Australia's former leader Kevin Rudd ousted Prime Minister Julia Gillard as Labor chief in a dramatic internal ballot Wednesday, deposing the country's first female premier as the party fights desperately to head off defeat in September elections.

The embattled Gillard -- who vowed to quit politics in September if she lost -- called the vote after a day of internal party maneuvering to dump her in favor of her arch-rival and predecessor, whom she had ruthlessly deposed in 2010.

Most fossil fuels must remain in the ground because burning them will unleash changes which will "challenge the existence of our society", a new Australian government agency report warned Monday.

The Climate Commission study found that the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, a key Australian export, represented the most significant contributor to climate change.

The Dalai Lama waded into Australia's bitter gender war Thursday, saying his successor as the spiritual leader of the Tibetans could be a woman.

"If the circumstances are such that a female Dalai Lama is more useful, then automatically a female Dalai Lama will come," he told a press conference in Sydney to launch a 10-day tour of Australia.

Thirteen people were confirmed dead and dozens missing after a suspected people-smuggling boat sank off Australia's remote Christmas Island, authorities said Sunday.

Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said aerial surveillance of a debris field of wood and life jackets had spotted 13 bodies and a full-scale hunt was under way for survivors involving 15 ships and 10 aircraft.

Mandawuy Yunupingu, the lead singer of Aboriginal band Yothu Yindi who helped to build bridges between Australia's indigenous and white communities, has died of kidney disease aged 56, it was announced Monday.

Yunupingu, a musician, songwriter and campaigner whose surname translates as "rock that will stand against anything", died Sunday night at his home in Eastern Arnhem Land in Australia's north.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was forced to dodge a flying sandwich for the second time this month Thursday when someone's salami lunch was flung at her during a school visit.

Gillard was greeting children at Lyneham High School in Canberra when the sandwich narrowly missed her.

An Australian has been jailed for four-and-a-half years in Saudi Arabia on terrorism-related offences, with his lawyer vowing to appeal what he claims was an unfair trial.

Shayden Thorne has been held in a jail outside Riyadh for almost 18 months, reportedly after a laptop, which his family says he borrowed from a mosque, was allegedly found to have terrorist material on it.

Britain's Guardian newspaper on Monday launched a new online edition in Australia where print media is struggling, pledging an independent perspective and a multimedia approach.

The Guardian, the world's third most read newspaper website, unveiled the new site with an exclusive interview with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and a pledge it will operate without a paywall.

Indonesian police said Tuesday they have arrested an Iranian-born Australian resident suspected of heading a people-smuggling network that spanned the country.

Mohammad Abdi, 36, was detained at an apartment in Jakarta on Monday along with two other Iranians, said Nani Rusiani, a senior officer in the police's anti-smuggling taskforce.

A 5.9-magnitude quake struck off a remote area of the Solomons Islands Friday, but no tsunami warning was issued for the Pacific nation and a seismologist said there was no cause for concern.

The United States Geological Survey said the tremor, at a depth of 13 kilometers (eight miles), struck in the Santa Cruz Islands at 06:43 GMT about 93 kilometers southwest of Lata.