- January 20th, 2012
- Posted by EUEditor
The Australian Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd, has begun a one-week tour in Europe taking in consultations in Brussels on the economic situation, security talks in London and a new bilateral agreement in France, signed on Friday (20.1.12).
NEW AGREEMENT WITH FRANCE INCLUDES PACIFIC, AND THE WESTERN FRONT
An agreement signed in Paris with the French Foreign Minister, Alain Juppe, raised the status of the relationship between the two countries to that of a strategic partnership. … Read More »
- December 28th, 2011
- Posted by EUEditor
The Australian government announced this year (27.9.11) that women in the armed forces will be allowed to serve in any frontline combat roles by 2016.
While women are prominent in many roles already, as senior officers, crew members on warships, air force pilots, and soldiers in Afghanistan, the move excited debate over security and safety issues for all troops, with two sexes in the ranks. … Read More »
- December 26th, 2011
- Posted by EUEditor
Christmas celebrations in 2011 were marked with calls for the protection of innocents, love of family, and salvaging of the Earth itself.
Pope Benedict XVI in Rome said the earth was “stained with blood”, praying for the victims of war in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, and for victims of natural disasters.
The Christian festival, as sometimes will happen, saw the creation of martyrs. More than forty people were killed in a round of bigotry and religious hysteria in Nigeria, by bombs set off while they were in church, on Christmas Day (25.12.11). Blasts were recorded in the capital, Abuja, Jos in the centre of the country, and other places, in the North-east. Friction between Christian and Islamic communities in Nigeria has got worse in recent years. … Read More »
- November 16th, 2011
- Posted by EUEditor
President Barrack Obama is in Australia to strengthen ties with a close ally of the United States.
TIGHT SCHEDULE
The President began his visit at Canberra 16.11.11 with an official welcome, and 21-gun salute, and after addressing the Australian Parliament was set to fly on to Darwin. … Read More »
- October 25th, 2011
- Posted by EUEditor
The French Rugby Union has not only had to take second place; its defeat by New Zealand on Sunday has been followed by a A$4000 fine, for “breaking cultural ritual protocol”. … Read More »
- September 1st, 2011
- Posted by EUEditor
The European Commission has confirmed the visit of its President, Jose Manuel Barroso, to Australia and New Zealand this month. … Read More »
- August 8th, 2011
- Posted by EUEditor
Nancy Wake, the Resistance hero of the Second World War, died on Sunday, 7.8.11, aged 98 in a London nursing home.
Known by the Gestapo as the elusive “white mouse”, she was involved in operating escape routes out of occupied France; escaped to England herself, to be parachuted back into France as a spy; and was engaged in fighting, with the maquis branch of the French Resistance. … Read More »
