
-
Video shows last minutes before Gaza aid workers' deaths, Red Crescent says
-
Zverev 'mentally' affected by Australian Open defeat
-
Rahul guides Delhi to third straight IPL victory
-
Arsenal draw at Everton to edge Liverpool closer to Premier League title
-
Senate Republicans move forward with Trump tax cuts
-
Sinner regrets 'unfair' doping ban as he prepares return to courts
-
Isa hat-trick powers Toulon into Champions Cup quarters in Saracens thriller
-
'Hang tough, it won't be easy': Trump defiant on tariffs
-
Zelensky slams 'weak' US reply to Russian strike on his hometown
-
Musiala hamstring tear compounds Bayern's injury crisis
-
Selfies, goals and cheers at South Africa's grannies World Cup
-
Tsunoda frustrated with 15th in Red Bull qualifying debut
-
Rain forecast adds new element to combustible Japanese GP
-
Ukraine mourns 18 killed in Russian missile strike
-
Germany's Mueller to leave Bayern Munich after 25 years
-
India's Modi clinches defence, energy deals in Sri Lanka
-
Verstappen snatches 'special' pole for Japan GP with lap record
-
Cambodia hails opening of naval base renovated by China
-
Verstappen snatches 'insane' pole for Japan GP in track record
-
Thousands rally for South Korea's impeached ex-president Yoon
-
New Zealand hammer Pakistan by 43 runs to sweep ODI series 3-0
-
Myanmar quake death toll passes 3,300: state media
-
India's Modi in Sri Lanka for defence and energy deals
-
'No one to return to': Afghans fear Pakistan deportation
-
Fractious Republicans seek unity over Trump tax cuts
-
America's passion for tariffs rarely pays off, economists warn
-
Trump's global tariff takes effect in dramatic US trade shift
-
North Korea's Kim fires new sniper rifle while visiting troops
-
Norris fastest in McLaren 1-2 as fires again disrupt Japan GP practice
-
Vital European defence startups still facing hurdles
-
'I don't have a voice in my head': Life with no inner monologue
-
Pakistan chasing 265 to win shortened third New Zealand ODI
-
US soybeans, energy: Who is hit by China's tariff retaliation?
-
Green, Sengun lift Rockets over Thunder, Celtics clinch record
-
Ariya downs defending champ Korda to advance at LPGA Match Play
-
Ovechkin ties Gretzky's all-time record of 894 NHL goals
-
Under-pressure Doohan vows to learn from Japanese GP smash
-
Harman goes four clear at Texas Open
-
McLaughlin-Levrone, Thomas cruise to wins at opening Grand Slam Track
-
Russian strike kills 18 in Ukrainian president's home city
-
US cardinal defrocked for sex abuse dies at 94
-
Lula admits 'still a lot to do' for Indigenous Brazilians
-
England, Germany and Spain on mark in women's Nations League
-
Bayern's Musiala to miss Inter first leg with injury
-
Judge orders return to US of Salvadoran man deported in error
-
'Class' Freeman eases Northampton past Clermont and into Champions Cup quarters
-
Amadou of Malian blind music duo dies aged 70
-
Freeman hat-trick eases Northampton into Champions Cup quarters with Clermont win
-
Defiant Trump dismisses stock market's tariff plunge
-
Musiala injury sours Bayern win at Augsburg
BCC | 0.85% | 95.44 | $ | |
NGG | -5.25% | 65.93 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.13% | 22.29 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.7% | 22.83 | $ | |
BTI | -5.17% | 39.86 | $ | |
RIO | -6.88% | 54.67 | $ | |
AZN | -7.98% | 68.46 | $ | |
JRI | -7.19% | 11.96 | $ | |
RBGPF | 100% | 69.02 | $ | |
BP | -10.43% | 28.38 | $ | |
BCE | 0.22% | 22.71 | $ | |
SCS | -0.56% | 10.68 | $ | |
RYCEF | -18.79% | 8.25 | $ | |
RELX | -6.81% | 48.16 | $ | |
VOD | -10.24% | 8.5 | $ | |
GSK | -6.79% | 36.53 | $ |

Australia to boost defence force by nearly a third
Australia will boost its defence forces by some 30 percent by 2040, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Thursday, describing it as the country's largest military build-up in peacetime.
The force would grow by 18,500 personnel to 80,000 over the 18-year period, at a cost of some Aus$38 billion (US$27 billion), the prime minister said at an army barracks in Brisbane.
Morrison, who is expected to call a general election in May, told a news conference it was the "biggest increase in the size of our defence forces in peacetime in Australian history".
He said the military build-up was a recognition by his government of the "threats and the environment that we face as a country, as a liberal democracy in the Indo-Pacific".
The Australian leader said some of the new troops would support a future nuclear-powered submarine fleet, promised under a new Australia-Britain-US defence alliance, AUKUS.
Australia says it plans to arm the submarines with conventional weapons but has yet to decide on the details of the programme, including whether to opt for a fleet based on US or British nuclear-powered attack submarines.
Forged at a time of growing Chinese influence in the Pacific region, the AUKUS alliance would make Australia the only non-nuclear weapons power with nuclear-powered submarines, capable of travelling long distances without surfacing.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the build-up of forces, to be focused on uniformed troops, would provide a credible deterrent from expansionist military threats.
- 'Lessons of history' -
Beyond submarines, the new forces would be deployed in areas including space, cyber operations, naval assets, and land and sea-based autonomous vehicles, Dutton said.
"It is absolutely necessary," he said, invoking Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent invasion of Ukraine.
"People who believe that President Putin's only ambition is for the Ukraine don't understand the history that our military leaders understand."
The defence minister reiterated warnings about the strategic threat to Australia in the Asia-Pacific region, where China is flexing its increased power.
"If people think that the ambitions within the Indo-Pacific are restricted just to Taiwan and there won't be knock-on impacts if we don't provide a deterrent effect and work closely with our colleagues and with our allies, then they don't understand the lessons of history," Dutton said.
Australia's conservative coalition government has been brandishing its defence credentials in the run-up to the election, with a string of polls showing the opposition Labor party ahead.
But the government has been criticised for being too slow to deploy troops to help people hit by a near two-week flooding disaster across eastern Australia that has killed 21 people.
Morrison said Thursday that the deployment of navy, army and air force personnel across the flood-damaged east coast would grow to 5,748 by the end of the day.
K.Brown--BTB