Australia PM appoints new Foreign Minister

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard appointed former state leader Bob Carr to be the nation's new foreign minister on Friday, reshuffling her ministry following a leadership vote earlier this week. Carr was highly regarded premier of the most populous New South Wales state for a decade until he retired from politics in late 2005, and was seen as a driving force in Sydney's success in hosting the 2000 Olympics. Gillard said Carr would fill a casual vacancy in parliament's upper house Senate and would then be sworn in as foreign minister to replace Kevin Rudd. Gillard stamped her authority over the government on Monday when she easily defeated Rudd, the man she ousted as prime minister in 2010, in a leadership vote.