W O R L D

Shutters down on another Oz college
Melbourne, June 3
A vocational college announced its closure here today, a move that could impact hundreds of overseas students, including Indians, in search of permanent residency in Australia, as international students flayed the government for trimming the skilled occupation list.

International students hold a rally against the new immigration rules in Sydney on Thursday. — PTI

Over 60,000 evacuated as Phet threatens Pak
Karachi, June 3 More than 60,000 people living on Pakistan’s Arabian sea coastline were evacuated and emergency declared in Sindh and Balochistan provinces, as tropical cyclone Phet closed in on the country.

Family feud linked to UK cabbie’s killing spree
London, June 3
A bitter family row and a petty fight on a taxi rank led cab driver Derrick Bird to go on mass killing spree in county of Cumbria, leaving at least 12 dead and 25 injured before he turned the gun on himself in one of the worst mass killings in British history.

Pak blames India for violating Indus treaty
Islamabad, June 3
Pakistan today blamed India for violating the 1960 Indus Water Basin Treaty on distribution of river waters and threatened to take the matter to international arbitration as provided in the treaty sponsored by the World Bank.

Over 200 bodies found in Russia mass grave
Moscow, June 3
More than 200 bodies have been unearthed from a mass grave in Russia’s Far East believed to date back to the totalitarian rule of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, local officials have said.

War may break out any moment: N Korea
Geneva, June 3
A North Korean diplomat said today that tensions on the Korean peninsula were running so high over the sinking of a South Korean warship that “war may break out at any moment”.

Shutters down on another Oz college

Melbourne, June 3
A vocational college announced its closure here today, a move that could impact hundreds of overseas students, including Indians, in search of permanent residency in Australia, as international students flayed the government for trimming the skilled occupation list.

Melbourne-based National Academy of Further Education and Training (NAFET) today announced its closure affecting hundreds of overseas students across the state, The Australian newspaper reported today.

New changes to skilled occupational migration list announced by the government recently has lead to pressures on the vocational education providers who were selling qualifications like hairdressing and cookery clubbed with permanent residency dream.

NAFET imparted courses in hairdressing, community services and graphics. The closure could dent the prospects of many migrants, including Indians, seeking permanent residency in Australia.

The top organisation, Australian Council for Private Education and Training, was advised today that the administrators, Worrells, had been called in at NAFET.

“We have contacted the administrators to seek student information so that we may begin the process of transferring students to a comparable course at a nearby institution as soon as possible,” ACPET chief executive Andrew Smith was quoted as saying by the daily.

Worried over their future prospects, hundreds of international students, including Indians, held a peaceful rally in Sydney today against Australia’s revised skilled occupation list (SOL), which excludes jobs like hairdressing and cookery.

The rally was from Sydney Town Hall to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship offices near Central Railway Station.

In a statement, Australian Federation of International Students (AFIS), the organiser of the rally, said the students were upset over the government’s amendments to the skilled occupation list.

The AFIS said it believed that existing transitionary measures were unfair to students who have acted in good faith in the pursuit of Australian education to become skilled independent migrants. — PTI

Over 60,000 evacuated as Phet threatens Pak

Agatha toll 184 Guatemala City: The death toll from tropical storm Agatha's passage over Central America has reached 184. Guatemala's Conred emergency management office said the casualties stood at 156 dead, 87 injured and 90 missing. The official report also notes that 135,394 people were evacuated, including 36,149 who are being housed in more than 300 shelters.

Karachi, June 3
More than 60,000 people living on Pakistan’s Arabian sea coastline were evacuated and emergency declared in Sindh and Balochistan provinces, as tropical cyclone Phet closed in on the country.

Thousands of people were moved out from vulnerable villages along the coast in the Sindh province and another half a a million could be affected in neighbouring Balochistan, if the cyclone smashes into Pakistan, officials said.

President Asif Ali Zardari directed the armed forces and all government departments to be on full alert to tackle the possible fallout of the cyclone Phet, which has weakened over Oman and is now moving towards Pakistan’s coastline.

“Cyclone Phet has almost reached the Oman coast and could recurve towards Pakistan’s coastline in the next 24-36 hours,” Met officials here said.

The authorities said hospitals have been put on alert and medicines and equipment stockpiled to meet any emergency. Officials said tinned rations had also been kept ready for emergency situation.

Met forecasters said they expect that the cyclone would unleash a fierce storm resulting in heavy rain with gale force winds which could uproot trees and powerlines.

They said that they did not expect the cyclone to be severe on the port city of Karachi, but the storm could wreck havoc in the villages on the Sindh and Balochistan coastline. Sindh officials said they had moved out more than 60,000 people from the coastal villages to relief camps in the hinterland. — PTI

Family feud linked to UK cabbie’s killing spree

London, June 3
A bitter family row and a petty fight on a taxi rank led cab driver Derrick Bird to go on mass killing spree in county of Cumbria, leaving at least 12 dead and 25 injured before he turned the gun on himself in one of the worst mass killings in British history.

