The British government announced plans on Tuesday to limit the number of foreign students studying in the country.

The plans, announced in a government green paper, are not yet certain to become law but they could see up to 120,000 students from outside the European Union (EU) excluded from studying in Britain in future years.

Britain is unable to limit the number of students from EU countries who study in there, but the new coalition government faces a problem because the senior coalition party, the Conservatives, promised in its manifesto in the run-up to the May general election that it would cut the number of immigrants from 215,000 in 2009 each year to a promised “tens of thousands” by the time of the next scheduled election in 2015.

Last week the government took the first step towards reaching this target by restricting the number of visas available for workers from outside the EU to come and work in Britain.

Immigration Minister Damian Green explained the plans on Tuesday to limit student numbers. He said: “We must be more selective about who can come here and how long they can stay. People imagine students to be those who come here for a few years to study at university and then go home — that is not always the case.

“Too many students coming to study at below degree level have been coming here to live and work, rather than studying. We need to stop this abuse.

“Today’s proposals follow a major review of the system, and are aimed at a more selective system and, crucially, reducing the numbers to meet our target of reducing net migration to sustainable levels.”

In addition, favorable visa policies which allowed students to remain in Britain and look for work after their courses had finished will be changed. Tens of thousands of non-EU students who are currently able to remain in Britain, may soon be forced to return to their home countries.

British government statistics show that up to 66 percent of non- EU immigrants arrive as students who later seek work after finishing study.

The government estimates that 300,000 students from outside the EU study each year in Britain, and that 120,000 of those study on courses below degree level. It is these students who will be most affected by the proposed changes if they are introduced.

The government has said it will only allow highly-trusted educational institutes, like universities, to offer places to non- EU students, and this could spell financial disaster for the many private colleges which have sprung up across the country.

The government says that some of these colleges are not strict enough on students, and allow them to work when they should be studying full-time, while other courses are bogus and merely allow foreign students to come to Britain and to then hunt for work.

The government paper will be open for discussion for the next two months. It also includes proposals to introduce a tougher English language requirement ensuring students wishing to extend their studies show evidence of academic progression; limiting students’ entitlements to work and their ability to bring in dependents; and improving the accreditation process for schools and colleges, alongside more rigorous inspections.

The government aims to have any changes in student visas in place for the next academic year, which begins in autumn 2011.

Some professional bodies were swift to criticize the government plans.

Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK which represents the universities in Britain, said: “We do not think international students should be counted as migrants. They are not here for economic reasons. Unlike workers, their time in the UK does not count towards any later application for settlement, and they have no recourse to public funds. If students wish to progress onto further study or take up employment, they must apply to the Home Office for another visa.

“As part of the review, it’s crucial that the Home Office publishes more information about the different types of international students coming to study in the UK — whether they are here to study at universities, independent schools, further education colleges, English language colleges or in the private sector.”

She warned that international student mobility was “crucial” to the success of British universities, and that policy decisions about future student immigration policy was “based on proper evidence and not anecdote.”

Iran’s representative at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Mohammad Ali Khatibi said Tuesday that the era of cheap crude oil supply is already over and the global oil crisis is approaching, the semi- official Mehr news agency reported.

Talking to Mehr, Khatibi said the era of producing and supplying the cheap crude oil is already over and in future the global production of the crude oil will drop, adding the uncertainty crisis over the crude oil supply to the world market is approaching.

Talking ahead of the 158th meeting of the OPEC to be held in Ecuador, Khatibi also said studies show that in the mid-term perspective the crude oil prices will soar in the global market.

In 2011, it is something natural for the crude oil to be supplied at 100 U.S. dollars a barrel, said the Iranian official.

In recent years, some of the none-OPEC oil producers have oversupplied the market which will be unlikely to happen in the future, he said.

It is even possible that the OPEC members to decrease their output in the mid-term run and this causes major concerns over the stable supply of the crude oil in the energy market, he added.

The 157th meeting of OPEC decided to transfer the presidency of the organization to Iran from January 2011. For the first time in the past 36 years, Iranian Minister of Oil Masoud Mirkazemi was elected as chairman of OPEC at a one-day meeting in Vienna.

The OPEC is a cartel of 12 developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Iran, one of the OPEC members, is the world’s fourth largest oil producer.

As the last dying ambers of the worst fire in the history of Israel are being put out, the Jewish state is starting to deal with aftermath of the great fire.

