Long ago it was 'Labor split looms' - now for some it's simply 'Rudd return looms'

The Foreign Minister's future fills columns as the man himself jokes about it.

The Sun-Herald yesterday in another episodic Fairfax story on Kevin Rudd's future:

AS Julia Gillard fights to sell her carbon tax, The Sun-Herald has been told Mr Rudd is still firmly convinced he can make a comeback as leader, believing a groundswell of public support would force a hostile caucus to re-embrace him.

Rudd addressing troops in Afghanistan last week, in a video posted on his Facebook page:

I FIRST came to Afghanistan as a backbencher. Then I came back as leader of the opposition. I came back several times as prime minister and now I'm back as Foreign Minister, which probably means next time I come back I'll probably be running the local AusAid program given my current career trajectory. And I don't want to put AusAid down by saying that.

Waiting, as always, for Newspoll - Brisbane's The Courier-Mail national affairs editor Dennis Atkins on ABC 1's Insiders yesterday:

QUITE a few people in the Coalition are getting excited about Tuesday's Newspoll [50-50 last time]. Some wiser heads in the Coalition are warning not to get too excited, that there is still a fault line in Australian politics. In Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia, Julia Gillard's leadership is still working for Labor (and) attacks by what they call the young Liberal jihadists likening the PM to Colonel Gaddafi are working against them.

Wayne Swan in the Labor Blog last Thursday:

I SAY to all our members, but especially the younger amongst us that there is power at your fingertips . . . we have the ability to harness social media to bend Australia's future in a more progressive direction and we must not waste it . . . young people are toppling dictators and establishing democracy by means that simply didn't exist just a dozen years ago.

Benji Marshall, 26, last Wednesday on the responsibilities that come with being named the new public face of the National Rugby League:

. . . IT was sort of a curse, they reckon. It's not going to change what I do away from the game or what I do in the game. I want to be the player that kids want to be when they grow up. I've had a pretty clean image and I want to keep it that way.

NSW Police statement on Saturday before a charge was laid:

POLICE attached to The Rocks local area command are investigating an alleged assault outside a fast food restaurant in Sydney's CBD overnight. An investigation is under way into the circumstances surrounding the alleged incident, and police are hoping to speak with a 26-year-old man who may be able to assist with inquiries.

The New Zealand Herald on Sunday reports yesterday on the local version of ACP's Woman's Day:

THE Prime Minister's office has complained to a leading women's magazine after it digitally altered a picture of John and Bronagh Key for its earthquake edition. Woman's Day did a photo shoot with the couple for its Valentine's Day edition last month, in which Bronagh Key was wearing a silky peacock-blue [designer] Helen Cherry top. Last week, it ran a front-page story headlined "John Key's message of hope", with a photo of the couple. In the week after the earthquake, Key had divided his days between Wellington and Christchurch. He had little time for a photo shoot . . . so the magazine ran a photo of John and Bronagh from the earlier sitting -- but with the colour of Bronagh Key's top miraculously changed to red. Paul Dykzeul, chief executive of ACP, said he had been in touch with the Prime Minister's office and "there is no issue with it". He accused the Herald on Sunday of having a vendetta and said all media publications Photoshop pictures. "You Photoshop shots all the time."

Editor's note at the end of the story:

IN accordance with Press Council principles, the Herald on Sunday discloses any material changes to published photographs.