Sydney: Australian leader Julia Gillard has promised close engagement with Asia if returned to power next month, shrugging off her lack of foreign policy experience and a row over a regional refugee centre.

Gillard admitted she did not have the foreign affairs experience of Kevin Rudd, the Mandarin-speaking former diplomat she ousted last month, but said warm regional ties would be a hallmark of her new government.
“I would like to think that engagement in our region is what would stamp the Gillard government. I mean this is where our future …

Sydney: Australia’s prime minister and her conservative opponent kicked off campaigning Sunday by touching on the key issue of immigration, a day after Julia Gillard called elections a mere three weeks after becoming premier.

Gillard, the nation’s first female prime minister, on Saturday scheduled elections for Aug. 21 amid strong support for her new leadership. She became prime minister in June after ousting her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, in a sudden Labor Party coup.
Opinion polls have shown Labor holds a slight lead, but the race is expected to be a close …

London: Salman Butt scored his second fifty of the match and remained unbeaten at the close of the third day here on Wednesday to give Pakistan hope of a win in the first Test against Australia at Lord’s.

Butt was 58 not out and Test debutant Azhar Ali 28 not out, with Pakistan needing a further 326 runs to reach what would be a record-breaking total of 440.
That would surpass the highest total ever scored in a fourth innings to win a Test of 418 for seven made by the West …

London: Mohammad Asif took three wickets in a dramatic burst either side of tea as Australia finished on 229 for nine when bad light forced an early close on the first day of the first Test against Pakistan at Lord’s here on Tuesday.

Asif took three wickets for no runs in seven balls on his way to a return of three for 53 in 17 overs.
Meanwhile teenage left-arm quick Mohammad Aamer, his new ball-partner, made the early inroads on his way to a haul of three for 66 in 18 overs.
Australia’s …

London: Shahid Afridi leads a mercurial Pakistan into the first Test at Lord’s today aiming for a milestone the team has not achieved in almost 15 years: beat Australia in a Test match.

It was in 1995 when Pakistan last defeated Australia at the Sydney cricket ground (SCG) and since then, lady luck has eluded them. Moreover, the Australians have continuously beaten Pakistan since 1999, winning 12 Tests on the trot. The best chance coming Pakistan way to halt the Australian winning streak was in January 2010 when they failed to …

Kabul: The death of another Australian soldier will not change the country’s commitment to the war in Afghanistan, the prime minister said Saturday.

Julia Gillard made the remarks after the announcement of the death of 23-year-old Pvt.
Nathan Bewes, the sixth Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan in just over a month.
Bewes was killed just before midnight Friday by a homemade bomb. A second soldier was wounded.
Gillard, in Darwin to attend the funeral of another soldier who died in a helicopter crash last month in Afghanistan, said the losses increased the …