The blaze was contained after massive support from the United States, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Jordan, Egypt and other countries, as well as the Palestinians. Over 40 people lost their lives and an area of 50 square kilometers were ravaged.

Analyst said that despite calls for the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down, he will remain in place, and that the Israeli economy will emerge unaffected.

NO CHANGE IN GOVERNMENT’S POLICY

Despite the fact that Turkey was one of the first countries to send firefighting aircraft to Israel, Prof. Efraim Inbar, the head of the Begin-Saadat Center for Strategic Studies at the Bar-Ilan University, predicts that we will not see a quick improvement in relations between the two nations.

“(Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan made clear that he is still not a friend of Israel,” Inbar said, referring to the tension that has been growing between the two since the Islamic based Justice and Development Party (AKP) under Erdogan came to power.

Erdogan demands that Israel apologizes and pays compensation to Turkey for the damage caused when Israeli navy intercepted a convoy under Turkish flag trying to break Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza in May 2010.

“I don’t think we will see a change soon unless there is a change in government,” Inbar said.

Asked if the disaster will affect the Israeli government, Inbar believes the fire is not “a real crisis that will threaten the stability of the government,” adding that Israel have seen worse.

Israeli government performed even worse during the 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to Inbar, “but in the end it did not fall.”

Dr. Avi Bareli from the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev said that there might be a change in Israeli-Turkish relation, but “it depends on the political will of the two sides.”

In addition, Bareli said that the Netanyahu government will remain intact despite the fire.

“The government won’t fall, it will survive this crisis and I don’t think we will see any major political outcome from this disaster,” he said.

PALESTINIAN HOPE

The pessimistic sentiments on the Israeli side are not shared by Naji Shurab, a professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. He told Xinhua that the firefighters sent by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in the West Bank to help Israeli emergency services could be the beginning of renewed confidence between the two sides.

“This is a real opportunity for Israel,” he said, hoping that this might restart negotiations with renewed confidence.”When Israel was in this weak position and was not able to fight the fire alone, the Palestinians hurried to help them,” he said.

Shurab also pointed out that aid came quickly from Jordan and Egypt.

The help from the Palestinians was a very positive sign, according to Shurab, as it shows Israel that it is not alone in the region and it needs the cooperation of others.

If the parties can join hands in putting out the fire, Shurab said “we also have to cooperate to put an end to occupation, violence and terrorism.”

Asked what the Palestinians are likely to do if negotiations would not resume, Shurab said “after the failure of negotiations, the Palestinians have no option but to go the United Nations and take a decision concerning the establishment of their state and put an end to the Israeli occupation.”

ECONOMIC RESILIENCE

Prof. Michael Beenstock from the department of economics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem believes that despite the massive destruction of forest there will hardly be any negative economic effects on the national level.

“Israel has gone through wars that have lasted longer than the fire, and those made no difference to the economy,” he said, quoting figures that show economic growth and unemployment remained unaffected in 2006.

“The fire is a small thing compared to these wars that we have been through,” Beenstock said.

Of course there have been costs in the form of lost houses that need to be rebuilt, but these are insured in the international insurance market so the risk spreads out globally and not just in Israel, according to Beenstock.

He also remained confident that the tourism industry in northern Israel will recover as rapidly as it did after the second Lebanon war in 2006. “The economy made up for lost time and as soon as the disaster stopped, there was a catch up effect,” which minimized the economic damage, he said.

“For the economy as a whole this is minor matter,” Beenstock summarized.

As the last dying ambers of the worst fire in the history of Israel are being put out, the Jewish state is starting to deal with aftermath of the great fire.

The blaze was contained after massive support from the United States, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Jordan, Egypt and other countries, as well as the Palestinians. Over 40 people lost their lives and an area of 50 square kilometers were ravaged.

Analyst said that despite calls for the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down, he will remain in place, and that the Israeli economy will emerge unaffected.

NO CHANGE IN GOVERNMENT’S POLICY

Despite the fact that Turkey was one of the first countries to send firefighting aircraft to Israel, Prof. Efraim Inbar, the head of the Begin-Saadat Center for Strategic Studies at the Bar-Ilan University, predicts that we will not see a quick improvement in relations between the two nations.

“(Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan made clear that he is still not a friend of Israel,” Inbar said, referring to the tension that has been growing between the two since the Islamic based Justice and Development Party (AKP) under Erdogan came to power.

Erdogan demands that Israel apologizes and pays compensation to Turkey for the damage caused when Israeli navy intercepted a convoy under Turkish flag trying to break Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza in May 2010.

