Australia’s Rudd appointed to UN panel

SYDNEY - Australia’s Kevin Rudd will serve with other former national leaders on a United Nations panel on global sustainability, the UN said in a statement Tuesday.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the main aim would be to help lift people out of poverty and that the panel should “think big”.

The panel includes the former prime ministers of Norway, South Korea, Japan and Mozambique.

Rudd, the first Australian premier to fail to finish a first term, was deposed in June by deputy Julia Gillard.

He is standing again in the August 21 parliamentary elections and has been promised a senior cabinet post if Labor is returned to office.

Rudd, 52, has said he could combine both roles, as the UN job would require only a few meetings a year.