BREAKING NEWS

Australian PM apologizes to kids shipped from Britain to colonies

Australian PM apologizes

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has apologized to thousands of impoverished British children shipped to Australia in past centuries with the promise of a better life, only to suffer abuse and neglect thousands of miles from home. At a ceremony in the Australian capital of Canberra on Monday, Rudd apologized for his country's role in the migration and extended condolences to the 7,000 survivors of the program who still live in Australia. The apology comes one day after the British government said Prime Minister Gordon Brown would apologize for child migrant programs that sent as many as 150,000 poor British children as young as three to Australia, Canada and other former colonies over three and a half centuries.