“I don’t think we will see a change soon unless there is a change in government,” Inbar said.

Asked if the disaster will affect the Israeli government, Inbar believes the fire is not “a real crisis that will threaten the stability of the government,” adding that Israel have seen worse.

Israeli government performed even worse during the 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to Inbar, “but in the end it did not fall.”

Dr. Avi Bareli from the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev said that there might be a change in Israeli-Turkish relation, but “it depends on the political will of the two sides.”

In addition, Bareli said that the Netanyahu government will remain intact despite the fire.

“The government won’t fall, it will survive this crisis and I don’t think we will see any major political outcome from this disaster,” he said.

PALESTINIAN HOPE

The pessimistic sentiments on the Israeli side are not shared by Naji Shurab, a professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. He told Xinhua that the firefighters sent by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in the West Bank to help Israeli emergency services could be the beginning of renewed confidence between the two sides.

“This is a real opportunity for Israel,” he said, hoping that this might restart negotiations with renewed confidence.”When Israel was in this weak position and was not able to fight the fire alone, the Palestinians hurried to help them,” he said.

Shurab also pointed out that aid came quickly from Jordan and Egypt.

The help from the Palestinians was a very positive sign, according to Shurab, as it shows Israel that it is not alone in the region and it needs the cooperation of others.

If the parties can join hands in putting out the fire, Shurab said “we also have to cooperate to put an end to occupation, violence and terrorism.”

Asked what the Palestinians are likely to do if negotiations would not resume, Shurab said “after the failure of negotiations, the Palestinians have no option but to go the United Nations and take a decision concerning the establishment of their state and put an end to the Israeli occupation.”

ECONOMIC RESILIENCE

Prof. Michael Beenstock from the department of economics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem believes that despite the massive destruction of forest there will hardly be any negative economic effects on the national level.

“Israel has gone through wars that have lasted longer than the fire, and those made no difference to the economy,” he said, quoting figures that show economic growth and unemployment remained unaffected in 2006.

“The fire is a small thing compared to these wars that we have been through,” Beenstock said.

Of course there have been costs in the form of lost houses that need to be rebuilt, but these are insured in the international insurance market so the risk spreads out globally and not just in Israel, according to Beenstock.

He also remained confident that the tourism industry in northern Israel will recover as rapidly as it did after the second Lebanon war in 2006. “The economy made up for lost time and as soon as the disaster stopped, there was a catch up effect,” which minimized the economic damage, he said.

“For the economy as a whole this is minor matter,” Beenstock summarized.

Mice born in winter may be more likely to show dramatic disruptions in their biological clocks later in life compared with those born in summer, a new study available here on Sunday suggests.

The finding is the first of its kind in mammals, and could explain why people born in the winter are at higher risk for mental health disorders including bipolar depression, schizophrenia and seasonal affective disorder, according to the study conducted by researchers at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.

The researchers began their experiment by raising baby mice from birth to weaning (about three weeks) in either “summer” light cycles of 16 hours of light and eight hours of dark or “winter” cycles of eight hours of light and 16 hours of dark. A third group experienced 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark a day.

After they were weaned, the baby mice got shuffled into new light cycles. Half the winter mice stayed in a winter cycle, while half switched to a summer schedule. The summer mice were similarly split. The mice raised in equal periods of light and dark were split into three groups, one of which stayed on the 12-hour schedule, one of which joined the winter group, and one of which joined the summer subset.

After 28 days, all of the mice went into an environment of continuous darkness, eliminating the light cues that influence the biological clock. That way, researchers could determine the intrinsic biological cycle of each mouse.

The summer-born mice behaved the same whether they stayed on the summer cycle or switched to winter: They ran at the time they once knew as dusk, continued for 10 hours, and then rested for 14 hours.

But the winter-born mice didn’t react as well to the switch in seasons. Those that stayed in winter kept their 10-hours-on, 14- hours-off schedule. In contrast, those that switched to summer stayed active for an extra hour and a half. The findings showed that light signals could shape the development of the biological clock, study researcher Douglas McMahon, a biologist at the university, said in a statement published by Livescience.com on Sunday.

“We know that the biological clock regulates mood in humans,” said McMahon.

“If an imprinting mechanism similar to the one that we found in mice operates in humans, then it could not only have an effect on a number of behavioral disorders, but also have a more general effect on personality.”

