Top World News Stories of 21st October 2008

Daily news summary

PM on a visit to strengthen India-Japan ties
Prime Minsiter Dr. Manmohan Singh left for a two-nation visit to Tokyo today to strengthen the ties between the two nations for establishing stability in Asia and the world. Describing the bilateral ties with Japan as the most important, Dr. Singh said in his departure statement that India and Japan are two major countries in Asia and a strong India-Japan relationship will play a significant role in Asian security and will contribute to the peace, stability and prosperity of Asia and the world. The focus of the visit is a security pact that will be signed by the two leaders after talks over bilateral, regional and global issues. The security pact aims at expanding the scope of cooperation between the security establishments of the two nations. Later, Dr. Singh will visit Beijing to attend the seventh Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM).

Bangladesh, India cooperate on exchange of criminals
Bangladesh is busy processing all Indian criminal and militant cases in a mutual confidence building between the two neighbours. A senior security official disclosed that Bangladesh had handed over 11 suspected insurgents between June 12 and Aug 22 as part of the policy to fight cross-border terrorism and crimes between the two nations despite the absence of any treaty. Bangladesh and India agreed on "expeditious" return of criminals staying in either of the countries when home secretaries of the two countries ended a two-day annual meeting in Dhaka on Aug 31. Both sides also agreed to "continue efforts" to track down criminals who took shelter in either country to evade justice and send them back "expeditiously". Dhaka has also sought India's cooperation to take preventive measures against anti-Bangladesh outfits based on its territory. Bangladesh handed over an updated list of 1,648 Bangladeshi criminals hiding in India while the Indian side gave a list of 464 Indian criminals during the director general level talks between the Bangladesh Rifles and Border Security Forces (BSF) of India.

Victory delayed due to concern over civilian safety: Rajapaksha
President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa said today that the victory over LTTE was delayed due to his government’s grave concern over the security of civilians. Rajapaksha said that the armed forces have been instructed that they should refrain from inflicting harm on the innocent civilians who are being used as shields by the LTTE. He added that the victory has been delayed as the army personnel have been directed to practice optimum caution during fighting. During a telephonic conversation earlier Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had expressed his deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian condition in Sri Lanka. Stressing that the safety and security of the civilians must be safeguarded at all cost Dr. Singh said that there is no military solution to this problem.

Australia opens centres to recruit Indian doctors
Australia is all set to open five exam centres to recruit doctors from India to meet the acute shortage of medical professionals. Indian doctors who apply for immigration will be allowed to sit for a multiple choice test at one of the five centres in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. Earlier, doctors used to sit for exams at centres in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai or London. There have been talks to make the test more stringent for overseas trained doctors since the India-born US doctor Jayant Patel's case came to light few years ago. Jayant Patel is charged with 14 offences, including three counts of manslaughter, two counts of grievous bodily harm, and fraud, relating to his employment as director of surgery at regional Bundaberg Base Hospital in Queensland between 2003 and 2005.

Company offering non-existent jobs in Bahrain busted
Bahrain authorities busted a fake job scam involving a Kerala-based company Flyway Tours and Travels (FTT) that was trying to recruit people for non-existent jobs in a Bahrain-based firm. The company used to publish advertisements and conduct interviews for jobs that never exisisted in Bahrain's Alfouz Contracting Company. Sources said that the company reportedly tried to collect recruitment and visa fees from 492 workers in Kerala claiming that it had been authorised by the Bahrain firm to recruit workers. The scam was unearthed when FTT approached the Protector of Emigrants (PoE) office in Kerala seeking permission to run advertisements and conduct job interviews.

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