Tehran, July 15
A Tupolev passenger aircraft crashed in northwestern Iran on Wednesday on its way to neighbouring country Armenia and all 168 people on board were killed, Iranian media reported.

“There were 151 adults, 2 children and 15 crew members on the plane,” Caspian Airline's representative in Yerevan Arlen Davudyan told Reuters at Yerevan Airport.

“15 or 16 minutes after take-off, the plane fell near the Iranian city Qazvin about 150 km north of Tehran,” he said, adding it was a Tu-154 aircraft. He further added that the cause of the crash was not clear and the black box had not yet been found.

The Caspian Airlines plane was carrying 153 passengers and 15 crew, Reza Jafarzadeh, a spokesman for Iran's aviation organisation, told state television. The plane was travelling from Tehran to Yerevan in Armenia.

Crying relatives gathered at Yerevan airport and on one wall a notice listed people who were on board. A senior Iranian provincial official, Sirous Saberi, said the aircraft had experienced technical problems and had tried to do an emergency landing.

Unfortunately, the plane caught fire in the air and it crashed,” he told semi-official Fars News Agency. Eight members of Iran's national junior judo team and two coaches were among the dead, the semi-official Mehr News Agency said.

“There was an explosion which left an indentation 10 metres deep in the ground. There was nothing we could do. We tried to put out the fire as best we could,” he said.

Television pictures also showed a large crater gouged into farmland with mangled pieces of metal scattered around. Smoke rose from the site as police and bystanders gathered around.

“The Tupolev plane has been totally destroyed and the corpses, unfortunately, have been totally burnt and destroyed. All on board are dead,” Qazvin police commander Massoud Jafarinasab told Fars. It is pertinent to mention here that the US planemaker Boeing Co has not exported a plane to Iran since 1979, when the US government imposed sanctions against Tehran. — Reuters

Melbourne, July 15
Many overseas students in Australia become victims of economic slavery and work for free in dangerous conditions to sustain themselves, a report said.

According to a report in 'The Age', students are made to work for free or even sometimes pay to get themselves hired by companies that are exploiting loopholes in immigration and education laws.

Even colleges, in which they enroll, charge students thousands of dollars in "placement fees" only to advertise their supply of free labour to local business.There is another condition to spend 900 hours' work experience in their enrolled course.

According to an immigration agent Karl Konrad who spoke to the publication 'The Herald', a trade in fraudulent documents has evolved, with employers and agents selling students verification that they have completed their 900 hours.

One agent revealed that he was charging $ 15,000-$20,000 for such paperwork."They are slaves," he said adding "They work for free from 11 o'clock to 11 o'clock - no breaks, no nothing. They have to pay the owner for the paperwork. They want to stay here. They will do anything." "They work with no workers' compensation, no insurance. If they are injured at work, bad luck." he said.

Konrad said the system began to go bad when the requirement for 900 hours' work was introduced. "You've got the agents and the proprietors realising there is a flood of free labour, but of course the demand for placements outstrips the supply - so even if they wanted to take all that free labour, they can't use it all." He said the colleges and employers had a dangerous amount of power over their students, who faced deportation if their enrolment was cancelled. — PTI

Beijing, July 15
China has warned its citizens in Algeria about possible attacks from Al-Qaida in retribution for a Chinese government crackdown in the Muslim region of Xinjiang, as it upped the death toll from this month's ethnic riots.

The Chinese embassy in Algeria on its website urged all Chinese people and organisations to be more aware of safety precautions and to strengthen security measures "in consideration of the situation after the July 5 incident in Urumqi".

The warning came after London risk consultancy Stirling Assynt said in a report to clients that Al-Qaida might target Chinese workers in northwest Africa, citing "chatter" after the July 5 ethnic riots in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang. “China has been reminding overseas Chinese to pay attention to their safety and enhance self protection," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters on Tuesday when asked to comment on the report. — Reuters