Australia toughens up immigration but lets in more refugees

The amendments to the Migration Act narrowly passed in the Lower House on Friday morning after a stormy late-night debate in the upper house.
  
The 'temporary protection visas' grant refugees protection for three years but do not give them the right to settle in Australia for good.
  
They could also be returned to their home country after a reassessment at the end of that period.
  
The government re-introduced the visas, used by previous conservative governments, to deal with a backlog of 30,000 asylum-seekers who arrived by boat.
  
However, it also pledged to increase the overall refugee intake by 7,500 and free hundreds of children held in detention.
  
"This is a win for Australia," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said.
  
He confirmed that in a trade-off agreed by the government to get the bill through the Senate, about 470 asylum-seeker children will be among 1,500 people released from detention centres and placed in the mainland community.
  
Australia has come under international pressure over its offshore detention of asylum-seekers on its Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island, where some children are held, and in Pacific camps as well as for the turning back of asylum boats.
  
"We always said that three things were necessary to stop the boats offshore processing, turning boats around and temporary protection visas and last night the final piece of policy was put in place," Abbott said.
  
"This will enable the government to deal with the backlog of 30,000 people who came to Australia illegally by boat under Labor," Abbott told a press conference, referring to the previous government.
  
"These people, if they're found to be refugees, will receive temporary protection visas which means that no one coming to Australia illegally by boat can expect to get permanent residency," he said.
  
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said, in another trade-off, the official quota of refugees allowed into Australia would increase to 18,750 a year.

Source:News and  World News

Aussies return to training post-Hughes, practice bouncers

For most of the players in the squad it was their first practice session after close to one-and-half weeks. With the first Commonwealth Bank Test series against India starting on December 9, the Aussies looked to utilising every moment.

 Having bid farewell to their friend and teammate at an emotional service in Macksville on Wednesday, the Australians turned their focus to on-field activities. After warming up, which included drills and some dancing, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Josh Hazlewood started bowling in the nets.

Hazlewood looked the most lively of the three, hurling short-pitched deliveries to first Chris Rogers and then Shane Watson. Even the Marsh brothers were at it, with Mitchell's short-ball inducing a false stroke from older brother Shaun.

 It was not all about the short-stuff but it was enough to suggest that the passing away of Hughes would not affect the aggression of the Aussies on the field. "That's the way we've always played, (We will play) normal Test cricket, good hard Test cricket like we always want to play as an Australian team," Coach Darren Lehman was quoted as saying in the Cricket Australia (CA) website.

 "We've got to play a certain way, we know that, to get the best out of our players and ourselves and our team. They want to get out there and do what they've done for many years, play cricket and enjoy the game that we all love," he added.

Source: News and Sports News

Australia hands over 37 asylum seekers to Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankans are the first to be turned back in five months as Australia's Supreme Court hears a test case challenging the government's right to intercept asylum seekers' boats outside its territorial waters.

The coastguard intercepted the vessel carrying the Sri Lankans, attempting to travel illegally by boat to Australia, near the Indonesian coast on November 26 and handed over the asylum-seekers to Sri Lanka's navy.

Sri Lankan police spokesman and Superintendent Ajith Rohana said the boat had left Sri Lanka on November 1 and had six children on board.
  
"They were handed over to the Sri Lanka Navy on November 27," Rohana said. He said that 37 people were arrested and investigations are being conducted by the anti-people smuggling unit of the Criminal Investigation Department.
  
The returns were the first since July when a boat loaded with 41 nationals was intercepted by Australia. Sri Lanka charged them with illegally leaving the country, and their cases are due to be taken up by a court.

Australia has given two vessels to Sri Lanka's navy to patrol its shores and stop boats leaving the island, as part of Canberra's hardline border protection policy.

Australia faces international censure over its treatment of boat people, who are denied resettlement in Australia and sent to camps in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific state of Nauru.

Source:News and World News

Fishes have very good memories

Fishes even recognize themselves and others. They also cooperate with one another and show signs of Machiavellian intelligence such as cooperation and reconciliation. They build complex structures, are capable of using tools and use the same methods for keeping track of quantities as humans do, the study noted.

"The extensive evidence of fish behavioural and cognitive sophistication and pain perception suggests that best practice would be to lend fish the same level of protection as any other vertebrate," added Brown, who reviewed bony fish for the study.

The more than 32,000 known species of fish far outweigh the diversity of all other vertebrates combined but very little public concern - which is so important to inform policy - is ever noted about fish welfare issues, the researcher contended.

The study appeared in the journal Animal Cognition.

Source: Lifestyle News