W O R L D

US-Pak strategic dialogue today
Pakistan and the US are all set to meet on Wednesday in Washington for what is billed as most significant “strategic dialogue” ever since it began four years ago. Both sides have made intensive preparation for the occasion to achieve tangible results instead of a toothless exercise in the past four years. Pakistan was offered the dialogue format during former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf’s visit to Washington in the aftermath of the momentous US decision to allow civil nuclear technology to India. The annual meetings have failed to move the two countries to any tangible cooperation or long-term relationship.

US ready to discuss N-cooperation: Clinton

Indian-owned college collapses in Oz
Melbourne, March 23
Hundreds of international students, including many Indians, have been left clueless about their future as a college owned by an Indian has collapsed in Australia. With Sydney-based Austech Institute for Further Studies going for voluntary liquidation late last week, over 750 international students are looking at an uncertain future.

Buddhist monks supporting defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka hold placards during a protest in Colombo on Tuesday. Hundreds of Sri Lankan Opposition activists protested on Tuesday, demanding Fonseka’s release. — AP/PTI

Republicans may move SC
Washington, March 23
With US President Barack Obama set to sign into law the landmark health care reform bill, the opposition Republican party today announced it would move the Supreme Court against the legislation approved by the Congress.

Indian cabbie attacked in NZ
Auckland, March 23
An Indian-origin taxi driver has been assaulted by a passenger in a New Zealand city, an official said. The attack comes less than two months after an Indian taxi driver was fatally stabbed by a passenger here.

Avalanche kills 35  in Afghanistan
Kunduz, March 23
An avalanche swept through five residential houses killing 35 people, including women and children, in Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, an official said on Tuesday.

 

US-Pak strategic dialogue today
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

Pakistan and the US are all set to meet on Wednesday in Washington for what is billed as most significant “strategic dialogue” ever since it began four years ago. Both sides have made intensive preparation for the occasion to achieve tangible results instead of a toothless exercise in the past four years. Pakistan was offered the dialogue format during former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf’s visit to Washington in the aftermath of the momentous US decision to allow civil nuclear technology to India. The annual meetings have failed to move the two countries to any tangible cooperation or long-term relationship.

The Obama administration has upgraded the strategic dialogue with Pakistan to ministerial-level discourse. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will lead the US side while foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will head a strong Pakistan delegation which includes senior military and civil officials. Army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani is also representing Pakistan for the first time since the start of the process underlining the significance of Wednesday’s meeting.

The United States named the process of interaction with India as “strategic partnership” but kept meetings with Pakistan under the heading “strategic dialogue” in low key. The two sides, however, have vowed to turn Wednesday’s event an occasion to reshape the whole gamut of bilateral political, economic and strategic relationship to more productive and long-term bonds. For the Unites States the war on terror is top most item on agenda. It aims at reducing the trust deficit that exists at present but is being gradually reduced in the wake of unusually enhanced interaction between top military leaders of the two countries in recent months.

“The objective of strategic dialogue is to enhance people-to-people relationships, which can bridge the trust deficit,” was how Prime Minister Gilani described the upcoming meeting last week. Several intensive sessions were held at the Presidency and the Prime Minister House during past two weeks to fine tune Pakistan’s priorities at the meeting.

Indian-owned college collapses in Oz

Melbourne, March 23
Hundreds of international students, including many Indians, have been left clueless about their future as a college owned by an Indian has collapsed in Australia. With Sydney-based Austech Institute for Further Studies going for voluntary liquidation late last week, over 750 international students are looking at an uncertain future.

The hospitality college, owned by taxi driver-turned-entrepreneur Kharak Singh Bajwa, has become the latest in the chain of failing colleges which have put a question mark against the credibility of Australian regulatory bodies.

Most of the Austech Institute students are from India and other South Asian countries.

The New South Wales authorities had given a notice to de-register the Ashfield-located institute late last year for enrolling around 1,400 international students while it had the permission for only 124.

The collapse of colleges like the Austech is also being blamed on financial mismanagement, the strong Australian dollar and changes to the Australian skilled migration policy.

The government had removed the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL) only a few months back, thus denying crucial bonus points to the students enrolled in courses like cookery and hairdressing.

The removal of the MODL was seen as a move to shut the so-called backdoor entry option for the international students who needed to complete two years of study at ‘visa-factory’ colleges like The Austech Institute to become eligible for permanent residence in Australia.

“The closure of The Austech Institute is another sign that the Australian government drive to weed out dodgy colleges is in full swing and bearing fruit,” says Harpreet Kamboj of First Flight Overseas Consultants while speaking with IANS from Mohali. — IANS

Health Care Bill
Republicans may move SC

Washington, March 23
With US President Barack Obama set to sign into law the landmark health care reform bill, the opposition Republican party today announced it would move the Supreme Court against the legislation approved by the Congress.

The Republicans, who failed miserably from preventing the Democrats to get the bill passed in the House of Representatives on Sunday night with the required 216 votes, said they would challenge the legislation constitutionally in the the Supreme Court and demanded that it be repealed.

The bill carries a price-tag of $940 billion in 10 years and would ban insurance companies from practises like denying coverage for pre-existing illness, dropping people from coverage when they get sick or capping life time coverage.

Undeterred by the Republican response, a jubilant White House announced that Obama would be signing the bill into law shortly.

White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, said he did not expect the Republican lawsuit to succeed. “My sense is that a lot of big pieces of legislation are challenged in some ways,” he said.

“I think that for many decades, the Supreme Court has recognised Congress’ authority under the Commerce Clause to regulate activities relating to inter-state commerce,” Gibbs said. — PTI

Indian cabbie attacked in NZ

Auckland, March 23
An Indian-origin taxi driver has been assaulted by a passenger in a New Zealand city, an official said. The attack comes less than two months after an Indian taxi driver was fatally stabbed by a passenger here.

Mohinder Singh was recovering at home after being assaulted in Tauranga city Sunday morning, the New Zealand Herald reported. Another taxi driver, too, was threatened and robbed by some other passenger later in a similar manner.

Company manager Bruce Rainey said the twin attacks were worrying. “There’s some sort of perception that our guys are an easy target.”

On January 31, Auckland taxi driver Hiren Mohini, 39, was fatally stabbed by a passenger after which his taxi collided with a tree in Mount Eden. — IANS

Avalanche kills 35 in Afghanistan

Kunduz, March 23
An avalanche swept through five residential houses killing 35 people, including women and children, in Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, an official said on Tuesday.

The disaster happened overnight in the Argho Panjkhwa district of the remote and rugged province which borders China, Pakistan and Tajikistan, said Abdul Maroof Rasekh, a spokesman for the provincial governor. With weather warming, avalanches are normal at this time of year in parts of the province, one of the poorest parts of Afghanistan.

Last month, dozens of passengers died when their vehicles were trapped for days by avalanches on a main highway that passes through mountains north of Kabul. — Reuters