Racist attacks: Faleiro says convert adversity into opportunity

September 16th, 2009 MELBOURNE - The string of racist attacks against Indians has damaged Australia's image, Victoria province's Premier John Brumby admitted Wednesday, adding "some of the events of the past few months have damaged our brand and the Australian brand in India". The latest assault took place Saturday when four Indian men were brutally assaulted outside a bar in Epping, a suburb of this Victoria capital.

September 15th, 2009 MELBOURNE - The police are denying that a deliberate decision was taken to minimise publicity over the brutal assault on four Indians at the weekend in this Australian city. The Indians were attacked by a group outside a bar in Epping Saturday and the attackers told the victims "You Indians, just go back to your country".

September 15th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Three Indians were brutally assaulted in a suburb in this Australian city by a group of youths who allegedly made racist remarks. Omkar Singh, a relative of the victims, told IBN news channel Tuesday that the attack took place when his relatives were playing pool in Epping.

August 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Australian government would ensure that student victims of racist attacks either get a seat in a different college or are refunded the entire college fee, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said here Monday. Gillard, who is on a five-day visit to India, was interacting with students of the Lady Shri Ram College.

July 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - With attacks on Indian students creating widespread concern in India, Australia Monday underlined its policy of zero tolerance for racism and announced a slew of steps, including review of a legislation, to ensure the safety of international students. A nine-member Australian delegation is on an eight-city tour of the country in a damage control exercise aimed at cushioning its lucrative education industry from the ripple effects of negative publicity due to the attacks on Indian students.

June 23rd, 2009 MELBOURNE - In what appears to be another racist attack against Indians in Australia, a student from Hyderabad was assaulted while coming out of a hair salon. Mir Raza Ali Khan, who has been hospitalised after the attack Monday, says it was a racist attack because his money was left untouched.

June 2nd, 2009 TORONTO - The recent attacks on Indian students have been overblown as racist, says the papa of the Indian student community in Australia. Eighty-two-year-old Gurcharn Sidhu, who in 1951 was one of independent India's first students to come here under the Colombo Plan, says these attacks are not "overly blatant acts of racism" by Australians.

June 2nd, 2009 PANAJI - Goa received foreign remittances to the tune of Rs.700 crore in 2008, which accounted for 6.3 percent of the state gross domestic product (SGDP) during the period, a study released here Tuesday said. The study, 'Goa Migration Survey 2008', was released by the Goa non-resident Indians (NRI) commissioner Eduardo Faleiro.

June 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - On social networking sites, Indian students across the globe have been expressing their anger and condemnation of the racist attacks on Indians studying in Australia. Students overseas have launched an online protest in the wake of the attacks through social networking sites Facebook and Orkut.

June 1st, 2009 SYDNEY - Indian students in Australia should have their own ombudsman to whom they can go in times of trouble and the universities that admit them should arrange their accommodation for the first six months, says a committee formed after a spate of attacks on Indian students here and in Melbourne. Asserting that "Australia is not a racist country", committee coordinator Yadu Singh held: "Most of the attacks are what we call `opportunistic attacks' and due to the impression of the criminal elements about our students being the easy target for various reasons".

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 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Indian government was seriously considering "an institutionalised mechanism" to prevent racist attacks on Indians abroad, Vayalar Ravi said Friday after taking charge of the overseas Indian affairs ministry. After taking charge of the ministry again with a simple function at Akbar Bhavan here, Ravi said his immediate task was to protect the Indians in Australia as a number of Indian students have faced allegedly racial attacks there this week.

May 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI/MELBOURNE - The Indian external affairs ministry Friday called Australian High Commissioner John McCarthy and conveyed its concerns over the allegedly racist attacks on Indian students in Melbourne, the second largest city of Australia. N. Ravi, secretary (east) in the ministry, met the Australian envoy and sought assurance about the safety of Indian students in Australia.

May 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Condemning allegedly racist attacks on Indian students in Melbourne, the government Wednesday said it will impress upon the Australian authorities that such attacks should not be permitted and the culprits should be brought to justice. "I have been appalled by the attack on our students in Melbourne.

March 4th, 2009 PANAJI - Veteran Congress leader Eduardo Faleiro has ruled out the possibility of the party winning a simple majority in the forthcoming general elections and says coalitions are an inevitability. The former minister of state for external affairs, who has represented Goa six times in parliament, said a hung parliament would be the inevitable outcome of the 15th Lok Sabha polls due from mid April.