Australian PM Tony Abbott asked to join Colombo summit boycott

Australia's prime minister was under mounting pressure Monday to join his Indian and Canadian counterparts in boycotting a British Commonwealth summitin Sri Lanka this week over concerns about the island nation's human rights record.

India announced Sunday that Prime MinisterManmohan Singh will be the second leader after Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to boycott the Nov. 15-17 meeting. There are 54 members of the Commonwealth, a loose association of former British colonies.

Australian Senator Lee Rhiannon called on Prime Minister Tony Abbott to boycott the meeting after she and New Zealand lawmaker Jan Logie were prevented from holding a press conference on human rights issues in Colombo on Sunday by immigration officials who seized their passports and took them to their hotels for three hours of questioning.

Rhiannon, whose Greens party is not part of Australia's conservative coalition government, described the treatment as ``unlawful,'' given she had an appropriate tourist visa and a letter from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to the Sri Lankan government explaining her trip.

``I was very concerned that my liberty was denied to me for more than three hours,'' Rhiannon told reporters at Sydney Airport on Monday after arriving from Colombo.

She said the Australian delegation to the summit ``should not be headed by Mr. Abbott as prime minister.'' Abbott's office did not immediately respond to the incident on Monday.

Human rights group Amnesty International said Rhiannon's detention confirms a pattern of continuing human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.

The APNZ news service reported that Logie said she was safe after her detention.

The decisions by the Indian and Canadian leaders to not attend the summit is expected to sharpen the focus on demands by Western nations and rights activists that Sri Lanka account for thousands of civilians who are suspected to have died in the final months of a quarter-century civil war that that ended in 2009 when government forces crushed separatist Tamil rebels.

Singh sent a letter to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa expressing his inability to attend the summit, said Syed Akbaruddin, the External Affairs Ministry spokesman. He did not divulge the contents of the letter.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will represent India at the summit, Akbaruddin said.

India, which has a major interest in the issue because southern India is home to 60 million Tamils, has been urging Sri Lanka's government to resume negotiations with an ethnic Tamil party on increased local autonomy for Tamils.

After the war, Rajapaksa promised to allow a greater degree of autonomy in Tamil-majority regions in the north. However, he has been criticized by foreign countries and rights groups for failing to deliver on his promises.

Harper said last month that Canada was disturbed by ongoing reports of intimidation and incarceration of political leaders and journalists, harassment of minorities, reported disappearances and allegations of extrajudicial killings.

More: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/australian-pm-tony-abbott-asked-to-join-colombo-summit-boycott/articleshow/25578363.cms

Australia's top universities lose ground in latest Times Higher Education world rankings index

Australia's top-ranked universities have lost ground in the latest international rankings, ceding to stronger competition from their regional counterparts.

The University of Melbourne remained Australia's top-ranked institution but fell six spots to 34th in the latest Times Higher Education world rankings index.

By contrast, the National University of Singapore moved up to 23rd, placing it 11 spots ahead of Melbourne instead of one behind.

Only five of Australia's ranked universities gained ground, with the other seven all suffering falls.

Rankings editor Phil Baty says the poor performance should be a reality check for Australia.

"It's not as if suddenly Melbourne's got a lot worse, it's just that it's not competing as much," Mr Baty said.

"Standing still isn't really enough in this very intense competition among the very best in the world."

View the full university rankings list.

The Australian National University remained the nation's second-ranked institution but dipped 11 positions to 48th.

The University of Queensland (63rd) leapfrogged the University of Sydney, which dropped 10 places to 72nd.

World University Rankings 2013-14
Rank	Institution	Overall score
1	California Institute of Technology	94.9
2	Harvard University	93.9
3	University of Oxford	93.9
4	Stanford University	93.8
5	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	93.0
34	University of Melbourne	68.2
48	Australian National University	64.4
63	University of Queensland	59.9
72	University of Sydney	58.8
91	Monash University	54.6
114	University of New South Wales	51.7
168	University of Western Australia	46.4

Monash University also moved up to 91st from 99th.

University of New South Wales dropped out of the top 100 institutions to be ranked 114th.

Australia also lost a top 200 institution in the University of Adelaide, which dropped from 176th into the 201-225 bracket.

Mr Baty says the results will be particularly alarming to the sector, given it is yet to feel the full impact of $2.3 billion in planned cuts.

"The funding environment isn't helping, it's damaging the universities' ability to really stay at the top of their game and to compete on equal terms," he said.

"Australia risks losing a really strong position in the Asia-Pacific region because it lacks enthusiasm at government level for its universities."

He says the new Abbott Government has not indicated it is looking to reverse any of the cuts and its attitude to arts and humanities in particular is also worrying.

Internationally, universities in Canada, France and Israel also suffered falls overall.

Queensland University of Technology vice-chancellor Peter Couldrake says while the Times survey is one of many, it is important to keep an eye on the overall trend for Australia.

"Falls of two or three places are really statistically insignificant, it's where there are significant falls and they're occurring fall on fall where you would worry," he said.

"Countries like Taiwan, South Korea and of course China - which have all made very heavy investments in their systems, not only in research but in education and other activities as well - they're all doing well, so the competitive tide is rising," he said.

Data for the rankings are compiled by Thomson Reuters using 13 indicators across five areas.