American and Iraqi troops have launched an attack aimed at crushing the last bastion of al-Qaeda in Iraq and in doing so have turned Mosul into a ghost town, despite being the country's northern capital and inhabited by over a million people.

Omar Suleiman, the head of Egyptian intelligence, is to present the Israeli government with a new ceasefire proposal agreed with Hamas that could halt the conflict in Gaza and begin to resolve the mounting economic crisis that has engulfed the strip.

The British House of Lords will decide whether to resist the government and support a legal ruling to allow Chagos Islanders to return to their Indian Ocean home 40 years after they were evicted to make way for a US base since used in the war on terror.

Although the International Criminal Court is viewed with ambivalence by the US and others, the world's first ongoing war crimes tribunal is needed to be prosecute those responsible for outrages against humanity and deter others from future barbarism.

For Burma's generals it was a weekend to celebrate as they counted the votes in a constitutional referendum, but for the Burmese seeking shelter in the aftermath of the cyclone, without clean water or sanitation, it was another meaningless charade.

A comprehensive review of the Australian tax system will pave the way for the Rudd Government to undertake a sweeping shake-up of the nation's welfare arrangements.