NYT : Bush Ally Defeated in Australia

Bush Ally Defeated in Australia

By TIM JOHNSTON | November 25, 2007

SYDNEY, Australia, Nov. 24 — Australia’s prime minister, John Howard, one of President Bush’s staunchest allies in Asia, suffered a comprehensive defeat at the hands of the electorate on Saturday, as his Liberal Party-led coalition lost its majority in Parliament.

Prime Minister John Howard conceded defeat.

He will be replaced by Kevin Rudd, the Labor Party leader and a former diplomat. “Today Australia looks to the future,” Mr. Rudd told a cheering crowd in his home state of Queensland. “Today the Australian people have decided that we as a nation will move forward.”

Mr. Howard’s defeat, after 11 years in power, follows that of José María Aznar of Spain, who also backed the United States-led invasion of Iraq, and political setbacks for Tony Blair of Britain.

Mr. Howard conceded nearly two hours after the last polling booths closed in the west of the country.

“A few moments ago I telephoned Mr. Kevin Rudd and I congratulated him and the Australian Labor Party on a very emphatic victory,” Mr. Howard told a roomful of emotional supporters.

“I leave the office of prime minister with our country prouder, stronger and more prosperous than ever,” he said.

Returns for a small number of seats are yet to be compiled, but analysts estimate that over all the Labor Party gained 28 seats to win a comfortable 22-seat majority in the 150-seat lower house of Parliament, where governments are formed. Official results are expected within the next day or two.

Mr. Howard may suffer the indignity of losing his own seat in the Sydney suburb of Bennelong, which he has held for 33 years, to a former television anchor and rookie politician. He would be the first sitting prime minister to lose his seat since 1929.

It was a bruising campaign, and the Liberal Party has said it will challenge some results on the grounds that the Labor candidates had broken electoral law by failing to resign from government jobs before running for office. The Labor Party said it had broken no laws.

Mr. Rudd, 50, campaigned on a platform of new leadership to address broad concerns about the environment, health and education. He has said his first acts as prime minister would include pushing for the ratification of the Kyoto agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and negotiating the withdrawal of Australia’s 500 troops from Iraq.

Analysts said the leadership change was unlikely to bring a radically new foreign policy, although they expected a shift in emphasis in the relationship with the United States, Australia’s closest ally. “Australia will remain a close ally of the United States, and Rudd remains committed to the alliance,” said Michael Fullilove, of the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney. But he noted that “if there is a Democratic administration elected next year, to some extent they would become closer.”

Mr. Howard has a strong personal relationship with Mr. Bush that is based on a similar socially conservative philosophy and a shared outlook on terrorism.

Australian opinion polls have shown that although Australians remain strong supporters of the so-called Anzus alliance — the security pact among Australia, New Zealand and the United States — they do not approve of Mr. Bush or the Iraq war.

The attempts by Mr. Howard’s coalition to stress its economic record apparently failed to impress voters. The Australian economy has had 17 years of continuous growth, lately driven by Chinese demand for Australian iron ore and coal. Mr. Howard had warned voters that a Labor victory would endanger the country’s prosperity.

But despite the coalition campaign, there was little distance between the two parties on economic policy, and the defining characteristics came down to the personalities of the leaders. In addition, Mr. Howard was running for a historic fifth term in office, and many voters said they were ready for a change.

“Howard is out of touch,” said George Varvaressos, 52, who voted in eastern Sydney on Saturday morning. “It’s the arrogance of being in power for too long — he hasn’t been listening.”

If Australia’s strongest military and political alliance is with Washington, the fuel for its economy is coming from China. Mr. Fullilove says Mr. Rudd’s ability to manage the relationship between Canberra, Washington and Beijing would be crucial.

Mr. Rudd, 18 years younger than Mr. Howard, has a reputation as a cerebral student of policy, as opposed to the Liberal leader’s image of a hardened and aggressive political animal.

“He seems more personable, approachable. He doesn’t seem arrogant — yet — and I have respect for him,” said Marcelle Freiman, who voted for Mr. Rudd in eastern Sydney on Saturday.

Mr. Rudd’s dry image was altered by the news that he had visited a strip club during a trip to New York in 2003.

He served as a diplomat in Beijing and speaks Mandarin. He impressed many with a fluent address to Chinese President Hu Jintao when Mr. Hu visited Australia in September.

Mr. Fullilove said Mr. Rudd’s experience regarding China is unlikely to make a significant difference to Australia’s relationship with the United States. “I would counsel against people assuming that because Kevin Rudd speaks Mandarin there would be a big rebalancing of the relationship in favor of Beijing,” he said.

Bloomberg : Barrick Says Australian Mine Fire Forces Evacuation

Barrick Says Australian Mine Fire Forces Evacuation

By Jesse Riseborough | October 24, 2007

Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Barrick Gold Corp., the world's largest gold producer, said a fire at its Kanowna Belle gold mine in Western Australia earlier today had been extinguished and workers were being brought to the surface.

A truck engine caught fire at about 9:15 a.m. Perth time and forced an evacuation, the Toronto-based company said in an e-mailed statement. Mining operations will restart within 24 hours, Celina Watt, a spokeswoman, said by phone from Cairns.

"As a precautionary measure the 54 employees working underground at the time proceeded to the refuge chambers," the statement said. "The site mine-rescue team with regional assistance is in attendance, and are in the process of bringing the employees to the surface."

A total of 38 workers have already been evacuated and the remainder are expected to be brought out within about two hours, Watt said. No workers have been injured in the fire or the evacuation, she added.

