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Financial crisis helps define Rudd in first year as Australian PM

SYDNEY (AFP) — One year into the job, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's popularity is riding higher than ever as he uses the global financial crisis to redefine his leadership, analysts said Sunday. The 51-year-old former diplomat Monday marks the first anniversary of his centre-left Labor Party's landslide win with a personal approval rating of 70 percent, according to a Nielsen poll. This is higher than any level the bespectacled father-of-three who speaks fluent Mandarin reached d...

Australian company fined for underpaying Indonesian worker

A South Australian fresh produce trader has avoided legal action, despite being found to have underpaid an Indonesian worker by more than $US42,000 over nine years. The Indonesian man, who worked for the trader at a market in the South Australian capital, Adelaide, recently complained of his underpayment to the Workplace Ombudsman and was then threatened with dismissal. The company has escaped court action but has been ordered to pay back the money. Ombudsman spokesman Craig Bildste...