Awwal 24, 1432 H/April 28, 2011, SPA -- Australia's foreign minister Kevin Rudd said the Commonwealth has upheld Fiji's suspension from the 53-nation bloc over its failure to embrace political reform, AP reported. Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth in Sept. 2009 when military ruler Commodore Frank Bainimarama, who seized power in a 2006 coup, refused to bow to demands to hold elections. Rudd said Thursday that a meeting of the nine-member Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group in London had agreed that the South Pacific island nation would continue to be frozen out. Rudd told reporters in London that the Commonwealth had seen "no measurable change whatsoever by Fiji's military regime." -- SPA
