- Ronaldo scores 133rd Portugal goal in Nations League win over Poland
- 40 nations contributing to UN Lebanon peacekeeping force condemn 'attacks'
- Eight dead as heavy rain thrashes Brazil after long drought
- Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time
- Morocco crush Central African Republic, Guirassy scores hat-trick
- Dupont scores quickfire hat-trick on Toulouse Top 14 return
- Ronaldo scores in Portugal's Nations League win as Spain sink Denmark
- Interim boss Carsley has not applied for England job
- Mets hurler Senga ready to take on Dodgers in game one of NL Championship Series
- Ronaldo on target again as Portugal defeat Poland in Nations League
- Guardians rip Tigers 7-3 to advance in MLB playoffs
- AFP, BBC win top French war reporting awards
- Carsley goes back to basics as humbled England face Finland
- Alex Salmond: the man who took Scotland to the brink of independence
- Scotland's former leader Alex Salmond dies aged 69: party
- UN warns of catastrophe as Israel fights a two-front war
- Croatia extend Scotland's losing streak
- South Africa, New Zealand boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes
- 'Very challenging': Israel faces Hezbollah in tricky terrain
- Farrell begins to feel at home as Racing 92 beat Toulon
- South Africa boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes with Bangladesh win
- Samson ton powers India to T20 series sweep after record total
- Djokovic to face Sinner in Shanghai final with 100th title in sight
- UN peacekeepers to remain in Lebanon: spokesman
- Pro-Conquest film fuels debate in Mexico over colonial legacy
- Samson ton powers India to record 297-6 in Bangladesh T20
- New Zealand enjoy perfect start to America's Cup defence over Britain
- Pogacar emulates icon Coppi with fourth straight Il Lombardia triumph
- UN warns against 'catastrophic' regional conflict
- New Zealand crush Ineos Britannia in America's Cup opener
- Djokovic to face Sinner in blockbuster Shanghai Masters final
- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- Sri Lanka seeks to match success in W.Indies T20s
- Sinner reaches Shanghai final, will end year number one
- China-EU EV tariff talks in Brussels end with 'major differences': Beijing
- Sabalenka downs Gauff in three sets to reach Wuhan final
- Israel warns south Lebanon residents to 'not return'
- Sinner tames Machac to reach Shanghai Masters final
- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- Hezbollah fires at Israel as wars rage on Yom Kippur
- Analysts warn more detail needed on new China economic measures
- China tees up fresh spending to boost ailing economy
- China says will issue special bonds to boost ailing economy
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Dodgers drop Padres 2-0 to advance in MLB playoffs
- Alexei Navalny wrote he knew he would die in prison in new memoir
- Last-minute legal ruling allows betting on US election
- Despite hurricanes, Floridians refuse to leave 'paradise'
Australia's new leader overcame crash, party coup rumblings
Anthony Albanese, Australia's newly elected prime minister, was rushed to hospital last year after a four-wheel-drive slammed into his car.
"I thought that was it," he told a local radio station.
At the time, his Labor Party trailed behind the conservative government in opinion polls, struggling to cut through during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the near-death experience changed his life, Albanese told media.
In its wake, the opposition leader, 59, recovered on all fronts: overcoming serious injury, shrugging off rumblings of a party leadership coup and shedding 18 kilograms (40 pounds) -- an image revamp that raised some eyebrows.
His suits went from baggy to tailored, his bookish wire-framed glasses switched for "Mad Men"-style black full-rims.
Vitally, though, he was able to pull ahead of the country's ruling conservative coalition in the polls and carry his party to victory.
- Public housing -
Albanese, nicknamed "Albo", was elected to parliament in 1996, and in his first speech thanked his mother, Maryanne Ellery, for raising him in tough circumstances.
The pair lived in public housing in Sydney during Albanese's childhood and his single mother often struggled to make ends meet.
"It says a lot about this country," he said on the eve of his election, voice cracking with emotion. "That someone from those beginnings... can stand before you today, hoping to be elected prime minister of this country tomorrow."
The aspiring politician joined the left-wing Labor Party in high school and later became deeply involved in student politics at the University of Sydney.
- 'Found each other' -
He was the first person in his family to go to university and has said his working-class roots shaped his worldview.
Albanese says his mother, a Catholic, decided to take his father's name.
"I was raised being told that he had died. That's a tough decision. It says something about the pressure that was placed on women," he said.
His only child, Nathan, was born in 2000, inspiring Albanese to meet his own father with only a photo to help track him down.
The pair were able to reconcile in his father's Italian hometown, Barletta, before Carlo Albanese died in 2014.
"The last conversation we had was that he was glad that we had found each other," the politician told ABC.
In the 26 years since Albanese was first elected to parliament, Labor has only held government for five years -– during the tumultuous terms of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
Albanese first became a minister after Rudd's 2007 election victory and rose through the Labor ranks, finally taking over the opposition leadership after the party's crushing loss in 2019.
- Stumbles -
The Labor leader stumbled at times on the campaign trail, including forgetting the country's unemployment and main lending rates.
"Everyone will make a mistake in their life. The question is whether you learn from it. This government keep repeating the same mistakes," he said.
B.Finley--AMWN