On December 17, 1996 terrorists from the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) took over the residence of the Japanese Ambassador in Lima, Peru during a diplomatic reception. The President, Alberto Fujimori would have been in attendance had his plane not been delayed. About eight hundred people were taken hostage. Most of the captives were released within a few days however it was not until April 22, 1997 that the final 71 hostages were released and the situation was resolved in a bloody confrontation. Novelist Ann Patchett does not name the South American country where Bel Canto is set. However the arrival of armed guerrillas at an ostentatious State dinner and the lengthy standoff cannot but recall the Peruvian incident.

The past 100 years in Australia have been golden years. We have enjoyed freedom. There has been unparalleled opportunity. We have freedom of association, freedom of movement. This is a great country. Many take this for granted. It's easy to think of it as a given, a right. But thinking people don't. Reflect for a moment on what enabled our freedom. Reflect for a minute on the wars of last century.

The conflict in Israel is a complex drama of violence, injustice and tragedy. The roots of the problem sink hundreds of years back through history. The battle for land, nationhood and identity - not to mention compensation - involves a tangle of perspectives. Suicide bombers, gun-wielding settlers, stone-throwing youths and bombed out refugee camps might provide the footage for media coverage, however the situation is more complex than a three-minute visual and thirty second sound-bite. This article aims to provide an overview of the situation. This is not an exhaustive study of the crisis but rather a timeline of the conflict. For reasons of length 1882 has been chosen as the starting point.

War has been part of human experience since people first formed alliances and fashioned themselves into nations. War takes many shapes and is wrought for many reasons. Men take up arms in revenge, for greed, to achieve political goals, to obtain geographical advantage. Wars are fought for religious reasons, on ideological grounds, in self-defence and to protect the vulnerable.

Do you ever feel as though there’s just not enough time in the day to do everything you need to do? At the end of a busy day at work it’s hard enough to remember to take the garbage out, let alone to call mum. Dr Michael Schluter, in Australia last month to see his new book The R Option launched by the Australian Labor Party’s leading public policy thinker, Lindsay Tanner, may have an answer. Indeed, Tanner’s endorsement offers a remarkable testimony to the hearing Dr Schluter’s work is receiving in political circles.

Dr Bruce Winter explains the Bible's teaching on fashion

Other women want the lifestyle, but one former international fashion model says the glamour is not what it's cracked up to be.

As Katoomba Christian Convention celebrates 100 years of Bible teaching, the future may lie in helping to train Christians for ministry in the local church, found Geoff Robson