Australian Aborigines going blind at six times the rate than rest of population

October 13th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Foreign students, including Indians rate Australia as the safest place to study, but rank it third for education system prestige. IDP Education, one of Australia's biggest international student recruitment companies, conducted the survey of more than 6000 students from eight countries from September 12 to October 6.

October 5th, 2009 LONDON - A 7-year-old blind boy has been given the nickname Batboy, for he has learnt how to "see" by using his ears. Lucas Murray, who was born blind, is believed to be the first in Britain to use echoes to visualise his surroundings.

September 28th, 2009 MARRAKECH - The 26th International Population Congress has opened here to discuss population related problems, migration and the economic crisis, among others. Over 2,000 demographers from 114 countries attended the five-day meeting that started Sunday to discuss more than 200 topics, including population and global climate change, migration, economic crisis, the imbalance of fertility rate and social security system.

September 9th, 2009 SYDNEY - Australia's unemployment rate remained steady in August at 5.8 percent of the workforce despite full-time positions falling by 30,800 and only 3,800 part-time positions created, official figures released Thursday showed. The rate held steady because poor economic conditions led to fewer people looking for jobs.

September 4th, 2009 MOSCOW - "Big is Beautiful" seems to be the new catchword of the Russian Government that is struggling hard to overcome their scanty population, which will go down to 111 million by 2050 from 141 million at present. Russia's population peaked in the early 1990s (at the time of the end of the Soviet Union) with about 148 million people in the country.

August 26th, 2009 MELBOURNE - A group of Australian aborigines has requested the United Nations to grant them refugee status. he aborigines allege that they have been displaced in their own land due to the imposition of emergency laws banning alcohol and sexual abuse.

July 28th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan would be the fourth most populated country in the world in 2050 if its population continues to grow with the current rate, The United Nations Population Division has said. Pakistan would add another 335 million people to its current population and would thus overtake Brazil and Indonesia as the world's fourth most populated nation in the coming 40 years.

July 24th, 2009 PERTH - A blind border collie is said to have overcome some of his difficulties by having a guide dog of his own. According to the Daily Mail, the two, named Bonnie and Clyde, have become inseparable and do all the everyday activities together, including eating, sleeping and going for walks.s two-year-old Clyde is blind, he relies on fellow border collie Bonnie to guide him to water and food.

July 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A student team in the Virginia Tech College of Engineering is providing the blind with an opportunity many never thought possible -- the opportunity to drive. A retrofitted four-wheel dirt buggy, designed by them, uses laser range finders, an instant voice command interface and a host of other innovative, cutting-edge technology to guide blind drivers as they steer, brake, and accelerate.

July 14th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - A delegation of officials from Australia is visiting Punjab to meet parents and educational consultants and reassure them that Indian students in Australia, bulk of whom come from the state, are safe there. The delegation arrived here even as the number of enquiries for courses in Australian institutions went up by four times this year, members of the visiting delegation said.

July 5th, 2009 LONDON - A man who lost his eyesight in an accident at work can now see again, thanks to doctors who transplanted his tooth in his eye. Martin Jones, 42, a builder, had been blind for 12 years after a tub of white-hot aluminium exploded in his face while working at a scrapyard.

July 3rd, 2009 DARWIN - The latest two-yearly study of the Australian Government's Productivity Commission damningly reveals that indigenous children are six times more likely to suffer abuse or neglect than non-indigenous children and 28 times more likely to wind up in jail. According to The Australian, the report categorically reveals that there has been little or no improvement in many areas of social and economic inequality in spite of federal government promises to reduce indigenous disadvantage.

June 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Think twice before you decide to go on a blind date for you may be taken for a ride. A middle-aged man found this out the hard way, when he was tricked by a woman he met through a matchmaking service.

June 1st, 2009 LONDON - Indian students at Oxford University Monday joined in the growing protests over racist attacks on their counterparts in Australia, saying they are baffled by the failure of Australian authorities to take stern measures. Indian students at the University of Oxford strongly deplore the violent attacks on students in Australia.

May 7th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Overseas students continue to defy economic downturn to come to Australia. In one of the few bright spots for the Australian economy, universities set another record with a 21.7 per cent growth in new students in March, driven by a 40 per cent leap in enrolments by Indian students and a 19.6 per cent jump among Chinese students.