Australia's opposition Liberal/National coalition is “back in business” and ready to govern, its leader Tony Abbott told an ecstatic crowd Saturday as the nation faced a hung parliament.“The Liberal and National parties are back in business, we stand ready to govern, and we stand ready to offer the Australian people stable, predictable and competent government,” he said after nailbiting elections. The conservative leader told a wildly cheering crowd in Sydney that while no clear winner had emerged from the polls, the ruling Labour Party could not govern with a minority in parliament.

It was 20 years ago this month that Saddam Hussein, then the unchallenged ruler of Iraq, invaded Kuwait. What ensued was the first great international crisis of the post-Cold War era, one that, in less than a year, led to the liberation of Kuwait, along with the restoration of its government. This was accomplished with only modest human and economic cost to the extraordinary multi-national coalition assembled by President George H.W. Bush.