Australia intends to impose tougher visa checks on people from countries considered at high risk for terrorism as part of an A$69 million (US$62 million) counterterrorism plan released yesterday.
The new visa requirements, which include mandatory collection of fingerprints and facial imaging data for visa applicants from 10 countries, would help keep terrorists from evading detection, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in releasing the government’s counterterrorism “white paper” in Canberra.
“Terrorism has become a persistent and permanent feature of Australia’s security environment,” Rudd said. “Prior to the rise of jihadist terrorism, Australia was not a specific target. Now Australia is such a target.”
Under the plans, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship would begin collecting the fingerprints and facial images this year, and cross-check them with immigration and law enforcement databases in Australia and overseas, the report said. It does not name which countries would be subject to the new requirements.
“We’re not identifying those countries until the rollout occurs,” Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said. “There may be a diplomatic effort required in regards to some of those countries, as you would expect.”
The report does, however, name both Yemen and Somalia as countries that are of growing concern to those combating terrorism.
Not everyone supported the government’s plan to require fingerprints and photographs of visa applicants, including New South Wales Civil Liberties Council president Cameron Murphy.
“I am very concerned that these things pose an ever-increasing invasion of privacy,” Murphy said.
While the report says the primary terrorist threat to Australia comes from a global jihadist movement, including al-Qaeda, it also cites a rise in the number of terrorists born or raised in Australia. The government notes the 2005 London suicide bombings carried out by British nationals as an example of the growing threat of locally generated terrorism in Western democracies.
Of the 38 people Australia has prosecuted as a result of counterterrorism operations, 37 are Australian citizens, Attorney General Robert McClelland said.
“That is an indication that we are not simply looking at the possibility of a terrorist event occurring from overseas,” he said.
Last week, a judge sentenced five men — all Australian-born or naturalized citizens — to between 23 and 28 years in prison for stockpiling explosive chemicals and firearms that were to be used in terrorist attacks.
The government plans to establish a counterterrorism control center to coordinate Australia’s domestic and international intelligence efforts.
More than 100 Australians have been killed in terrorist attacks worldwide since 2001.
Meanwhile, Australian colleges catering to foreign students will face more rigorous regulation by year’s end as the government weeds out unscrupulous operators, the education minister said yesterday.
Under a bill passed on Monday, all colleges and schools providing courses to international students will have to re-register with the government under strengthened criteria by Dec. 31.
“This is intended to reinforce confidence in the quality of the Australian international education sector,” Australian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said.
“While the vast majority of education providers are delivering quality education, unfortunately the sector has been tarnished by the activities of a few,” she said in a statement.
Under the new rules, colleges will have to prove that education is their principal purpose and that they are able to deliver courses of a high standard.
Colleges will also be more accountable for the actions of the agents they use to recruit students.
Education is Australia’s third-largest export earner — worth more than US$12 billion annually — with tens of thousands of students streaming in each year from China and India.
But some of the colleges that have sprung up to meet this booming demand have been acknowledged as sub-standard, providing courses that failed to deliver any educational value.
Student groups have also raised concerns about unscrupulous agents targeting foreign students, providing inadequate courses and promising to obtain Australian residency in return for huge fees.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the