Prime Minister Julia Gillard has set the election date for August 21, after meeting with the Governor-General earlier this morning to request she dissolve parliament. In the press conference, Ms Gillard acknowledged she did not come to power as the elected leader.

“Today I seek a mandate from the Australian people,” she says.

Ms Gillard made the announcement in the courtyard of Parliament House in Canberra, shortly after midday, local time.

Ms Gillard said moving forward meant plans to build a  sustainable Australia, “not a big Australia”.
  
“Moving forward means making record investments in solar power and other renewable energies to help us combat climate change and protect our quality of life,” she said.

Enrol to vote

The Prime Minister said Australians will have until 8pm (AEST) on Monday to register to vote with Ms Gillard confirming writs for the election will be issued at 6pm on the same day.

Pledge to get Budget back to surplus

Ms Gillard said budget surpluses and a stronger economy would offer Australians the chance “to get a job, keep a job, learn new skills, get a better job and start your own business”.

Ms Gillard said she had been driven by a clear set of values.

“I believe in hard work … in the importance of respect and valuing other people,” she said.

“Most importantly (I belive in) the transformative power of a high-quality education.”
  
“The uncertainty is not behind us yet, and economic challenges are still very much with us and hard working Australian families who are doing it tough can attest to that,” she said.

Ms Gillard committed Labor to offsetting every dollar of new promises with spending cuts.
 
“We will make a modest set of commitments to the Australian people and we will honour those commitments,” she said.
 

Family values

Ms Gillard said she learnt those values from her parents.

“And like millions of other Australians (they) worked unbelievably hard so that their children could have opportunities that they could never have dreamed for themselves.”
 
“I believe in hard work … in the importance of respect and valuing other people,” she said.

“Most importantly (I belive in) the transformative power of a high-quality education.”
  

Border protection

The prime minister said that “moving forward” also meant stronger protection for the nation’s borders.
  
“And a strong plan, a real plan that takes away from people smugglers the product that they sell.”

Health and hospital funding

Ms Gillard noted that Labor had increased expenditure on hospitals by 50 per cent in its first term.
  
“Moving forward on health meant training 3,000 nurses and 1,300 GPs during the next three years “all the while as we expand our GP super clinics and implement our health reforms”.

Gillard attacks Coalition

Ms Gillard said the opposition’s economic approach was backward looking, citing the coalition’s stance against the stimulus package.
  
Failing to provide the stimulus would have sent the economy downwards into a spiral of lower incomes, lost jobs and reduced services.

“That is the spiral they would have recommended for this country but the wrong thing for Australians. It would have taken us backwards,” she said.

Ms Gillard accused Opposition Leader Tony Abbott of remaining committed to Work Choices, no matter what words he sought to use as camouflage.

“In terms of the words he seeks to disguise his intent with, we have heard all of that before,” he said.

“Their gaze is fixed in the rear-view mirror, rather than on the road ahead,” she said.

Ms Gillard said Mr.. Abbott thought improving education and health meant cutting their funding.

“He’s now calling for that same backwards-looking approach to other services that hard-working Australians need,” she said.

“Instead of creating GP super clinics, he would eliminate them, instead of expanding trades training centres, he would end them, instead of providing computers to children in schools – he would see none of that.”
 

Meeting with the GG

She arrived in the nation’s capital earlier this morning, after spending the night in her Victorian electorate of Lalor.

It was an early start for Ms Gillard, who left her home in Melbourne about 7am (AEST) on Saturday morning before a 10.40am meeting with Governor-General Quentin Bryce at Yarralumla.

She emerged from Government House after half an hour then returned to Parliament House to prepare for a midday press conference.

Abbott fires first shots

Despite the focus being on Ms Gillard’s movements on Saturday, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott fired the first shots of the campaign in Brisbane.

Mr.. Abbott formally axed coalition support for its old Work Choices policy during an address to the Liberal National Party conference.

“If there was one policy on which the coalition lost the last election, it was workplace relations,” Mr.. Abbott told the conference.

