David McTaggart, a retired Canadian building contractor, galvanised the international environmental movement in 1972 when he sailed his yacht into the French nuclear-testing site at Mururoa Atoll. He was reportedly beaten up by French agents for his trouble. As chairman of Greenpeace International, he helped put the environmental group on a business footing, building up its membership, particularly in Europe, for campaigns to save the whales and block the production of toxic wastes. Gianfranco Bologna, a spokesman in Italy for the World Wildlife Fund, says he is saddened by the news. David McTaggart was 68.
Asthma medications face tests.
The election campaign is coming as Australian retailers brace themselves for massive impacts from last month's terror attack in New York. The Anglican Church in Melbourne has attacked Australia's treatment of asylum seekers, with some members of the clergy calling for a royal commission.