8 theSun | FRIDAY AUGUST 21 2009

news without borders

Crunch day for

A-levels students
LONDON: School leavers who
fail to get the A-level grades
they need for their chosen uni-
versities yesterday have been
warned to move fast to beat
an unprecedented squeeze on
higher education places.
Hundreds of thousands of
students will be receiving their
results during the morning but
with university applications at
a record high, those who just
miss their grades face tough
competition to find a college
berth.
An extra 60,000 people
have applied for university this
year, an increase of around
11%, while the government
has only agreed to fully fund a
rise of around 3,000 full-time
students.
More than a third of the
increase comes from mature
applicants aged 21 and over,
many seeking a haven from
the economic recession that
has fuelled unemployment and
made jobs scarce.
Last year, 44,000 applicants
who had just missed their re-
quired grades were able to get
on another course through the
universities clearing system.
But clearing body UCAS says
it expects only around half that
number of places to be avail-
able this year because of the
extra demand.
“The increased pressure
on places this year means that
competition is likely to be more
intense and it will be a chal-
lenging time for everyone,” said
Diana Warwick, chief executive
of the vice-chancellors’ body
Universities UK.
“The clearing process for
this summer will be briefer and
tighter than in previous years.”
Students failing to get the
grades they need are being ad-
vised to start looking for clear-
ing places as early as possible
yesterday.
But inevitably many will miss
out, with more than 600,000 ap-
plicants chasing around 460,000
university places.
Unlike previous years, the
government has put a tight limit
on university student numbers
in order to keep a lid on rising
education expenditure, and has
threatened financial penalties
for universities that over-re-
cruit.
Business Secretary Lord
Mandelson announced an
extra 10,000 places for science
courses last month, but funding
for these will only cover loans
and grants to students, with no
additional payments to univer-
sities to cover teaching costs.
As a result, many universi-
ties have said they cannot
afford to offer them, saying the
quality of the courses would
suffer. – Reuters
Afghans turn out to vote
despite sporadic violence
KABUL: Millions of Afghans
went to the polls yesterday, defy-
ing Taliban threats of violence
and sporadic attacks across the
country to choose a president in
the midst of a worsening war.
“The Afghan people dared
Freespace: rockets, bombs and intimidation
and came out to vote,” President
Bringing Hamid Karzai (pix) told a news
the conference after polls closed.
nation into “We’ll see what the turnout
was. But they came out to vote.
disrepute That’s great, that’s great.”
pg 12 Two Taliban fighters were
killed in a gunbattle in the capital
and rockets fell on several towns,
mainly in the south and east, but
violence tapered off during the
day. Karzai said in all there were
73 attacks in 15 of the country’s
34 provinces.
“Overall, the security situation
has been better than we feared.
That is certainly the most positive
aspect of these elections,” said
Kai Eide, head of the UN mission
in Kabul. “The security situation
has, in general, allowed people to
take part in the elections.”
Pre-election polls showed Kar-
zai, in power since 2001, is likely
to win but not by enough to avoid
a run-off against his main chal- could begin to report sooner. A
lenger, his former foreign minister run-off, if needed, would be held
Abdullah Abdullah, who ran a in early October.
surprisingly energetic campaign. Taliban militants had repeat-
The election is in large meas- edly vowed to disrupt the poll,
ure a referendum on Karzai, a but they failed to mount a single
master coalition builder who is large-scale attack. Many Afghans
personally liked by most Afghans said they were not intimidated.
but also widely blamed for run- “The Afghan people are used
ning a government that is corrupt, to living under the worst circum-
ineffective and entirely dependent stances of insecurity and fighting,
on international aid. why should they be afraid to
He relied for votes on the come out and vote?” said Sayed
endorsements of many of the Mustafa, a Kabul student, show-
country’s notorious former militia ing an ink-stained finger
chiefs, raising alarm among his that proved he
Western backers that the cost of a had voted.
victory in the election could be a – Reuters
return of warlords to power.
The election was also a
test for US President Barack
Obama, who has ordered a
massive troop build-up this
year as part of a strategy to
reverse Taliban gains.
His envoy for the region,
Richard Holbrooke, toured
polling stations in Kabul
and said the voting was
“open and honest”.
Preliminary results are
not due for two weeks,
although polling stations

fore forcing one of her hands to his groin.

briefs A total of 13 students and staff are
scheduled to give evidence for the prosecu-
tion. – dpa

Indonesia militants plot Lockerbie bomber freed

Obama attack: Expert
JAKARTA: A police investigation into last month’s
Jakarta hotel bombings shows that militants also
planned to use snipers to attack Barack Obama’s
convoy when the US president visits Indonesia,
an intelligence expert told Reuters.
Dynno Chressbon, an intelligence analyst at
the Centre for Intelligence and National Security
who is close to the police investigations, said
two of four wanted suspects – Ario Sudarso
and Mohamad Syahrir – had been prepared as
snipers for an attack on Obama.
“For Obama, they planned to attack the
convoy around the airport using MK-IIIs,” he said,
referring to a Russian-made sniper rifle that he
said was used by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Obama has been widely expected to include
a stopover in Indonesia when he attends the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in
Singapore in November.
The alleged snipers were from a group called
the Indonesian Islamic State, which has a train-
ing camp in the restive southern Philippines and
also has received support from a group headed
by Malaysian-born militant Noordin Mohammad
Top, Chressbon said. – Reuters
Professor accused
of groping students
HONGKONG: An expatriate university profes-
sor in Hongkong went on trial yesterday for
allegedly groping female students who went
to his study to seek help over poor results.
Linguistics expert Terence Joseph Shortall,
53, denies two charges of indecently as-
saulting female students in his office at the
University of Hongkong.
At the opening of the trial at Hongkong’s
Eastern magistrates court on Wednesday, a
21-year-old student testified from behind a
screen with details of how Shortall allegedly
molested her on May 8.
She told the court she went to see him
about her poor academic results. Shortall
allegedly stroked her back and waist then
touched her underwear and kissed her be-
to die in Libya
GLASGOW: The terminally-ill Libyan convicted
for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing headed home
from Scotland yesterday after being freed on
compassionate grounds despite US anger over
the gesture.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, the
only person found guilty of blowing up a US
passenger jet and killing 270 people, walked
unaided up the steps of a Libyan jet sent from
Tripoli to collect him.
Carrying a stick and dressed from head to
toe in white, the 57-year-old covered his face
with a scarf as he slowly boarded the plane.
His release from a prison near Glasgow came
barely an hour after Scotland’s justice secretary
Kenny MacAskill announced that Megrahi was
being freed because he has advanced prostate
cancer and was expected to die in less than
three months.
But the gesture was immediately con-
demned by the US government. “The US deeply
regrets the decision by the Scottish Executive
to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi,”
a White House statement said. – AFP
Swiss president apologises
for Gaddafi son’s arrest
TRIPOLI: Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz
apologised to the Libyan government yester-
day for the brief detention last year of a son of
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, clearing the
way for a return to normal diplomatic ties.
“We are apologising for what happened
to Hannibal Gaddafi and the two sides
agreed to form a committee to discuss the
matter,” Merz told reporters in Tripoli.
Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-
Mahmoudi said the two countries had agreed
on a “normalisation” of their relationship.
Hannibal and his pregnant wife Aline were
arrested in a Geneva hotel in July 2008 on
charges of mistreating two domestic employ-
ees. Geneva’s prosecutor dropped the case
in September last year when the plaintiffs
withdrew their formal complaint. – Reuters