The police is today piecing together events that led to Bird embarking on a rampage that began near Whitehaven and ended when he committed suicide.

The police is exploring the theory that Bird was pushed over the edge by a row with his twin brother David over family finances. The investigation is likely to focus on claims that 52-year-old grandfather had been embroiled in a furious feud over his family’s financial affairs.

The killings, the worst bloodbath since Dunblane in 1996, has prompted calls for tightening Britain’s gun laws.

Bird gunned down his twin brother, David, and a local solicitor, Kevin Commons, at the start of a three-hour massacre across rural Cumbria, hitherto synonymous with the beauty and tranquility of rural Britain, the land of William Wordsworth and the home of England’s most celebrated national park.

Bird, who had armed himself with two weapons, also targeted colleagues with whom he had a row the previous night over stealing fares.

He had warned them: “There’s going to be a rampage tomorrow,” before returning to the cab rank in Whitehaven the following day where he shot three taxi drivers, two of them fatally. The violence was so widespread and indiscriminate that police had to use a helicopter to find some bodies. There is still the possibility that not all Bird’s victims have been found.

The police has confirmed that Bird had held a gun licence for 20 years. More than 100 detectives are working on the sprawling inquiry. They have already identified 30 separate crime scenes.

With a shotgun and a .22 rifle pointing from the window of his Citroen Picasso taxi, he went on a 32-km terror drive, killing another nine at random before shooting himself.

A further 25 people were injured with eight still in hospital today, three of them in a critical condition.

His youngest victim was today named as Jamie Clark. The 23-year-old estate agent was driving through Seascale on his way back to his office when Bird opened fire.

Solicitor Commons, who was believed to work for the Birds, was among the dead. The situation was apparently compounded by what Bird saw as taxi driver rivals “touting” unfairly for fares in Whitehaven.

After Tuesday night’s row at the taxi rank, Bird is understood to have gone home and threatened to take his gun and shoot someone, only to be stopped by a friend. He then went to a local hospital in a furious mood and asked for treatment from staff before being turned away. — PTI

Pak blames India for violating Indus treaty
Tribune News Service

Islamabad, June 3
Pakistan today blamed India for violating the 1960 Indus Water Basin Treaty on distribution of river waters and threatened to take the matter to international arbitration as provided in the treaty sponsored by the World Bank.

“We have reservations over controversial constructions on rivers given to Pakistan as India is overstepping the specifications allowed by the treaty,” foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters at weekly briefing here.

Basit was asked to comment on reports that the Pakistani team of the Indus Water Commission (IWC) that returned on Wednesday from New Delhi after meetings with the Indian counterpart has said it was ‘dissatisfied’ with the information provided to it by the Indian team about hydel projects it is building in Jammu and Kashmir.

Indus Water Commissioner Syed Jamaat Ali Shah told reporters here that the Indian side did not provide the required details about Kishen Ganga and other dams being built on the Chenab, Jhelum and Indus without taking into consideration Islamabad’s objections to the projects.

Basit said if India did not comply with the regulations of the water treaty, Pakistan might move the international arbitrary court.

Over 200 bodies found in Russia mass grave

Moscow, June 3
More than 200 bodies have been unearthed from a mass grave in Russia’s Far East believed to date back to the totalitarian rule of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, local officials have said.

The mass grave was discovered outside the Pacific port city of Vladivostok by workers building a road for the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, the city government said in a statement.

“Volunteers have discovered more than 10 plots containing sorrowful finds. More than 1.5 tonnes of remains have been extracted. Such a quantity today indicates that more than 200 people were buried here,” it said.

The statement did not say whether the dead were victims of Stalin’s purges, but investigators cited by the ITAR-TASS news agency said they were either executed by Stalin’s secret police or died in transit to prison camps.

Workers building the road stumbled upon the bodies last winter but officials held off on investigating the mass grave until last week as they waited for warmer weather in the region. — AFP

War may break out any moment: N Korea

Geneva, June 3
A North Korean diplomat said today that tensions on the Korean peninsula were running so high over the sinking of a South Korean warship that “war may break out at any moment”. Ri Jang-Gon, deputy permanent representative for North Korea at the United Nations in Geneva, has blamed the “grave situation” on South Korea and the US.

International investigators on May 20 announced their findings that a North Korean submarine had fired a torpedo to sink the warship, in what has been described as the most serious act of aggression from the North since the Korean War 60 years ago.

Forty six South Korean crew died when the warship sank near the disputed Yellow Sea border with the North in March in mysterious circumstances after a reported explosion.

South Korea has announced a series of reprisals including cutting off trade with its communist neighbour. The North has denied involvement, and responded to the South's reprisals with threats of war. — AFP