Family First senator Steve Fielding sided with the Coalition this morning to vote down the increase in the luxury car tax at the second reading, 34 votes to 33. Senator Fielding had wanted to exempt farmers and those in the tourism industry who use cars, worth more than the tax threshold of $57,180, as tools of trade.

General Petraeus, the principal architect of the successful 2007-08 surge of US troops that restored security across Baghdad, says the signs of positive change are everywhere. “We have gone from a situation where 14-15 months ago there were 180 attacks a day in Iraq. Now there are on average about 25 attacks a day,” he said.

After the stunning announcement by Senator John McCain on Friday that he had chosen 44-year-old Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running-mate, new information emerged over allegations that Ms. Palin tried to use her gubernatorial office to take revenge on her former brother-in-law.

Republican White House hopeful John McCain’s campaign is highly sensitive to the imagery of holding a celebratory convention as a potential natural disaster looms, after the botched handling of Hurricane Katrina three years go. Republican Party officials were mulling different scenarios, including curtailing the convention.

For weeks, Senator McCain had wanted to name independent Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut as his running mate. But the outrage from Christian conservatives over the possibility that the Republican ticket would be filled out with a supporter of abortion rights became too intense to be ignored.

Within moments of the announcement, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin made an explicit appeal to the disappointed supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton by praising not only Mrs. Clinton but also the only other woman in American history who has been on a presidential ticket, Geraldine A. Ferraro.

Senator Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party presidential nomination on Thursday, declaring that the “American promise has been threatened” by eight years under President Bush and that John McCain represented a continuation of policies that undermined the nation’s economy and imperiled its standing around the world.

The New South Wales Premier, Morris Iemma, withdrew the electricity industry privatisation legislation from a special sitting of parliament earlier today, when it became clear it would be defeated by a combination of the Coalition, Independent and minor party MPs, and Labor Party renegades.

With delegates waving banners that read “Hillary” or “Obama” on one side and “Unity” on the other, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton urged Democrats to put aside their loyalty to her and unite behind Senator Barack Obama — or risk continuing Bush administration policies under the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain.

An informal paper circulated by the Department of Resources ahead of a meeting between the Resources Minister and industry peak bodies and chief executives “canvasses alternative approaches” for compensating high-polluting industries that are unable to pass on the cost of emissions permits.