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At least eleven people have been killed and up to 160 are wounded after an apparent terrorist attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta. Blast puts terror at centre of election campaign
Daily Flute gives pointer to two sentences and let people draw the link We are in a war against terror We must protect our borders


The Blog, The Press, The Media: Party's on in the engine rooms
If winning an election is equal parts hard slog, stamina, policy strength, dirty tricks and sheer good luck, the Liberal Party is not prone to superstition on the last count.
Every morning and throughout the night, Coalition staffers heading to the Liberal Party campaign's headquarters in Melbourne ride the lift to the 13th floor of 101 Collins St, with its panoramic views of the central business district.
Prime Minister John Howard's tactics team is waging war for the hearts and minds of middle Australia from "the Paris end" of Collins Street, in a towering building of 57 floors that bills itself as the perfect place for the "captains of industry".
In contrast, the Labor Party's headquarters in Canberra is a boxy building that is the subject of a judicial inquiry following Coalition claims that the ALP-owned building has "fleeced" $36 million through long-term leases signed by the Hawke-Keating government.
• Captain Spinners [Ageless Age: Reporters will face a record low level of direct access to politicians in the lead-up to the election, reports ]
• · BBC with Reaction: Jakarta bombing: Is this the attack on the Australian election or the Indonesian one?
• · · Webdiary flooded with more than 130 comments and the dam has not burst yet: Argggh! So many people want to comment on Sue Bradford's letter I'm spending all day editing and publishing you!
• · · · Are You All Sitting Down?! In a united show of strength defying pharmaceutical giants, medical journals are planning to publish all drug research, including negative results
• · · · · John Quiggin The Greens are replacing Labor as the conservatives’ bete noire Australian Policy On Line A Must Visit: APO
• · · · · · Julianne Schultz describes the way an addiction to celebrity – fame’s rich second cousin – has distorted public life, unhinged trust in institutions and corroded confidence. Who can you trust? What can you believe? The media has become so captivated by the routines of celebrity that the reporting of public affairs has been undermined and there is a need for a reexamination of the limits of journalism and the accountability of the media