Whether humans might have similar responses to early-life light exposure isn’t yet known, but McMahon said that the winter-born mice’s exaggerated response to seasons changing was “strikingly similar” to human seasonal affective disorder.

Although research has shown that a winter birth raises the risk for certain mental disorders, there are many factors that could be at play, including exposure to flu or other seasonal diseases, experts say.

The finding that light in infancy can play a role in later life may prove important for understanding how these disorders arise, the researchers noted.

E-commerce experts from the Arab world convened in Amman Sunday at the start of the Arab Conference on E-Commerce to look into mechanisms to boost and develop inter- Arab e-commerce.

Participants in the two-day Arab Conference on E-Commerce will discuss obstacles facing e-commerce in the Arab world and look into regional cooperation to develop infrastructure and unify procedures to bolster e-commerce in the Arab countries.

At the opening of the conference, Jordan’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology Marwan Juma said Jordan is working on the implementation of a strategy for the years 2008- 2012 to promote e-commerce in the kingdom.

The minister added that e-commerce has become a major supporter of economies, adding that the ministry is working on drawing up required legislation to regulate this type of trading.

In Jordan, the government is working on finalizing a law to promote and encourage e-commerce, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology.

The law, which is expected to be endorsed before the end of 2010, provides protection to e-commerce users and is expected to increase volumes of e-commerce in the Arab kingdom, according to the ministry.

Jordan’s Minister of Industry and Trade Amer Hadidi said e-commerce is one of the important tools that should be used to penetrate new markets.

Hadidi called for unified efforts and quick actions in the Arab world to foster e-commerce and face challenges it faces, especially that e-commerce does not receive due attention in most of the Arab states.

Organized by the Jordan Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with the Arab Administrative Development Organization, the conference brought about participants from Libya, Kuwait, Yemen, Iraq, Palestine, Tunisia, among others.

According to a study by the Amman-based Arab Advisors Group, 15.4 per cent of Internet users in Jordan are e-commerce users.

The study released in September estimated the number of Jordan Internet users who use e-commerce to be more than 181,000 which is around 3.0 per cent of the total population in Jordan.

According to the study, e-commerce users in Jordan spent about 192 million U.S. dollars in e-commerce transactions (buying products, paying for services and paying bills on-line) from Sept. 2009 until Sept. 2010.

In the cold on Sunday morning, a 31-year-old woman surnamed Zhang arrived at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology to sit a highly competitive exam for a government job at 9 a.m.

Even though her current job here in Beijing with a multinational accounting firm pays well, Zhang said the pressure was heavy and she often had to work overtime.

“The reason I’m sitting this exam is that I want to switch to a more stable and easier job,” she said.

Zhang is among the more than one million Chinese who took the annual National Public Servant Exam in 46 cities across the country Sunday, hoping to gain admittance to the civil service of the central authorities.

The exam involves two written tests, one of which is in the morning and the other in the afternoon. The first features multi-choice questions concerning the Chinese language, as well as maths and logic. The second quizzes the candidates’ writing skills and ideas on certain issues.

An increasing number of people have qualified to sit the exam over the past six years, from 120,000 in 2004 to more than 1.4 million this year.

However, very recently numbers have begun to drop. Nie Shengkui, a senior official in charge of the exam with the State Administration of Civil Service (SACS), says the economy and people becoming more realistic about their chances are the two main reasons for this.

“This year, we have 1.41 million qualified applicants, 30,000 less than last year,” Nie said, adding that China’s rapidly growing economy was providing many different kinds of job opportunities.

Also, at least 85 percent of jobs with the central authorities this year require more than two years work experience, which could dissuade college graduates from sitting the exam, Nie said.

To take the exam, people must first pass the qualifying stage. In addition, the actual number of people who end up sitting the exam is always slightly less than the number who qualified.

The number of exam takers Sunday reached 1.03 million, 10,000 less than last year, but still ludicrously high given that only 16,000 jobs are up for grabs, said Nie Shengkui.

This means roughly only one out of 64 exam takers could land a government job.

In an extreme case, 4,961 people are contending for a single post offered by the National Energy Administration.

On Sunday, the national public servant exam tops the topics list that appears on the main web page of the country’s most popular twitter-like micro-blog service t.sina.com.cn.

Over 100,000 microblogs concerning the topic have already been posted online as of 1:30 p.m.

One entry said that the chance of 1 in 64 reflects the cruelty of competition while Wei Mingzhi sent his best wishes to his brother who was taking the exam.