Kanowna Belle is 570 kilometers (356 miles) from the state's capital Perth. Last year, the Kanowna operation produced 477,000 ounces of gold. All mining operations at the site ceased during the rescue, Watt said.

Barrick plans to produce 8.1 million to 8.4 million ounces of gold this year, the mining company said Aug. 1 as it reported second-quarter results. Barrick shares have gained 13 percent in Toronto trading this year and settled yesterday at C$40.44.

To contact the reporter for this story: Jesse Riseborough in Melbourne at jriseborough@bloomberg.net

Reuters : Football star's woes overshadow Australia election

Football star's woes overshadow Australia election

By Rob Taylor | October 17, 2007

CANBERRA (Reuters) - A drugs drama surrounding one of Australia's sports heroes has eclipsed a November election, with Prime Minister John Howard interrupting campaigning to preach against the evils of narcotics.

Troubled Australian Rules football star Ben Cousins, 29, was hauled bare-chested from his car by police on Tuesday with his trademark full-stomach tattoo reading "Such is Life" splashed across the front pages of newspapers nationally.

"It's a great tragedy," Howard told local radio. "He's a very talented player. I hope for his sake that he can get over his drug problem, I hope for his family's sake."

Cousins, who spent a much-publicized stint in Los Angeles for drug rehabilitation after wild behavior and a televised confession for drug use, has stunned Australians with a year-long spiral downward after winning his sport's top accolade.

His woes replaced election politics on front pages and ignited a debate on the use of so-called recreational drugs by sporting stars as an Australian, John Fahey, was appointed to head international sports' World Anti-Doping Agency.

Fahey said ridding sport of drugs was unlikely.

"You can only strive for that. I'm not silly enough to say that that is ever likely to be achieved, other than to say you have to continue to work for a total outcome of clean sport," he said after his appointment.

Former Australian rugby league international Andrew Johns, 33, in August admitted taking recreational drugs such as ecstasy during a long career in which he was regarded as one of the greatest players in history.

But this week's arrest of a disheveled Cousins wearing sunglasses and little else was the final straw for Australian Rules administrators, with anxious sponsors reconsidering involvement in a sport many fans regard as a national icon.

"Such a waste," said a cartoon in one paper, referring to Cousins' tattoo, which itself recounted the dying words of the country's most famous outlaw, Ned Kelly, who was hung for banditry in 1880 but became another national hero.

Howard, whose conservative government has pushed a tough anti-drugs policy, lashed out at media and police for referring to "party drugs" in the case of Cousins and Johns.

"It gives them a glamour they don't deserve. I just think from today we should stop calling them party drugs or recreational drugs. All drugs are evil," Howard, who faces an election on November 24, said.

His Labor opponent Kevin Rudd, leading Howard in opinion surveys, said sporting bosses needed to get their act together on fighting drugs or risk turning off fans and sponsors.

© Reuters 2007 All rights reserved

SMH : Bomb-makers relied on old technology for attack

Bomb-makers relied on old technology for attack

Craig Skehan | October 10, 2007

INVESTIGATORS believe the weapon that killed the Australian soldier David Pearce was similar to one used against Soviet troops two decades ago rather than high-technology devices from Iran.

Iran has been accused of exporting to Iraq so-called "explosively formed projectile" devices, which blast molten metal into their target at incredibly high velocity. Some senior American and British commanders have claimed the Iranian-style armour-piercing bombs have begun to enter parts of Afghanistan, a view shared by senior Howard Government ministers.

The Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson, suggested that the device which exploded under Trooper Pearce's light armoured vehicle could have come from Iran.

"There is no question that a variety of weapons including improvised explosive devices and explosively formed projectiles and other things are finding their way from Iran into both Iraq and Afghanistan," Dr Nelson said.

"At this stage of course we don't know precisely the sources of this particular IED. But … we will do the very best we can to get to the bottom on it."

The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, took a similar line: "What worries me … is that the particularly effective roadside bombs that can penetrate armoured vehicles may be coming from other countries, possibly even from Iran, though I can't prove that. And if that's the case then that does constitute a still more serious threat."

However, there is no hard evidence of such armour-piercing weapons being used so far in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province, where Australian forces are based.

The head of a special Australian counter-IED taskforce established last year, Brigadier Phil Winter, told the Herald yesterday that no evidence had been uncovered at the site where Trooper Pearce died to support the theory of an Iranian-style bomb.

"This is not an explosively formed projectile," Brigadier Winter said.

Reports from the scene indicated that the device was not deadly because it was sophisticated, but because it contained a large amount of explosive, possibly about seven kilograms.

"Subject to final investigation by field commanders, it would appear that the victim has driven over it and initiated the circuit," Brigadier Winter said. It was likely to have used a so-called "legacy munition" such as an anti-tank mine which could date back as far as the late 1970s and '80s when Soviet forces were fighting Islamic insurgents.

"That is a conventional munition used with an improvised detonation system," Brigadier Winter said. Any lessons learnt from the attack "will be be pushed pack into the theatre", he said.

"We are not expecting anything major, but we are always open-minded," he added. "We do have a pretty good handle on this type of device."

Captain Grant Barton, 29, who previously served in Iraq as an ammunition technical officer and visited some 30 attack sites, yesterday showed the Herald an electronic triggering device recovered from a bomb by Australian forces in Oruzgan province.

"It is ordinary people who suffer the most," Captain Barton said.