Headlines Monday 22nd September

Sudanese admit US diplomat murder
FIVE Sudanese Islamists admitted in filmed confessions their role in murdering a US diplomat and his driver in the Sudanese capital on New Year's Day, a court heard today.

John Granville, 33, who worked for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and his 40-year-old Sudanese driver Abdel Rahman Abbas were shot dead in their car before dawn in Khartoum on January 1.

Confessions filmed by police after the arrest of the five were shown to a crowded courtroom in Khartoum.

"The American car braked suddenly, and we stopped behind it," one of the defendants, Mohammed Makawi, 23, said on the video. "Then I shot two bullets from a pistol."

Abdelbaset al-Hajj al-Hassan, a 29-year-old merchant, then fired with an AK-47 assault rifle.

"We were looking for an American's house, when at last we saw the American's car," Hassan said on the video.

"We fired at them, and I shot six bullets from a Kalashnikov rifle...it took 10 or 15 seconds, then we left quickly."

Earlier on the evening of the attack they had spotted but spared a group of Chinese and a British man with his children, they said.

The men planned a second attack on an American target in February, but were arrested before they could carry it out, they said.

The defendants, wearing traditional white robes and religious caps, sat behind bars in a side gallery of the courtroom.
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MP blames indigenous kids for poor results
By James O'Loan
QUEENSLAND Minister Rod Welford has blamed indigenous and remote area students for dragging down the state's academic performance.

In comments to the Queensland Council of Parents and Citizens Associations' annual general meeting, Mr Welford said the state had been "weighed down" in the national literacy and numeracy tests for Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students.

Queensland finished second last among the eight states and territories, prompting calls for a parliamentary inquiry into the state education system.

Mr Welford yesterday said he was simply making the observation that "statistically there are groups that get lower scores", which affected average scores.

"This isn't a reflection on any of those communities," he said.

Mr Welford also acknowledged more had to be done to lift indigenous and remote area classroom standards. - that is so unfair. The states have underfunded education and welfare .. - ed.
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“WE, THE FREE, MIGHT BE THE ENEMIES OF FREEDOM”
Tim Blair
A British guide to leading left-wingers claims that the crazy leftoid fringe “has all but disappeared over the last year as the surge in Iraq has worked and more on the left wake up to the fact they have been ‘fellow travelling’ with radical Islamists.” This isn’t the case in Australia, where we’re still being told that terrorists are victims:
Prof Anthony Burke, senior lecturer at the University of NSW where ADFA classes are held, in his book Beyond Security, Ethics and Violence, said students should try to understand terrorists rather than fight them.
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PREMISES ENTERED, DETAILS DELETED
Tim Blair
The Australian‘s Christian Kerr notes the latest, er, appearance from the men of no appearance:
Have a look at this extract from a report carried by the news service AAP:

“A gang of armed men robbed a western Sydney club last night. A group of five or six men, believed to have been wearing hooded jackets and carrying a gun, allegedly entered the Regents Park club at around 11.10pm and ordered staff and patrons to the ground.”
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BACK TO BARACK
Tim Blair
Barack Obama maintains his recent lead
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WORLD SUPPLIED
Tim Blair
The antics of foreign politicians are reliable filler for TV newscasts. A slow news day is instantly revived by, say, some Taiwanese parliamentarians going at each other with fists and chairs, or a bunch of Italian MPs shaping up over a soccer match, or the first president George Bush vomiting on an appalled Japanese prime minister.

It was a little unfair of us to laugh at Gerald Ford falling down stairs when at the same time we were the guys letting crazy Jim Cairns be treasurer. And it was possibly a little hypocritical of us to giggle at those Taiwanese brawlers while the likes of Mark Latham were around.

Still, foreign people are funny. And newscasts need those clips, otherwise every segment after the weather would be limited to newborn zoo beasts.
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END GAME II
Tim Blair
They adore bad news:
“The majority of left-wing blogs are absolutely loving the financial crisis. It’s the rapture of the marxists.”
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BROWN’S PALS
Tim Blair
British PM Gordon Brown still has some friends left. Unfortunately for him, they’re all Tories.