Headlines Monday 6th October

Police search bushland after mysterious murder
Heidi Tiltins
Police are resuming their search of parks and bushland at Tempe in Sydney's south, as they hunt the killers of a man.

Witnesses have reported hearing loud bangs along Short Street late last night, before a man was spotted staggering up the road, covered in blood.
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Rorted Grand Final Goes To Manly
The Manly Sea Eagles have given Steve 'Beaver' Menzies the perfect farewell with the most dominant performance in grand final history, claiming the NRL Premiership with a 40-0 demolition of the Melbourne Storm at ANZ Stadium.
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Principal to face questioning over Bill Henson's talent scouting
The school principal who allegedly allowed controversial photographer Bill Henson into her school grounds seeking children to photograph, will speak with education department officials today.
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Australian Idol contestant dies after balcony fall
Levi Kereama, a 2003 Australian idol top-12 contestant, has been found dead at a Brisbane hotel.
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It'll need a big rate cut for banks to pass it on: CommSec
Australia's big banks are being urged to explain why they can't pass on any future interest rate cuts in full to customers.
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Media Pass On Obama's Outrageous Slurs
Barack Obama's White House campaign has hammered Republican John McCain for wanting to turn the page on the US economic crisis and engage in low-blow personal attacks a month away from election day.

The Democrat hit back with a new television spot after McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, accused Obama of consorting with terrorists in an attack on his ties in Chicago to former anti-Vietnam war militant William Ayers. - meanwhile Obama maintains his lead based on personal attacks and innuendo. - ed.
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Brown's Top Afghanistan Commander Surrenders
BRITAIN'S commander in Afghanistan says the war against the Taliban cannot be won, the Sunday Times has reported.

It quoted Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith as saying in an interview that if the Taliban were willing to talk, then that might be "precisely the sort of progress" needed to end the insurgency.

"We're not going to win this war. It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army," he said.

He said his forces had "taken the sting out of the Taliban for 2008" but that troops may well leave Afghanistan with there still being a low level of insurgency.

Afghanistan's Defence Minister expressed his disappointment at the commander's statements, maintaining the insurgency had to be defeated.

"I think this is the personal opinion of that commander," Abdul Rahim Wardak said.

"The main objective of the Afghan Government and the whole international community is that we have to defeat this war of terror and be successful," he said.

Mr Wardak said success also depended on how British forces were approaching the problems they faced in Helmand but did not say whether their current strategy was the right one.
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OJ jurors believe he killed his wife
ALMOST half the jurors who convicted OJ Simpson for armed robbery and kidnap thought he was also guilty of killing his former wife.

In questionnaires released yesterday, five of the 12 jurors disagreed with the 1995 verdict that cleared Simpson of the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Most of the other jurors claimed to be uncertain or did not answer the question.
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Painting by John Pasquarelli.
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Rudd refuses to learn from the disaster
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd seems dangerously eager to draw the wrong, anti-capitalist lessons from the Wall St meltdown:

KEVIN Rudd has urged international leaders to end an era of “extreme capitalism” and reject the notion that “greed is good” by embracing a new world order of global financial regulation…

Mr Rudd called for a new “debate that brings to a head how we shape the reward structures of corporate Australia”.
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Innocently picking your child nudes
Andrew Bolt
Critic Peter Craven usually has more sense but the arts tribe demands its privileges:

Bill Henson having a look at some kids in a primary school is as innocent and straightforward as a junior footy coach or a casting director of Neighbours doing so.
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More bills than cash
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd unleashed the expectations of spend-bigs just when money is suddenly growing tight:

THE Federal Government is bracing for a loss of up to $3 billion in capital gains tax revenue as a result of the global financial crisis and the ravaging of the sharemarket. Senior sources have told the Herald that the estimated loss will be one of the single greatest contributors to the overall decline in revenue this financial year being anticipated by the Government.
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Not the Iraqi leader Rudd intended
Andrew Bolt
Tricky. How do you thank someone who didn’t actually want to help you gain freedom?

THE Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, will visit Australia this month to express gratitude for Australian efforts in toppling Saddam Hussein and to discuss trade opportunities in Iraq.

The trip follows an invitation from Kevin Rudd, but Mr Maliki will have to tread a delicate path as he seeks to praise Australia’s contribution to a war that Labor - and most Australians - did not support.
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A focus group showing Biden 'won'
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Lynching Palin
Andrew Bolt
Associated Press’s Douglass Daniel goes through astonishing contortions to smear Sarah Palin as racist:

By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is “palling around with terrorists” and doesn’t see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign.

And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.
A picture of Obama's pal?

A non muslim white .. who is a convicted terrorist.
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Our gases not so foul
Andrew Bolt
A new study, in Energy and Environment, finds man’s gases have only a tiny effect on global temperature:
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Removing the sheik’s eyes would be fairer
Andrew Bolt

Even this glimpse of woman is too much for Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan, an ultra-conservative cleric reported to have wide influence among religious Saudis
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Welease Wodger
Andrew Bolt
A French accent is charming when used socially, but dangerous when employed diplomatically. Ask French Foreign Minister Bernard Koucher, who sounded unusually bellicose when telling Israel that Iran would not be safe if it got a nuclear bomb:
I honestly don’t believe that it will give any immunity to Iran ... because you will eat them before.