Melbourne, August 20
Academicians, educators and students, including Indian students, are planning to put behind the unfortunate trail of incidents, by organising a fiesta of music around Diwali to send the message that everything is fine here. And the person behind the concept and organisation of the show is a Chandigarh girl Divya Sharma.

“We plan to put up the show, including a fashion show with music from Bollywood movies, around Diwali in an our endeavour to bring to an end the unsavoury chapter that sent wrong signals worldwide,” says Divya who is pursuing her doctorate at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).

Everything is fine here, she says revealing that many locals join her classes in the Art of Living. She expects Sri Sri Ravi here in December to address a World Parliament of Religions as a key speaker,

Divya, who is an Art of Living trainer, says that ever since she came here several years ago, she has never faced any problem. “Instead some of the locals have been going out of way to help international students in general and Indians in particular.”

Many of other Indian students at the RMIT and at Australia’s second oldest university, Melbourne, corroborate her views.

A couple of Indian teachers, including Suresh Bhargav, Dean of Applied Sciences at the RMIT, also supports their view point holding that “all attacks on Indian students during June and July this year cannot be described as racial as most of them were with the intent of robbery, theft or snatchings. “We condemn all such incidents but also expect international students, especially Indian students, to exhibit mannerism and good behaviour as required of them on an alien land.”

As the controversy is refusing to die down, both the Victorian government and the Australian government, have announced a series of measures, including a possible review of the system of grant of license or permission to service providers to continue with what is being broadly described as “commercial shops”.

These commercial shops, says Ravi Bhatia, an eminent businessman of Melbourne, are a shame as two rooms in a building cannot be described as an educational institution.

Saying that there was nothing wrong in linking vocational or higher education with the Permanent Residency in Australia, he says that there is need to check those who circumvent the provisions and get 
students here.

“Why should a student travel from India to Australia spending thousands of dollars for a course in hair dressing especially when he does not know how to converse properly in Hindi and what to talk of English. The role of education consultants or agents in India also need to be regulated,” he adds.

A couple of other leading Indian businessmen also endorse his views blaming the ill-equipped private colleges, who in the lust for quick money, were luring students to Australia where the image of the Indian community has got a major set back. Why a student who comes for a professional course should seek a job as an unskilled worker at a construction site, they ask maintaining that most of the Indian students admitted to vocational courses never take to careers in the fields chosen by them.

Attraction of the course depends upon how many points it can get them to ensure their permanent residency in Australia. It is why hairdressing is opted most because it carries maximum points for it is high demand job on the Australian immigration list.

Kabul, August 20
Taliban threats kept voter turnout low in the capital and the militant south today as Afghans chose the next president for their deeply troubled country.

Militants launched scattered rocket and bomb attacks but no major assaults.

Turnout, particularly in the violent south, will be key to the vote's success in the country's second direct presidential election. Taliban militants have pledged to disrupt the vote and circulated threats that those who cast ballots will be punished.

An Associated Press reporter who visited six polling centres in Kabul said he saw no lines at any of them. An AP reporter in Kandahar, the south's largest city and the Taliban spiritual birthplace, also said he saw few voters.

Scattered reports of violence trickled in from around the country, including a rocket that landed near voters in Helmand and an explosion at a voting site in Kabul. Security companies in the capital reported at least five blasts.

President Hamid Karzai, dressed in his traditional purple and green striped robe, voted at 7am at a Kabul high school.

He dipped his index finger in indelible ink a fraud prevention measure and held it up for the cameras.

“I request that the Afghan people come out and vote, so through their ballot Afghanistan will be more secure, more peaceful,” Karzai said. “Vote. No violence.”

Karzai, who has held power since the Taliban was ousted in late 2001 by a US-led invasion, is favoured to finish first among 36 official candidates, although a late surge by former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah could force a runoff if no one wins more than 50 per cent.

Preliminary results were expected to be announced in Kabul on Saturday.