There are also posts by those who argue that the high number of people who sit the exam reflects the strong desire for security which a public service job can offer, at a time of soaring property prices and rising inflation.

Work stability, benefits such as low-cost medicare and subsidies on transportation and lunches are among the perks of a government job.

Li Xiaomeng, a student from Beijing International Studies University, spent nearly 2,000 yuan (around 300 U.S. dollars) in a training course preparing him for the exam.

“I want to stay in Beijing. I also want to find a stable job. I think there’s no better choice than I take this exam and hopefully become a public servant,” Li Xiaomeng said.

Chinese people in recent years have shown an increasing interest in finding a “red-collar job,” a widespread Internet term nowadays which means a public servant job.

Exam takers who do well in the first round will still face more examinations including specialized tests and interviews organized by different government departments through till the end of March next year.

Zhao Huiqin, a student from the Beijing-based Minzu University of China, said her first choice was to take the public servant exam as she had spent about half a year preparing for the tests. Despite the slim chances, she is hopeful that she will get through and end up working in that dream government job.

Leaders of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are to meet Monday here for their 31st summit, with economic integration and regional hot-spot issues looming high on their agenda.

The following is an introduction of the GCC, a political and economic alliance that has gained steady growth in recent years.

Founded in 1981, the GCC groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Sitting atop the largest crude exporting region in the world, the six countries together hold around 45 percent of the global oil reserves and contribute 16 million barrels of crude per day.

The main functioning bodies of the bloc are the Supreme Council, the Ministerial Council and the Secretariat General.

The Supreme Council is the highest decision-making body of the bloc, with its yearly presidency rotated according to the alphabetical order of the names of the member states. The council holds one regular session annually.

Foreign ministers and delegated ministers of member states make up the Ministerial Council, whose job include proposing policies, preparing recommendations, studies and projects aimed at promoting cooperation and coordination between member states and adopting the resolutions or recommendations required in that regard.

The Secretariat General, the administrative body of the organization’s daily work, comprises a secretary general and three assistant secretary generals. The secretary general is appointed by the Supreme Council to take up a three-year job.

Leaders of the six countries meet in November or December every year for their annual summit. Ministers also meet on a regular basis or emergency meeting to discuss major issues in economy and politics to coordinate stance and action.

Since its establishment, members have made remarkable headway on the road to economic integration, including the establishment of a customs union in 2003 and the initiative to create a unified Gulf currency.

The 20th Ibero-American Summit ended in the Argentine coastal town of Mar del Plata on Saturday, with bold commitments to promote education and prosperity in the region.

During the two-day gathering, leaders and representatives from 22 participating countries analyzed an agenda known as “Education for the Social Inclusion,” and agreed on an ambitious plan with 100 billion U.S. dollars of education investments over the next 11 years.

They also approved the creation of a solidarity fund of three billion U.S. dollars to fight against illiteracy and the lack of educational access.

A 57-point final declaration of the summit reaffirms Ibero-American countries’obligation to “the development of public policies of inter-sectorial character with equity and inclusion to allow reducing the education inequality regarding access and quality at all its levels.”

The leaders pledged to “promote the universal education with quality as a fundamental and inalienable human right, “stressing that education “will be reaffirmed as a public good, as tool to boost the daily exercise of integration and productivity.”

In the context, they demanded the inclusion of “promotion efforts for the bilingual and intercultural education to assist the rights of gender equality, the cultural differences, the ethnic minorities, the original people and the Afro-descendant indigenous people.”

A draft of Japan’s policy guidelines urged for limiting the growth of its defense expenses at zero percent or lower from their fiscal 2009 level in the next five years, local media reported on Sunday.

The Ministry of Defense has requested a 155,000-quota for the Ground Self-Defense Force, down 2,000 from its previous request. The number is expected to be further cut due to strong calls for the reduction within the Democratic Party of Japan-led ruling bloc, Kyodo News reported.

The document, which is to be approved by the Cabinet later this month, said Japan will enhance defense cooperation not only with the United States but also with South Korea and Australia.

In the draft, terrorism and guerrilla attacks are described as “new threats”. The document indicates that Japan will shift toward a more multifunctional, resilient and effective defense capability to help contain threats to regional security and avoid a situation in which Japan would be a power vacuum in the region, according to Kyodo News report.

In addition, the Ministry will expand its Maritime Self-Defense Force submarines from 16 to 22 and step up studies for procuring new main fighter planes for the Air Self-Defense Force, a draft appendix states.