12:00 AM AEST | A FORMER garbage collector, Nathan Rees, was elected Premier of NSW yesterday after Morris Iemma's once loyal backers turned on him and forced him to quit, leaving the little-known Mr Rees to declare: "I'll have a red-hot go."

12:00 AM AEST | THE Republicans' nominee for president, John McCain, has disowned the past eight years of George Bush and his Administration as he sought to define himself as a man of principle, experience and character, ready to lead America during dangerous times.