“On workplace relations policy, the coalition trashed its own brand and has to re-establish trust.

“Trust will only be restored by demonstrating, over time, that the coalition again has the steady hands in which people’s job security and pay and conditions can once more safely rest.”

The surprise move will be a blow for Labor, which has been using industrial relations as a key weapon against the coalition.

Mr.. Abbott confidently jogged into the Hilton Hotel ballroom to a standing ovation and delivered a pre-election attack on the government.

“We are ready to govern,” he said.

He said the past three weeks had been “chao

By Ashok Kumar

 In a democracy, it is hard to believe that a government could think of any draconian law that turns a blind eye towards the future of hundreds and thousands of students who want to benefit the country with their skills they acquired by studying and working in this country.

The Immigration and Citizenship Minister, Mr. Chris Evans has sent the Migration Amendment Bill 2010, popularly known as Visa Capping Bill to the Senate for approval and that is more or less certain to win the approval if the elections are not held early. The approved amendment will have a retrospective effect. With the new powers the Minister attains, he will ask thousands of potential migrants to leave after accepting their applications and granting them the bridging visa, or in other words assuring them of a settlement in Australia. Continue Reading

 The Rudd Government has no intention of putting a limit on the number of international student visas issued each year, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans said today.

Senator Evans said there was no basis for the concerns being expressed by education providers about the possible impact of proposed legislation which would allow the Government to cap and cease certain visa sub classes.

“I want to assure the university sector and all providers of quality education that Australia will continue to welcome students from across the globe to study in our country,” he said.

“The proposed legislation is designed to provide flexibility in the management of the general skilled migration program and to ensure we are able to get the balance right when it comes to targeting the skilled workers we need.

“The legislation, which was introduced into Parliament last month, will allow the Government to control the numbers of visas issued in certain occupations if necessary but will not have any impact on students wishing to come to Australia to study.”

Senator Evans said since February the Government had introduced a number of changes, including launching a new Skilled Occupations List (SOL), designed to ensure the skilled migration program targeted the occupations the Australian economy needs.

As a result of these changes, the Government has put in place generous transitional arrangements to assist international students adjust to changes to the General Skilled Migration (GSM) program.

“International students who were in Australia prior to February 8, 2010 and hold a vocational, higher education or postgraduate student visa are able to apply either for permanent residence if their occupation is on the new SOL, or a temporary skilled graduate visa on completion of their studies,” Senator Evans said.

A skilled graduate visa allows former students to spend 18 months in Australia to acquire work experience and seek sponsorship from an employer willing to sponsor them into a job using those skills. This transitional arrangement will run through to the end of 2012.

“We want to attract skilled migrants of the highest calibre but the changes we have announced in no way affect international students coming to Australia to study and then return home,” he said.

“The Rudd Government values the contribution made by the international education sector and welcomes its feedback on the proposed legislation.”

A local court on Monday sentenced eight former Union Carbide of India Ltd (UCIL) executives to two years’ imprisonment for the criminal negligence that led to the Bhopal gas disaster of December 1984. But two hours after the sentencing, the convicts were freed on bail on personal bonds of Rs 25,000 each. The court also fined them Rs 1 lakh each and UCIL Rs 5 lakh, report agencies with inputs from BBC News.

The tragedy claimed more than 15,000 lives and affected the health of 500,000 when nearly 40 tonnes of a poisonous gas emitted from the now defunct Union Carbide factory on the night of December 2-3, 1984.

There was tension on the court premises, where prohibitory orders were imposed, as Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohan M Tiwari announced the verdict.
 
The convicts include the top brass of UCIL in 1984: the then chairman Keshub Mahindra, Vijay Gokhle, SP Raichoudhary, Kishor Kamdar, J Mukund, KV Shetty and SI Qureshi. Another person convicted, RB Rai Choudhary, has passed on.

US-based Union Carbide on Monday said it was not subject to the jurisdiction of the Bhopal court and that none of its officials was involved in the operation of the plant. “Union Carbide and its officials were not part of this case since the charges were divided long ago into a separate case,” a company statement said.

“Furthermore, Union Carbide  and its officials are not subject to the jurisdiction of Indian court since they did not have any involvement in the operation of the plant, which was  owned and operated by UCIL,” the statement read.

The convicts have the option to move the sessions court and subsequently the higher courts against the verdict. Three other accused in the case — one and two corporate entities — were declared  absconding: the  then chairman of Union Carbide Corporation (worldwide) Warren Anderson, Union Carbide Corporation and Union Carbide (eastern) Hong Kong.

The case began in December 1987 after the CBI filed a chargesheet in court. Since then, 20 CJMs heard the case. There were 256 hearings in all.

The hearings were suspended briefly after the Supreme Court ratified an out-of-court settlement between Union Carbide Corporation and the Indian government in 1989. By the terms of the agreement, the company got immunity from all civil and criminal liabilities relating to the gas disaster.

Proceedings resumed in 1991 after the Supreme Court restored criminal charges against the company and its officials in response to a petition by two NGOs — Bhopal Gas  Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangthan and Bhopal Gas Peedit Sagharsh Sahyog Samiti.
 
However, a  Supreme  Court  Bench  in 1996 diluted the charges against the accused from culpable homicide to criminal negligence.

Reactions

The convictions have been heavily criticised by campaigners.

Amnesty International described the two-year sentences for eight people as “too little, too late”.

The convictions are the first since the disaster at the Union Carbide plant – the world’s worst industrial accident.

The eight Indians, all former plant employees, were convicted of “death by negligence”.

One was convicted posthumously. The others are expected to appeal.

Nityanand Jayaraman, of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal campaign group, told the BBC the punishment imposed on Union Carbide was wholly inadequate.

“I share the Bhopalis’ sense of outrage and betrayal,” he said.

“I feel that it portends ill for the country that industrialists and corporations are being told that they can actually get away with murder, and today’s verdict is essentially that – a signal that [after] the world’s worst industrial disaster, the people who were accused of that are just being let off with a rap on the knuckles.”

Satinath Sarangi, an activist also campaigning on behalf of Bhopal victims, told the BBC that justice would not be done until US executives from Union Carbide at the time of the incident – including the company’s former head, Warren Anderson – were brought to India to face justice.

“This is not the justice that we have been waiting for, because the principal accused – Warren Anderson, Union Carbide corporation USA – are not here,” he said.

“The charges that have been [laid] on the Indian accused have essentially been the charges that you would put for a traffic accident. This is indeed a very sad day for us.”

Forty tonnes of a toxin called methyl isocyanate leaked from the pesticide factory and settled over slums in Bhopal on 3 December 1984.

Official figures show at least 3,000 people died at the time and as many as 15,000 have died since.

Campaigners put the death toll as high as 25,000 and say the horrific effects of the gas continue to this day.

‘Unacceptable’

Amnesty International also called on the Indian and US governments to take legal action against US executives of Union Carbide.

“These are historic convictions, but it is too little, too late,” said Audrey Gaughran, an Amnesty director.

Rashida Bee, president of the Bhopal Gas Women’s Workers group, told the AFP news agency that “justice will be done in Bhopal only if individuals and corporations responsible are punished in an exemplary manner”.

Although Warren Anderson was named as an accused and later declared an “absconder” by the court, he was not mentioned in Monday’s verdict.

The eight convicted on Monday were Keshub Mahindra, the chairman of the Indian arm of the Union Carbide (UCIL); VP Gokhale, managing director; Kishore Kamdar, vice-president; J Mukund, works manager; SP Chowdhury, production manager; KV Shetty, plant superintendent; SI Qureshi, production assistant. All of them are Indians.

The seven former employees, some of whom are now in their 70s, were also ordered to pay fines of 100,000 Indian rupees (£1,467; $2,125) apiece.

The site of the former pesticide plant is now abandoned.

It was taken over by the state government of Madhya Pradesh in 1998, but environmentalists say poison is still found there.

Campaigners say Bhopal has an unusually high incidence of children with birth defects and growth deficiency, as well as cancers, diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

Twenty years ago Union Carbide paid $470m (£282m) in compensation to the Indian government.

Dow Chemicals, which bought the company in 1999, says this settlement resolved all existing and future claims against the company.

Bhopal residents describe the impact of the disaster and give their reaction to the sentencing.

Justice delayed is justice denied. Two years prison sentence after 25 years is too little too late.

People in Bhopal have been waiting for justice for too long, but they are also waiting for concrete action to help those still suffering.

We still don’t have proper medical facilities and those affected have to go to private hospitals and pay for their treatment.

The compensation still hasn’t reached the right people and there are many who are desperately in need. Most of the people who registered for compensation were adults – those under 18 were not allowed to register.

The BCCI has accepted Sachin Tendulkar’s request to be rested for the Asia Cup and has not included him in the squad for the tournament in Sri Lanka. Saurabh Tiwary, the Jharkhand batsman, has received his maiden call-up in a 15-man team that is significantly stronger than the side that failed to qualify for the tri-series final in Zimbabwe.

 MS Dhoni returns to captain a team that is bolstered by the return of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar and Ashish Nehra. Yuvraj Singh, however, has not been included in the squad, while Yusuf Pathan has been dropped from the team that toured Zimbabwe.

  Squad: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Pragyan Ojha, Ashok Dinda, R Ashwin, Saurabh Tiwary.

In  do or die matches India always opts for the latter,since dying is easier than doing. Look at the T20 Q-finals, India could not come out of the jinx and this time too its the same old story.India were shut out of Wednesday’s Tri-nation final here on Saturday when Dinesh Chandimal led Sri Lanka to victory with just 10 balls to spare.

India needed a win to stay in the tournament, which would have given them a slender chance to play in the final. That would have depended on Zimbabwe then beating Sri Lanka in the last round robin match on Monday. This game will now have no significance for the tournament, but will be a guide to form. India’s score of 268-9 was not quite enough. Sri Lanka hit 270 with 10 balls to spare and six wickets in hand.

India now have six days to wait to play two Twenty20 matches against Zimbabwe next weekend, which have been added on to the tournament. With this latest defeat they have dropped to third place behind Australia and South Africa in the ICC ODI rankings.

Chandimal, named man of the match, punished Indian bowlers with 111 in 118 balls. It was his maiden century in internationals and he said afterwards, “I just played my normal game, which is an aggressive one.”

He was partnered for the third wicket of 114 by Chamara Kapudegera in a supporting but important role, scoring 42. Every one of Sri Lanka’s batsmen contributed more than 21.

Tillakaratne Dilshan, the Sri Lanka captain, said he was pleased and relieved not to leave it late getting to the final. “Our plan was to keep the pressure on India all the way. Our fielding was excellent and that was a key to our success.”

India skipper Suresh Raina thought losing the toss was important to the result. “The wicket just got better and better for batting during the day,” he said. “We now have a week off and we’ll use that to improve all aspects of our game. There is much work to do.”

India brought in three young players into the side — Naman Ojha, R Ashwin and Pankaj Singh. Their innings got off to a bad start when Ojha was out for one.

It fell to Virat Kohli (68) and Yusuf Pathan (44) in an 84-run partnership for the third wicket to set up India for a potentially good score and in a bid for a 280 runs target, which they nearly reached.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed appeals filed by authorities challenging the release of JuD chief Hafiz Muhammed Saeed, blamed by India for masterminding the Mumbai attacks, from house arrest, reports PTI.

The appeals against the Lahore High Court’s order to release Saeed were filed by the federal and Punjab governments last year but could not be taken up earlier for various technical reasons.

When the matter came up for hearing today, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk dismissed the appeals. Further details were not immediately available.

