THE NOBEL PRIZE

Are you getting sick of all the argument about an emissions trading scheme? Don't. It's hardly started.

WHILE the rest of us were enjoying that second serve of pudding over Christmas, triathlete Madeleine Oldfield was out on her bike making sure she would be in top shape for the third race of the Gatorade triathlon series which takes place at Sandringham today.

FRUSTRATED coach Gary van Egmond has delivered a blunt message to his failing stars: shape up or ship out.

THERE was an almost palpable sense of relief as the world said goodbye to 2008 - a year which exposed serious cracks in a global financial system that will largely define the shape of the new year and beyond.