In a small detached bungalow on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City a teenage girl gently cries. Her name is Que. She is 17 and pregnant, but she cannot keep her baby. "I really want to," she quietly sobbed, "but my family is too poor...

T WOULD be "irresponsible" for Australia to put a medium-term goal for reducing greenhouse targets on the table before the Government receives the advice of expert Ross Garnaut, the Prime Minister said.

As I heard the news of the demise of the Right-wing Coalition in the Polish Elections I wondered if the fall of yet another of Bush's allies was a bad omen for John Howard, whose Australian coalition faces the voters on November 24.

In the race for the highest office in the land, we showed the collective maturity of 3-year-olds. Mr. Gore was taken to task for his taste in clothing and for such grievous offenses as sighing or, allegedly, rolling his eyes. We've paid a heavy price.

Every so often a quote comes out of the Bush administration that leaves you asking: Am I crazy or are they? Yes, those silly Democrats. They'll raise taxes for anything, even -- get this -- to pay for a war!

The Blackwater case fits perfectly into the broader pattern of the administration's almost total failure to enforce the law against corporations. More than in most criminal law areas, prosecution of corporate criminals has an element of deterrence.

"In a high-profile incident in December 2006, a drunken Blackwater contractor killed the guard of Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi. Within 36 hours the State Department had allowed Blackwater to transport the Blackwater contractor out of Iraq."

Enough is enough. Last week the Republicans showed once again just how anti-black their party really is. The G.O.P. has spent the last 40 years insulting, disenfranchising and otherwise stomping on the interests of black Americans.

NO ONE knows more about tawny frogmouths than Gisela Kaplan. And she is smitten. "I have watched them copulate, build nests, brood and raise offspring from just metres away," says the Armidale scientist, who has spent thousands of hours, day and night...

Iraqi investigators have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation in an incident last week in which 11 people died, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday.