By Wesa Chau*
 Melbourne - It may be entirely coincidental that the Hales Institute, the latest private college to head into receivership, specialised in cooking and hairdressing training – the very coursesthe Federal Government removed from its priority list last month.
 
The Hales collapse, however, has placed another 1,000 thousand students in limbo and the Government needs to take care not to strangle Australia’s fourth largest foreign currency earner after coal, iron ore and gold.
 

Wesa Chau
 
Melbourne - It’s a tragedy that international students are being killed on our streets – but it will become a scandal if Governments don’t act swiftly to protect them and the $15 billion industry they sustain.
 
Thursday’s high-profile police operation in Melbourne’s western suburbs is a good start and should be maintained. 
It shows authorities can act on the ground to protect the community against thugs like those who killed graduating Indian international student Nitin Garg.  This kind of active policing is to be applauded and encouraged.  However, it cannot end there.
 

By Nosrat Hosseini
Iranian Women’s Association 
 Melbourne - “Dialogue of Civilisations” is the theme for former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami’s talks in Australia, sponsored by La Trobe University’s Centre for Dialogue.

By Ayan Shirwa     

 MELBOURNE - “Excuse me”, the woman whispers. I smile politely at her, wondering what she wants. “That thing on your head, you know you don’t have to wear it," she tells me.

I glance around the crowded bus. My critic speaks not just to me but the other passengers as well.  The woman is smiling, seemingly oblivious that maybe, just maybe, she should not be critiquing a stranger's choice of religious dress. "You're a pretty girl. You shouldn’t hide behind that head wrap.”

By Omar Farah

 MELBOURNE - Many Horn of African people are struggling to find work in the jobs they were trained for despite job vacancies.