No image available
/ 18 December 2007
Australia will send a fisheries patrol ship to shadow Japan’s whaling fleet near Antarctica and gather evidence for a possible international court challenge to halt the yearly slaughter. The icebreaker Oceanic Viking would leave for the Southern Ocean in days to follow the Japanese fleet.
No image available
/ 25 November 2007
Incoming Labour prime minister Kevin Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat, has pledged closer Australian ties with overseas allies and unity at home after ending 11 years of conservative rule under John Howard. Rudd (50) has promised to pull Australian troops out of Iraq and sign the Kyoto Protocol.
No image available
/ 24 October 2007
Australia slapped financial sanctions on Burma’s generals and their families on Wednesday as supporters of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi marked her 12 years in captivity with protests in 12 cities. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the measures would hit 418 people, including leader Senior General Than Shwe.
Australia has placed a freeze on the settlement of refugees from Africa, but Prime Minister John Howard denied on Wednesday that the decision was a pre-election pitch to immigration-wary voters. Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said refugees from Africa were having problems integrating in Australian communities.
No image available
/ 5 September 2007
United States President George Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard cemented a strong alliance on Wednesday as Asia-Pacific ministers began talks ranging from human security and climate change to trade and economic reform. Howard promised Australian soldiers would stay alongside US troops in Iraq following a meeting between the close friends.
The Sudanese government must hand over for trial the man accused of masterminding the Darfur massacre or risk becoming a pariah nation, the International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor said on Tuesday. Luis Moreno-Ocampo said any peace deal would have to respect international law and warrants for the arrest of Sudanese Minister Ahmad Harun.
A comparison of Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s nationalism to that of Nazism prompted outrage on Thursday, with one top minister calling the former leader who said it an ”unguided missile”. Former Prime Minister Paul Keating, who led the country from 1991 until defeated by Howard in 1996, used a speech on Wednesday to accuse Howard of being a Nazi-like nationalist.
An Indian doctor was detained in Australia for questioning in connection with a suspected al-Qaeda plot to detonate car bombs in London and Scotland as he tried to leave the country. The detention of the hospital registrar at Brisbane airport widened the international dimension of the investigation.
The Dalai Lama warned nations on Tuesday not to try to contain China’s economic and military emergence, but urged countries like Australia to use their trading clout to pressure Beijing on human rights. ”It is absolutely wrong to isolate China and also contain China. It’s wrong, morally also wrong,” said the Dalai Lama.
Australia, which refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, will ask other nations to contribute to a new fund to combat deforestation and global warming, Prime Minister John Howard said on Thursday. Howard said his government would give Aus-million (-million) over five years to the World Bank-backed fund to help stop forest destruction.