{"id":6229,"date":"2013-06-27T06:21:40","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T06:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=6229"},"modified":"2013-06-27T06:42:41","modified_gmt":"2013-06-27T06:42:41","slug":"australian-minister-sorry-for-mandela-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=6229","title":{"rendered":"Australian minister apologises for premature announcement of Mandela’s death"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gary<\/a>
Gary Gray<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An Australian politician has apologized to South Africa’s high commissioner for incorrectly announcing that Nelson Mandela had died.<\/p>\n

Resources Minister Gary Gray issued a statement Thursday saying he was “deeply sorry” for wrongly telling guests at a Minerals Council of Australia dinner at Parliament House on Wednesday that the anti-apartheid leader was dead.<\/p>\n

Gray said he had mistakenly shared what he “thought was reliable advice.”<\/p>\n

Mandela is in critical condition at a hospital. The 94-year-old former president was admitted to the Pretoria hospital on June 8 to be treated for what the government said was a recurring lung infection.<\/p>\n

Mandela was jailed for 27 years as a result of inciting violence to overthrow the government and was freed in 1990 and became South Africa’s first black president in 1994.<\/p>\n

Also in Australia Kevin Rudd returned as prime minister of Australia on Thursday, three years after being replaced in the office by his then-deputy Julia Gillard.<\/p>\n

Rudd challenged Gillard for leadership of the Labor Party on Wednesday and won a 57-45 vote among fellow Labor members of parliament.<\/p>\n

In the Australian parliamentary system, the leader of the governing party assumes the position of prime minister and on Thursday morning, in Canberra, Rudd was sworn in for a second time.<\/p>\n

Gillard resigned after the party vote on Wednesday night and announced she will leave politics.<\/p>\n

A major factor in Gillard’s demise — and in Rudd’s Phoenix-like return — is the election Australia has to hold by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

Under Gillard’s leadership, Labor was facing overwhelming defeat, according to opinion polls. But the same polls show a Rudd-led Labor Party would fare much better at the ballot box. – SAPA\/AP\/CNN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Australian politician has apologized to South Africa’s high commissioner for incorrectly announcing that Nelson Mandela had died. Resources Minister Gary Gray issued a statement Thursday saying he was “deeply sorry” for wrongly telling guests at a Minerals Council of Australia dinner at Parliament House on Wednesday that the anti-apartheid leader was dead. Gray said … Continue reading “Australian minister apologises for premature announcement of Mandela’s death”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,123],"tags":[837,3519,327],"class_list":["post-6229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world","tag-australia","tag-gary-gray","tag-mandela"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/garygray.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6229"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6232,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6229\/revisions\/6232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}