World IN BRIEF : AUSTRALIA : Party Backs Hawke; Challenger Resigns
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Prime Minister Bob Hawke fended off a leadership challenge from his top deputy, Treasurer Paul Keating, who resigned his Cabinet post immediately afterward. A caucus meeting of the governing Labor Party’s parliamentarians voted in favor of Hawke 66-44. Hawke, 61, had been expected to win the vote after a weekend of heavy campaigning by both men, but anything less than a 20-vote margin almost certainly would have left him politically crippled. Keating, 47, resigned just as he had promised to do if he lost.
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