SYDNEY, Australia — Conservative Prime Minister John Howard suffered a humiliating defeat Saturday at the hands of the left-leaning opposition, whose leader has promised to immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and withdraw Australia’s combat troops from Iraq. Labor Party head Kevin Rudd’s pledges on global warming and Iraq move Australia sharply away from policies that had made Howard one of President Bush’s staunchest allies. Rudd has named global warming as his top priority, and his signing of the Kyoto Protocol will leave the U.S. as the only industrialized country not to have joined it. Rudd said he would withdraw Australia’s 550 combat troops from Iraq, leaving twice that number in mostly security roles. Howard had said all the troops will stay as long as needed. (AP) Australian Prime Minister John Howard, center, leaves the stage with his wife Janette, and son… Full Image Official figures from the Australian Electoral Commission showed Labor far in front after more than 70 percent of the ballots had been counted – with 53 percent of the vote compared to 46.7 percent for Howard’s coalition. Using those figures, an Australian Broadcasting Corp. analysis showed that Labor would […]