12:00 AM AEST | SHAVING five minutes off your journey in five years. That was the $48 million promise made to exasperated northern beaches bus commuters yesterday by the Minister for Roads, Eric Roozendaal, as he unveiled what was supposed to be the Government's long-awaited solution to the congested Spit Bridge.

12:35 AM AEST | KEVIN RUDD yesterday raised the Olympic and then the Australian flag in the athletes village in Beijing, as expectations grew about how the Prime Minister would address the human rights issue after the US President, George Bush, delivered a reprimand to China on the issue.