Saeed, also the founder of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), was put under house arrest in December 2008 in the wake of the Mumbai attacks after the UN Security Council declared the JuD a front for the LeT.

The JuD chief challenged his detention in the Lahore High Court. Saeed was freed on June 2 last year by a three-judge bench of the High Court that said that Punjab and federal governments had failed to provide sufficient evidence to keep him in custody.

Following pressure from India and the international community, the federal and Punjab governments challenged the high court’s ruling in the apex court.

Differences between the federal and Punjab governments and the change of certain legal officials of Punjab province held up the matter in the apex court.

Pakistani leaders like Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi have contended that India has not provided any evidence that will allow authorities to act against Saeed.

Home minister P Chidambaram has maintained that India has provided sufficient evidence against Saeed in several dossiers handed over to Pakistani authorities.

Virtually striking at will, Maoists blew up a private bus near Dantewada in Chhattisgarh, killing at least 36 people. Of the dead, 24 were civilians and 12 special police officers. It is feared the number of dead will go up. Maoists had killed 76 securitymen in Dantewada on April 6.

Reacting to the attack, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said that he will again try to persuade the Union cabinet for a wider mandate including air support (but not air power) to tackle the Maoists.

Monday’s attack took place near Chingawaran on Sukma Road in Dantewada, about 550 km south of Raipur. This is an area dominated by Maoists and they have demonstrated this many times in the past.

This is the first time Maoists attacked a private bus. Official sources said some of the SPOs might have alerted the Maoists by sitting on top of the bus in their trademark khaki uniforms.

The sources said the rebels might have accessed information about many SPOs having boarded the bus along the route, assumed to be heavily mined by the extremists.

“The policemen appeared to have been the main targets and the rebels also attempted to spread fear among private transporters and civilians to force them to disallow the forces from travelling in their vehicles,” a top intelligence official in the state police headquarters told HT on condition of anonymity.

Rights activist and director of Tribal Welfare Society Pravin Patel blamed the police administration for using private buses to move in the red zone.

“The tribal villagers and the bus owners are in a fix as they cannot refuse the security forces from boarding the buses. At least, the law enforcing agencies should avoid using private buses,” he said.

Immediately after the attack, the Union Home Minister said that he will ask for a wider mandate to tackle the Maoists. Speaking to NDTV, he said, “We will go back to the cabinet committee to revisit that (limited) mandate in the light of the revised strategy that the CPI(Maoist) is following.”

He said the “men on the ground” want air support in the fight against the Maoists. “The security forces, the CMs want it. The CMs of Bengal, Andhra, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Orissa asked for air support.”

In Raipur, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said the attack showes Naxals frustration who were now targeting civilians.

The last big attack in Dantewada was on April 6 when Maoists trapped and gunned down 75 Central Reserve Police Force men and a policeman. (Courtsey The Hindustan Times)

David Hussey’s determined innings of 59  leading Australia’s recovery for a total of 6-147 notwithstanding England strolled to the trophy table after reaching 3-151 in 17 overs.

South African-born duo Kevin Pietersen (47) and Craig Kieswetter (63) added 117 for England’s second wicket in a match-winning partnership.

Kieswetter was named man of the match and Pietersen, who missed a game during the tournament to attend the birth of his son in London, was player of the series with 248 runs at an average of 62.00.

“Losing those three wickets early certainly didn’t help us and put a lot of pressure on our middle order,” Clarke said.

“But we did well to scrape to 140-odd. In the end we were probably 30 runs short.

“But in saying that, the way England came out and batted we were probably 50 runs short.

“That’s the way it goes. We got beaten by a better team today.”

After Shaun Tait removed Michael Lumb (2) in the second over, leg-spinner Steven Smith and left-armer Mitchell Johnson dismissed Pietersen and Kieswetter in the 14th and 15th overs.

But England settled with skipper Paul Collingwood unbeaten on 12 including the winning boundary and Eoin Morgan 15 not out.Collingwood had invited Australia to bat first and left-armer Ryan Sidebottom (2-26) claimed Shane Watson (2) and Brad Haddin (1) while David Warner (2) was run out.Clarke (27) chipped a catch to rival skipper Paul Collingwood at 4-45 in the 10th over.

