Are you a fomo sapiens? Judging by his behaviour at Nelson Mandela's memorial service, Barack Obama is a member of this new sub-species.

Tony Abbott has discovered that it is much harder to control the news agenda in government - and that voters are a volatile bunch.

Apparently it takes Christmas bells to wake up Washington. Or maybe it's the realisation that 2013 is almost at an end and the record has been, well, more or less pathetic.

The sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela's memorial who has been accused of being a fake has signed at past ANC events.