After nearly a decade of intense negotiations, Australia has signed a free-trade agreement (FTA) with China.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has noted that the FTA deal is expected to open up billions of dollars in new markets for Australian exporters. But not everyone is welcoming the agreement. Some people have commented that China is giving Australia nothing. The text of the FTA has not been released to the public. The Greens have come out against the deal.

One of thegarlic reporters has managed to get access to the FTA and the notes made by the Chinese government. The notes appear to suggest that one of the major aims of China in signing the FTA is to gradually buy significant land parcels in Australia. They wish to acquire most of Tasmania over the next 50 years since their bid to buy Alaska failed 2-3 years ago. Also, it has been reported that the Chinese love the new Tasmanian museum MONA and would love to acquire it. Tasmania is the 26th largest island in the world and it has 334 surrounding islands. Tasmania’s area is 68,401 square kilometers (26,410 sq miles), of which the main island covers more than 90%. Acquiring Tasmania and surrounding islands would also mean that China would not have to worry about islands in the South China sea.

The Democrats’ leader Mattias Karlsson  has noted that his party will focus entirely on the issue of immigration. It is well-known that the Democrats admire Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the Immigration Minister Scott Morrison. The Party has been in negotiations with Abbott and Morrison to advise them how to win the Swedish election.

The Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven admitted the the Democrats now had a veto over Swedish politics, leaving him no choice but to call elections just six months after the country went to the polls in September.

Federal Opposition leader Tony Abbott has defended comments he made about homosexuality, saying gays and lesbians “challenge” the order of things and he “probably felt a bit threatened … as most people do” when asked how he felt about homosexuality.

It now appears that the Prime Minister, Mr Abbott, feels a bit threatened by the new US ambassador to Australia. The ambassador came to Australia more than 12 months ago. It has been rumoured that Mr Abbott has not yet shaken hands with the Ambassador.

The 54-year-old former head of the Office of Personnel Management, Mr John Berry, is the first openly gay US ambassador to serve in a Group of 20 nation and the highest ranking openly gay man in United States history. He married his partner of 17 years, Mr Curtis Yee, in Washington last year.

The leaders noted that Republicans have a lot of issues they are proud to fight for.

The major issues for the Republicans are the Party’s war against gay and lesbians, against Hispanics and ensuring no illegals get amnesty, against women, against Democratic plan to expand the economy, against climate change and the environment, against research & development in science and technology, against Obamacare national health care plan, against Medicare and Medicaid, against family planning, against Darwin’s theory of evolution, against abortion and against providing more funding for education. The Republican noted that their agenda is not always negative since they strongly support major tax cuts for the wealthy and for major corporations. The Republicans also support strong marriages, strong fatherhood and abstinence. Furthermore, they want theory of creation to be taught in all schools. The Republicans also support more community colleges and technical education rather than universities. They support private college loans with insurance for all students. Finally, the Republican Party strongly supports the right of individuals to own any type of gun without registration.

The reasons Republicans care about poverty are:  empathy, human compassion, faith and economic common sense. Republicans have a long record in this regard. In fact, Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, risked his country’s future to free the slaves. Republicans led the passage of the seminal 1964 Civil Rights Act over the bitter opposition of Southern Democrats.

Republicans believe that poverty is the “Achilles’ heel of capitalism.” After extensive nationwide visits to disadvantaged neighborhoods and to anti-poverty programs, House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan last year  outlined new ideas for “opportunity grants” that integrate programs and encourage work, give states more say over how money is spent, and make sure that results are rigorously measured. In a recent speech, Republican Senator Marco Rubio outlined similar thoughts on helping the poor, with new ideas for reforming the system.

Pope Benedict’s decision made him the first pontiff to resign in 600 years. Although in recent years he had slowed down, the  Garlic has learned that the Pope resigned because he was sick of the job. He was sick of  his foreign travels and tired of the audiences. The pope traveled to the altar in St. Peter’s Basilica on a moving platform to spare him the 100-meter walk down the aisle. Occasionally he used a cane. Late last year, people who were spending time with the pontiff emerged saying they found him uninterested and too tired to engage with what they were saying. The Vatican stressed that no specific medical condition prompted Benedict’s decision to become the first pontiff to resign. Still, Benedict said his advanced age meant he no longer had the necessary mental and physical strength to lead the world’s more than one billion Roman Catholics.

The Pope had acknowledged having suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in 1991 that temporarily affected his vision, but he later made a full recovery. In 2009, the pope fell and suffered minor injuries when he broke one of his wrists while vacationing in the Alps. A doctor familiar with the Pope’s medical team told The Associated Press that the pontiff had no grave or life-threatening illnesses. But, the doctor said, the Pope, like many men his age, had suffered some prostate problems. Beyond that, the Pope was simply old and tired but he did not need to resign, the doctor said on condition of anonymity.

Murdoch has been reported to have commented that no one warned him about the sale and therefore once in a lifetime opportunity to buy The Post had now slipped. It is further reported that a number of  senior staff  of News Corp have been sacked.

A sacked staffer said that Rupert was to obsessed with the need to campaign against Kevin Rudd in Australia that you couldn’t get his attention. Murdoch is so determined to ensure that Tony Abbott is elected the next Prime Minister of Australia in the September 7 election. Election of Kevin Rudd is likely to hurt his cash cow company Foxtel which Murdoch wishes to grow.

Murdoch noted that the last 12 months have been the worst months of his life, having to attend hearings at the UK Parliament, having to divorce his wife and now having lost the opportunity to bid for The Washington Post. It appears that Mr Murdoch’s influence in the world has declined considerably recently and he now has limited access to prime ministers and presidents as he used to.

Murdoch’s influence has declined not only because of parliamentary hearings in the UK but also because of his failed attempt to hijack America’s democratic institutions including his attempt to get General David Petraeus elected as the President in the USA in 2012. He was determined to succeed in the USA on a scale equal to his success in corrupting the essential democratic institutions of Great Britain through money, influence and wholesale abuse of the privileges of a free press.

He said that the Taliban could not survive without the substantial aid that the US is giving to Afghanistan and Pakistan. These two countries have been generous enough to divert some of this aid to the Taliban. The Taliban leaders have used the aid to provide employment to a large number of local people by building mansions for their own families and friends in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The remaining funds have been used to acquire brand new weapons from the US and Europe through third parties as these are the most reliable on the market. If these weapons are good enough for the US to use against the Taliban then they are good enough for the Taliban to use against the Allied troops in Afghanistan.

The leaders believe that it is essential to continue the violence to convince their supporters that they still hate America and the Allied countries. Furthermore, the envoy noted that Taliban violence also helps the countries supplying the Allied troops. Without the violence it would be much more difficult for the Allied countries to convince  their populations of  the importance of the Afghanistan war and therefore the continuing presence of their troops in Afghanistan.

Moreover, there is little evidence that the payments bought the influence the C.I.A. sought. Instead, some American officials said, the cash has fueled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington’s exit strategy from Afghanistan.

The C.I.A. declined to comment for this article. When contacted by thegarlic, Mr Karzai noted that the funds are used to support some of his relatives and his close aids but the money is now not sufficient to meet the needs because of inflation. Mr Karzai has therefore requested bigger suitcases but the US President Barack Obama has refused Mr Karzai’s request.