Cameron White crunched 30 from 19 balls, adding 50 in a crucial fifth-wicket partnership with David Hussey who was dropped by Stuart Broad at mid-wicket on 25.David Hussey’s 54-ball knock included two fours and two sixes.

The right-hander was run out in the final over after a 47-run partnership with brother Mike who was unbeaten on 17.

Spinner Graeme Swann was economical with 1-17 from his four overs.

Australia would take little comfort in the fact this was a step forward for the team after failing to reach the final in two previous World T20 events.

It’s England’s first win in a major limited-overs trophy event, after making the decider in the Champions Trophy once and the World Cup three times.

The ICC later announced Australia wicketkeeper-batsman Brad Haddin had been fined 10 per cent of his match fee for a violation of the Code of Conduct.

Haddin pleaded guilty to a charge of showing dissent after an umpire’s decision.

He batsman was given out caught behind down leg-side for one off the bowling of paceman Ryan Sidebottom.

But the ball appeared to miss the bat and strike Haddin on the hip and the Australian stood at his crease and pointed to his hip after being dismissed.

MUMBAI: “You have been sentenced to death on four counts. You will be hanged by the neck till you are dead. Yeh hamara tareeka hai (This is our way),” judge M L Tahaliyani told Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab, bringing him to justice 17 months after he and his nine accomplices held Mumbai to a 60-hour siege and killed 166 innocent men, women and children, report agencies.

The mood in the courtroom was sombre. Kasab did not react. He kept his head down and was immediately whisked away after the pronouncement of the sentence. Throughout the afternoon, the baby-faced killer sat absolutely still in the box while the judge gave detailed reasons why it was necessary to give him the harshest possible penalty under the Indian law. “This man has lost the right to get any humanitarian relief,” Tahaliyani observed.

The court held that in view of the depravity of Kasab’s crimes, any chance of his reform or rehabilitation was “totally ruled out”. Describing the 22-year-old Lashkar-trained terrorist as “a menace to society”, Tahaliyani specifically alluded to the 1999 Kandahar case in 1999, when an Indian plane was hijacked to free dangerous terrorists who were imprisoned at the time. “Keeping him alive would be a constant danger to government and the state,” he said.

The judge made special mention of the merciless way in which people were killed at CST. “Brutality was writ large on Kasab’s face when he fired indiscriminately at people. It was visible in the photographs taken of him at CST,” he observed.

In a message to terrorist organisations which target India, the judge made it absolutely clear that “every man who wages war against India forfeits his life to the Indian state”. “Kasab voluntarily went to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and offered his services as a mujahideen,” he said.

Throughout the proceedings Kasab sat quietly, face nestled in his palm, and looking down at the ground. He spoke to a guard just once to ask for water. Before sentencing him, Judge Tahaliyani gave him one last chance to speak. He explained to him that his crimes warranted death, and he could tell the court if there was anything on his mind. Kasab, however, declined the privilege and slumped back on his bench slowly.

The judge reminded the defence lawyer that evidence showed that Kasab had several opportunities to leave the LeT training camp but was determined to stay on and attack India. “When the strike was delayed and the group was told to stay put in Karachi, Kasab was anxious about when he would get an opportunity to attack,” Tahaliyani said.

Describing the extreme terror Mumbai faced on 26/11, the judge referred to recordings of telephonic conversations between the gunmen holed up at various locations and their handlers sitting in Pakistan. “There was no remorse at the killing of so many people. The gunmen had come prepared to die,” he said.

The Supreme Court has said that while sentencing a man to death, the judge must prepare a balance sheet of mitigating and aggravating circumstances. In Kasab’s case, Tahaliyani said he could not find a single mitigating factor. “Everything is in favour of the prosecution,” he said, declaring that the death penalty was the only option.  — Courtsey The Times Of India