Associated Press: Australia should have ratified the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions years ago instead of becoming isolated on the issue along with the United States, two former Cabinet officials said. Peter Costello, who was former Prime Minister John Howard’s deputy in the Liberal Party which ruled Australia for 11 years, said in a television interview broadcast Monday that Australia should have ratified the U.N. agreement when it was first signed in 1997. "The time …