Friday 7:42 Retired General Peter Cosgrove: 2009 Boyer Lectures

In 1999 General Cosgrove was chosen to oversee East Timor's troubled transition to independence. The success of that mission ensured he became one of Australia's most respected military leaders. He was soon promoted to Chief of the Army and later, the Chief of Australia's Defence Force. The ABC board has invited retired General Peter Cosgrove to present the annual Boyer Lectures, a series of six radio lectures conveying the thoughts of a prominent Australian on major social, cultural, scientific or political issues. Peter Cosgrove's lectures will be delivered around the theme of 'A Very Australian Conversation'. If you can't make it to the 2009 Boyer Lectures in Sydney this Sunday afternoon, they will be broadcast at 5pm every Sunday afternoon for six weeks from November 8.

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Friday 7:31 Sport with Warwick Hadfield

The latest sports news with Warwick Hadfield.

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Friday 7:52 Ten years on from the Republic referendum

Today is the tenth anniversary of the defeat of the referendum on a republic. Both republicans and monarchists have marked this occasion in their own way. John Howard was guest of honour at anniversary celebrations by monarchists in Sydney yesterday, and the Australian Republican Movement is using the milestone to try and rekindle public interest in breaking Australia's constitutional ties with Great Britain. But even the most ardent republicans concede the Queen and her successors will reign over Australia for many years to come.

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Friday 8:05 Friday panel: dealing with transport congestion

Our Friday Panel today tackles urban transport congestion, and proposals for radical reform in the way we price road usage. The debate was kicked off last month by Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, who said that road tax reform 'is fast becoming one of the biggest public policy issues of our age.' On Wednesday this week the chair of Infrastructure Australia Sir Rod Eddington agreed, saying that putting a price on our access to road infrastructure was essential. So how might this be done, and will it really solve the problem of making urban transport more sustainable?

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Friday 6:08 UN pulls staff out of Afghanistan

The United Nations will withdraw nearly half its international staff from Afghanistan because of concerns for their safety. The UN says says the move is only temporary, but the decision raises questions of whether the situation in Afghanistan has reached a tipping point.

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Friday 7:10 AM with Tony Eastley

The ABC's daily morning current affairs program hosted by Tony Eastley.

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Friday 7:36 Michelle Grattan

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Friday 6:58 Finance with Rebecca Hyam

The latest finance news here and abroad with Rebecca Hyam.

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Friday 6:23 Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, will not seek re-election

Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has announced that he won't be seeking re-election next January.

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Friday 6:37 Science with Chris Smith: genome sequencing, languages and bacteria

Each year computers get twice as fast and cost half as much, but it's not just the world of PCs that are undergoing a technology cost revolution. The first time the human genome was sequenced, it cost US$100 million. Now, according to a paper in this week's Science, it can be done for under $2,000 -- much closer to the acceptable price range of our science reporter, virologist Dr Chris Smith from the University of Cambridge. He also discusses new research showing that language learning starts in the womb, and a developing map of the human body's 'bacterial landscape'.

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