Presidential candidate Ramazan Bashardost, who had 10 per cent support in pre-election polls, said he washed off the ink that is supposed to prevent double voting and called on authorities to “immediately stop this election.” — AP

Male, August 20
In a move that will serve security interests of both India and Maldives, the two countries in the Indian Ocean region today agreed on a series of measures to step up defence cooperation.

The decisions were taken during back-to-back meetings Defence Minister AK Antony, who is on a three-day visit to Maldives, had with Maldivian President Mohammed Nasheed and Defence Minister Ameen Faisal, Indian Defence Ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar said.

“India and Maldives today agreed on a series of measures to step up defence cooperation between the two countries,” Kar said.

He said, “the Maldives defence leadership expressed concerns over the crucial tasks of safeguarding and protecting their vast Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), while stating its need to develop and enhance maritime surveillance and aerial mobility capabilities”.

At discussions with Maldives defence forces, the emerging security challenges in the region and the need to strengthen joint and collective mechanisms to mutually counter them were highlighted, he added.

Later, addressing a joint press conference with Faisal, Antony said the defence and security of both the countries were intertwined and that his visit was a reiteration of the existing robust relations between the two countries.

Antony said India and Maldives were “good friends and equal partners” in the new relationship and New Delhi would extend all assistance to Maldives based on the latter’s requests.

The Indian Defence Minister said both countries faced myriad security challenges especially from the sea and it would be New Delhi’s efforts to help its neighbour in whichever way it can.

To a query if his visit was driven by third country considerations, Antony said: “I did not come here to discuss about other countries. Do not go by rumours”.

The purpose of his visit, Antony said, was not to enter into any agreement, but to expand cooperation within the existing robust framework.

On Maldives’ behalf, Faisal said the relationship between the two countries was not based on any “self interest or undue influence.” “The people of Maldives are indeed grateful to India for its unconditional and selfless assistance in most trying times,” Faisal added.

Antony is leading a high-level delegation, which includes Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar, Coast Guard D-G Vice Admiral Anil Chopra and Deputy Chief of Navy Staff Vice Admiral D K Joshi to Maldives. — PTI

London, August 20
A clean-shaven Sikh detective hailing from Punjab, locked in a race battle with UK's Scotland Yard, has lost his appeal against a decision clearing his employer of victimisation.

A decision to clear the Metropolitan Police of victimising Detective Sergeant Gurpal Virdi was upheld by the Court of Appeal. The move confirms an earlier decision to revoke 70,000 pounds compensation awarded to the officer in June last year.

But 49-year-old Virdi, previously awarded more than 240,000 pounds compensation, has three further employment tribunals pending against Britain's largest force.

It means three commissioners, Sir John Stevens, Sir Ian Blair and Sir Paul Stephenson, have overseen complaints of racism by the Sikh detective.

In his latest claims, Virdi said the force victimised him because of a disability and racially discriminated against him during his bid for promotion.

He also alleged that colleagues victimised him by lack of support, subjected him to unfair scrutiny and ostracised him, partly as a result of his previous claims.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said the force was defending all of the outstanding employment tribunal cases.

The spokesman said: "We are pleased the Court of Appeal has upheld the decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal to clear the Metropolitan Police of allegations of victimisation against Detective Sergeant Virdi in its handling of his application for promotion in 2005.

"We are disappointed that he felt it necessary to bring this case at all. This decision reaffirms that the original award of 70,000 pounds to Virdi has been revoked.

"Metropolitan Police policy and practice is designed to allow all members of the service to fulfil their potential regardless of ethnicity or faith. Detective Sergeant Virdi is and remains a valued officer of the Metropolitan Police." Virdi's legal challenges against the Met Police began in 1998 after he was wrongly arrested over claims he sent racist hate mail to himself at Hanwell police station. The officer, who joined the Met as a Police Constitution in 1982, was sacked but a tribunal found he was the victim of discrimination.

In 2000 he was awarded 150,000 pounds and later received a further 90,000 pounds for loss of career and injury to feelings before being reinstated in 2002.

In September 2005 he served a claim alleging he was racially discriminated against in a 2004 promotion process.

It was this claim that led to the 70,000 pounds award that was overturned. — PTI