Bishkek, June 15
The United Nations today urged Kyrgyzstan to prevent the spread of indiscriminate ethnic killings beyond its borders and said the number of refugees fleeing the clashes might soon exceed 100,000.

At least 170 persons have been killed in the cities of Osh and Jalalabad in the deadliest ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan in 20 years. Witnesses said gangs armed with automatic rifles, iron bars and machetes set fire to houses and shot fleeing residents.

The clashes, which began on Thursday night and escalated over the weekend, have fuelled concern in Russia and the United States, both of who operate military air bases in the strategic but volatile nation west of China.

Analysts say that if southern Kyrgyzstan, which shares the densely populated Ferghana Valley with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, descends into chaos, it could help militant Islamists financed by drugs.

But interim Kyrgyz leader Roza Otunbayeva said it was clear the region's main security bloc, the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), would not fulfill Bishkek's request for the immediate dispatch of peacekeeping forces.

United Nations Special Envoy Miroslav Jenca said Kyrgyzstan should take every step possible to ensure that violence did not spread to other parts of ex-Soviet Central Asia, a vast Muslim region north of Afghanistan and Iran.

"The most important task now is to stop the bloodshed," Jenca told reporters. "This conflict should be localised." The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, urged local and national authorities in Kyrgyzstan to take "swift and decisive action" to protect citizens, irrespective of their ethnic origin.

Meanwhile, the United Nations said it had received information from the Uzbek authorities that 75,000 refugees had massed on the Uzbek side of the border. "But this number is rising and may soon pass 100,000 people," Jenca said.

He said aid deliveries had been thwarted by the violence. The United Nations and the European Union have urged the interim government to stick to plans for a referendum on June 27 and parliamentary elections in October. — Reuters

London, June 15
Twenty-three Indians, all illegal immigrants have been arrested in one of the biggest operation by Britain’s immigration officials conducted in west London and the east England town of Norwich.

Twenty-two Indian men were part of a group of migrants arrested following an enforcement swoop on a dairy in Acton, West London, while another Indian whose application for asylum was refused, was arrested along with three Sri Lankans, in Norwich.

The UK Border Agency will now take steps to remove them from the UK. The men were arrested for a variety of immigration offences, including illegal entry, working in breach of their visa conditions, and overstaying their visas.

The dairy has now been warned that it faces a fine of up almost a quarter of a million pounds sterling for employing them. Assistant Director Olivia Nuttall, head of the UK Border Agency’s Ealing Local Immigration Team, said: “Illegal working is not a victimless crime - it has a serious impact on communities, undercutting wages and taking jobs from those who are genuinely allowed to work in the UK”.

In Norwich, the Indian citizen, whose application for asylum was refused, was arrested along with three Sri Lankans, who were found working illegally in a newsagent’s shop.

Immigration checks revealed that the two members of staff, plus the newspaper delivery person who had just returned from his rounds, were all in the UK illegally.

The three men, a 46-year-old, a 35-year-old and a 45-year-old, were all from Sri Lanka and had overstayed their visas. The 27-year-old failed asylum seeker from India was found in the accommodation above the shop.

All four men were arrested and have been placed in detention while arrangements are made for their removal from the UK. The shop potentially faces a fine of up to 30,000, £10,000 per illegal worker, unless it can prove that the correct pre-employment checks were carried out.

Inspector Colin Daulby, from the local immigration team Norfolk, said: “If people want to work in the UK, there are ways they can apply to come here legitimately.

If they decide to ignore immigration laws, we will find them and look to remove them from the country.” He added: “Anyone in Norfolk who employs a foreign national without permission to work is breaking the law and undermining law-abiding businesses.

Employers have a legal responsibility to carry out the right checks.” The civil penalty system is in operation to tackle employers who fail to carry out proper checks on workers from outside Europe.

A fine of up to 10,000 pounds per worker can be imposed for every illegal worker found at a company. — PTI 

Dhaka, June 15
Massive landslides triggered by overnight torrential rains killed 53 persons, burying some alive in Bangladesh's sea resort town of Cox's Bazar flattening shanties and makeshift structures.

Four separate landslides hit Cox's Bazar and Bandarban areas burying a number of people and leaving scores of others missing as heavy rains hamperered rescue efforts, the police said.

"According to our information so far, at least 49 persons, including six soldiers, have been killed and a number of others are buried alive in the landslides in four places in Cox's Bazar and Bandarban", a police official at the north-eastern Chittagong port city said.

Officials said 12 persons were still missing and fear that the toll could go up as a lot of people are still buried in the mudslide.

Officials and witnesses said the rains loosened small hilltops and mudslides came crashing downhill burying makeshift houses and a military camp.

Washington, June 15
The Obama administration has decided to object to a Sino-Pak civilian nuclear deal for establishing two atomic reactors in Pakistan, as it comes before the Nuclear Suppliers Group next week.

Experts said the deal appeared to be violating international guidelines forbidding nuclear exports to countries that had not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or do not have international safeguards on reactors.

The Sino-Pak nuclear deal is expected to come up before the 46-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) meeting next week in New Zealand, the Washington Post reported today. State Department spokesman Gordon DuGuid said the US government had reiterated to the Chinese government that it expected Beijing to cooperate with Pakistan in ways consistent with the Chinese nonproliferation obligations.

“The move will breach international protocol about the trade of nuclear equipment and material,” American nuclear expert Mark Hibbs said. The China National Nuclear Corporation is financing for two new reactors at Chashma in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The Post said China had suggested that the sale was grandfathered from the time before it joined the NSG in 2004, because it was completing work on two earlier reactors for Pakistan at the time. However, US officials said any such proposal would require a consensus approval by the NSG.

Interestingly, China had initially objected to the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, saying it would undermine the global non-proliferation regime. Beijing finally came around to support the agreement in the NSG, apparently under the US pressure. The Indo-US nuclear agreement was signed in 2009 after a long-drawn process, including a crucial NSG waiver, and passage through both Indian and American legislatures. — PTI