Features
![Australia's treasurer, Wayne Swan, delivers his first Budget as the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, looks on. [AAP]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/base/aust_budget_130508_aap.jpg "Australia's treasurer, Wayne Swan, delivers his first Budget as the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, looks on. [AAP]")
Australia's treasurer, Wayne Swan, delivers his first Budget as the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, looks on. [AAP]
Australia's Budget: 2008
14 May 2008
Australia's federal treasurer, Wayne Swan, has handed down his first Budget which identifies spending cuts totalling $7.3 billion in 2008-09 and helps set up a forecast surplus of $21.7 billion.
![[AFP]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/thumbnail/asia_foodcrisis_afp_feature.jpg "[AFP]")
The Food Price Crisis
13 May 2008
The United Nations has described the threat of rising global food prices as a silent tsunami which threatens to push 100 million people into hunger.
![The ADB has been providing loans and technical assistance to aid in the economic and social development in Asian and Pacific countries since 1966. [Reuters]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/thumbnail/phils_adb_rtr_050508.jpg "The ADB has been providing loans and technical assistance to aid in the economic and social development in Asian and Pacific countries since 1966. [Reuters]")
Sceptical response to ADB funding shortage
8 May 2008
The Asian Development Bank is the latest organisation raising the red flag over the global food crisis.
![Indonesian President Suharto announces his resignation on 21 May, 1998, following 32 years of power. [AFP]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/thumbnail/suharto_resign_afp_feature.jpg "Indonesian President Suharto announces his resignation on 21 May, 1998, following 32 years of power. [AFP]")
The Fall of Suharto: A Retrospective
17 April 2008
May 2008 marks ten years since the fall of the late Indonesian president and dictator Suharto.
![Indonesia has lost 72 per cent of its forests, despite a crackdown on the flow of timber within Indonesia. [Reuters]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/thumbnail/indon_logging_rtr_130206.jpg "Indonesia has lost 72 per cent of its forests, despite a crackdown on the flow of timber within Indonesia. [Reuters]")
Jakarta demands Malaysia block illegal loggers
10 April 2008
Indonesia's forestry minister, MS Kaban, has accused Malaysian companies of buying illegal timber to fuel the booming furniture industry.
![The many flags and posters of Malaysia's political parties cover the landscape leading up to polling day. [Reuters]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/thumbnail/malay_elex_intro_rtr_feat.jpg "The many flags and posters of Malaysia's political parties cover the landscape leading up to polling day. [Reuters]")
Malaysia Decides 2008
8 March 2008
Malaysia's political landscape has seen its biggest shift in decades, with voters giving opposition parties power in five of the country's 13 states.
![Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the historic apology. [Getty]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/thumbnail/aus_rudd_sorry_getty_150208.jpg "Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the historic apology. [Getty]")
Apology to Australia's Aborigines
13 February 2008
Eleven years after the Australian Human Rights Commission recommended a formal apology to Australian aborigines, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said 'sorry'.
![[AFP]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/thumbnail/china_ssummit_afp_150606.jpg "[AFP]")
China on the Global Stage
11 February 2008
China's economic progress in recent years has come with a steady expansion in its cultural and diplomatic influence globally, especially in the developing world.
![Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith shakes hands with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a press briefing at the State Department in Washington, DC. [AFP]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/thumbnail/aus_smith_afp_290108.jpg "Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith shakes hands with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a press briefing at the State Department in Washington, DC. [AFP]")
Australia's foreign affairs
7 February 2008
Australia's new Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has started his term with visits to Asia and the United States.
![Indonesian soldiers carry the coffin of Indonesia's former president Suharto's body during an official military sendoff at his private residence in Jakarta. [AFP]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/thumbnail/indon_soldiers_afp_280108.jpg "Indonesian soldiers carry the coffin of Indonesia's former president Suharto's body during an official military sendoff at his private residence in Jakarta. [AFP]")
The Suharto era: an Australian perspective
28 January 2008
Indonesia's former President Suharto, the man who towered over Indonesian politics for 32 years, has been laid to rest.
![Premier Wen Jiabao (R) watches as rescue workers evacuate a survivor in Beichuan, southwest Sichuan province. [Reuters]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/gallery/china_quakewen_afp_160508.jpg "Premier Wen Jiabao (R) watches as rescue workers evacuate a survivor in Beichuan, southwest Sichuan province. [Reuters]")
![Thousands of people are still buried under layers of rubble and debris, five days after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake devastated south-west China. [Getty Images]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/gallery/china_quake_getty_150508.jpg "Thousands of people are still buried under layers of rubble and debris, five days after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake devastated south-west China. [Getty Images]")
![Debris strewn at Badi Chaupar, one of the sites of a series of bomb blasts which tore through crowded markets. [AFP]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/gallery/india_bomb_afp_140508.jpg "Debris strewn at Badi Chaupar, one of the sites of a series of bomb blasts which tore through crowded markets. [AFP]")
![Chinese residents sleep out on the streets for fear of aftershocks in Sichuan's capital, Chengdu. [Reuters]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/gallery/china_quakenite_rtr_0508.jpg "Chinese residents sleep out on the streets for fear of aftershocks in Sichuan's capital, Chengdu. [Reuters]")
![Hundreds of office workers stand outside after their office buildings in Beijing. [Reuters]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/gallery/china_chengduquake_rtr_1205.jpg "Hundreds of office workers stand outside after their office buildings in Beijing. [Reuters]")
![Aid from the United Nations and Burma's neighbours has begun arriving. [Reuters]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/gallery/burma_aidarrives_rtr_080508.jpg "Aid from the United Nations and Burma's neighbours has begun arriving. [Reuters]")
