Australian opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull came under growing pressure to quit yesterday after a fake e-mail destroyed his claims that Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd used his influence to help a friend.
Turnbull admitted Rudd was off the hook over the “Utegate” affair but denied any blame over the e-mail forgery, which saw his case against the prime minister backfire badly.
“It was not created or composed by us,” Turnbull told public radio. “If it is a fake, as is apparently the case, it was a fake that was created in the Treasury.”
“Now how on earth can I be responsible for a fake that is created in [Treasurer Wayne] Swan’s department?” he asked.
Turnbull admitted Rudd now had no need to answer claims that he helped a car dealer friend who lent him a utility vehicle — or “ute” — for use in his constituency.
But he refused to apologize, insisting he had acted “reasonably and responsibly” and instead kept up his attacks on Swan, who he said “unquestionably misled the parliament.”
“The evidence against Mr Swan is overwhelming, we must pursue this issue right to the end,” Turnbull said.
Police on Monday said the e-mail, which purportedly showed a member of Rudd’s office asking a senior official to help the car dealer, had been concocted by someone in the Treasury.
The prime minister, who had come under unprecedented pressure from Turnbull, rounded on the opposition leader, urging him to explain his role in the fiasco and demanding his resignation.
“Mr Turnbull’s integrity I believe has been fundamentally undermined and it is important therefore that Mr Turnbull at least today do the right thing and resign,” Rudd told reporters.
Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said Turnbull, a millionaire former banker who has led the opposition Liberal Party since last September, had gambled and lost.
“He has over-reached. He’s shown a classic character flaw, a judgement flaw and he should resign,” Tanner said. “He was convinced he had a smoking gun and now it’s blown up in his face.”
Turnbull was forced to deny that he passed on the e-mail to media, while shadow treasurer Joe Hockey admitted he once employed the Treasury official at the center of the row — and also tried to call him on Saturday.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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