were labelled halal - meaning suitable for Muslims - but clearly were not. "I can imagine how furious the public, particularly Muslims, would be once they find out that they have been deceived all this time,''...

ANOTHER Australian soldier has died in Afghanistan - the second this week - as he tried to protect his mates from a roadside bomb. As the body of Corporal Mathew Hopkins was being flown home, Australian Defence Force Chief Angus Houston tonight revealed an unnamed Digger had became the 10th Australian to die in Afghanistan since 2002. Air Chief Marshal Houston offered his thoughts and prayers to the soldier's family, but said he was aware his words would do little to ease their pain. "I want them to be aware from the outset that their loved one died protecting his...

US President Barack Obama was alternately sombre and light-hearted in an unusual appearance on America's top-rated late-night variety show last night, moving deftly from the economic crisis to the April arrival of a First Dog in the White House. In an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the first by a sitting President, Mr Obama talked seriously about his economic plans and voiced strong support for embattled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Wearing a bright red tie and an American flag pin on his lapel, the President pitched his budget and said he was stunned to learn crippled insurance...

BARACK Obama and New York senator Charles Schumer, leading the charge to recoup $US165million ($250million) in bonuses paid to employees of AIG, received nearly $US150,000 in campaign donations from the bailed-out US insurance giant. As the White House attempted to contain a furore that threatens to damage the President's standing, New York newspaper Newsday reported that AIG donated $US101,332 to the US President last year, second only to Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate banking committee, who received $US103,100. Senator Schumer, who proposed legislation yesterday that would claw the bonuses back through a special tax of almost 100per cent on...