Students battle conditions slum in Sydney (AFP)

SYDNEY (AFP) - conditions of slums, owners of overcrowding and uncertain - welcome to the housing of foreign students in the most glamorous city of the Australia.

More than 350 000 foreign students are enrolled in colleges and universities across the country, and many are attracted by the allure of cosmopolitan Sydney.

But the reality difficult to live in one of the major cities of the world, with its spectacular harbour and beaches famous, can be very different expectations.

Cheap accommodation is hard to find and owners of rogue encourage students in their nets with advertisements promising apartments quality centrally located at reasonable prices.

When they occur, housing similar to promises.

"I visited the apartment of two pieces of Haymarket which looked fine in the images," said Alice Lala, a student English student at the University of Sydney.

"The problem was that she was filled with 18 people, most of the students or working-holidays visa." These guys literally slept in boxes, crammed on one above the other. For $ 120 per week, I thought it was a joke. ?

Many students, however, would have little choice but to the rough in overcrowded and precarious of single-family homes, unable to pay anything else.

Find a place to stay in Sydney is difficult, with the traditional influx of newcomers student in February and July triggering an often astronomical increase rent about universities as spikes in demand.

Macquarie University, for example, has more than 12,000 students but less than 2,000 rooms at the University. This is a scenario similar to the University of Sydney, where 10 800 students compete 2 500 beds on campus.

"The main difficulty by all students in Sydney is the lack of affordable housing," said David Burrows, an agent of accommodation at the University of Sydney.

"Most of the students have a budget of approximately $180-200 per week, but the average price for a room near the main campus of the University in the city is $ 220."

At both ends meet, often foreign students must work on several jobs to pay their rent, making ready in convenience stores and night shifts even their bodies for medical research.

"Students are more vulnerable to predators owners," explained a spokesman for the Redfern legal Centre, which provides assistance to students who are victims of exploitation owners.

"Most of the time, they arrange accommodation prior to arrival and because they may struggle with the English that they are not aware of their rights and take everything that is offered."

-Overcrowding - in the heart of central Sydney, 33 floors above Pitt Street fashion, Matt is the search for people to share an tiny apartment he rents for Aus $700 (US$ 757) per week.

During the visit of AFP, he simply moved in and had already found two flatmates, one for the living room in a small space separated by a bulkhead and another for a bed on a closed balcony.

Four bunk beds are always available.

He wants to Aus $135 per week for each bunk, Aus $115 live spot and Aus $150 for the closed balcony room.

In total, he will provide Aus $ 805, which means Matt and his girlfriend can live free of charge, with more than $100 Aus spend your money each week.

Similar situations are frequent, despite the sublease is illegal.

Traditionally, students have found resembling flats slums announced near the universities on the lampposts.

However, the website www.gumtree.com.au has become a just also popular way to find a room or a bed. But while honesty is the standard, scams and predators exist.

"The most common scams occur when students meet false ads, created by people claiming to be owners," said Burrows, the officer of the University of Sydney.

"The student has been scammed and then by sending money to secure a room, without yet having seen available housing."

Sex for rent is another reality, that some students have addressing.

Student art Hannah Tooley posted a gumtree read "wanted" ad: "Four British girls near home of Sydney Uni research."

Within hours, she received a response: Hi, how are you? I was wondering if you all would be interested in 150 dollars an hour each cash in hand, by giving me a full massage with hand relief body? ?

Legal Centre Redfern said that he receives a variety of complaints, although sex for rent was not high on the list.

"The problem is people being stripped of their obligations, said the centre, with the owners sometimes refuse to submit deposits.

"I am certainly took advantage of,", said Brian Dawson, a U.S. student whose owner refuses to return its link 580 $ Aus.

"This is a hard lesson to learn when you are a student and the money is so tight."

To avoid scams, some students spend by real estate agents, when contracts are clear and reliable information.

But the flip side is that officers generally insist on a lease from 6 to 12 months, a requirement which cannot meet some foreign students.

Hostels Backpacker are another option. A bed in a dorm is not always cheaper than a shared apartment, but no link is necessary, and there is no invoice.

However, youth hostels are forbidden by law to take reservations for more than 28 days, which means students have to move from one to another.

The authorities have little power to restrict bad practices in the leasing, according to Council in Sydney.

"Council has very limited powers to investigate the problem and the evidence is difficult to bring together the most our staff of compliance may enter a dwelling house if they have the consent of the owner or occupier," said a spokesman.

This is highlighted by the low number of owners - the courts just 15 between 2008 and 2010, Council figures show.

The Manitoba flood to break dykes to the recording of the battle

WINNIPEG (Manitoba)  - Manitoba will take the drastic step of breaking its dykes on the Assiniboine River flooded in swamping a wide swath of farmland in the province of the Canadian Prairies and displacing hundreds more people to avoid the worst flooding.

Rupture of the dikes Wednesday at a location west of the provincial capital of Winnipeg will release a torrent of water of marshes 225 square kilometres of land, the provincial government said Monday.

Flood officials have said that the move is a controlled release of up to 6 000 cubic metres of water per second, they don't know step where exactly the water go where it flows through the flood plain.

"This is an unprecedented situation," said Minister Steve Ashton, Manitoba infrastructure and transportation.

Without a controlled release, rainfall abundant forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday in Saskatchewan and Manitoba could overwhelm temporary dikes and cause unexpected violation which may flood a much larger area, Ashton said.

An area of registration of Manitoba is already flooded by spring unwanted melting conditions, rain and saturated soil moist climate of the last year.

Failure of the dam will affect an estimated 150 homes and up to 2,000 people across the province can be away from home at the end of the week, the provincial government said.

Controlled release should not interfere with Winnipeg also.

ARMY HELP FIGHT FLOODS

Seven hundred soldiers were called to assist volunteers with put to raise levees and prevent water spill in several communities, including Brandon, the second largest city in the province.

About 900 families were evacuated from low-lying areas in Brandon, because of the threat of flooding.

"An unstable weather system should provide between 20 to 40 mm (0.8 to 1.6 in) of rain in most basins of southern Manitoba between now and Wednesday," the province said in a statement.

Some areas could see (2.8 inches) up to 70 mm of rain.

Manitoba struggled against flooding problems last month on the Red River, which flows North in the province, to the United States but rains have was not expected to increase its water levels, officials said.

The Red River and Assiniboine join Winnipeg, which was divert water around the city with a diversion channel specially constructed.

Troops help also to fight severe flooding on the Richelieu River in Quebec, South of Montreal. About 3,000 homes were submerged by the flood, but water continued to down Monday with a clear sky in the forecast.

Last battle of World War II Vet dies in Australia

 Last known World War II combat veteran was defiant time tolls, a centenary that swam in the sea, tour through the dance floors and publishes his first book at 108. He also refused to submit to its place in history, becoming a pacifist would not March in parades commemorating war like that which made him famous.

Claude Stanley Choules, a man of contradictions, humble spirit and wry humor, died in a Western Australia nursing home, on Thursday at the age of 110. And if his accomplishments were many - including a dedicated a military 41 year career that spans the two world wars - the man known as "Chuckles" of his comrades in the Australian Navy was happier to be known as a father.

"We are all loved him", his 84-year-old daughter, Daphne Edinger told Associated Press. "It will be sad to think of him is do not here long, but it is how things are going.".

Choules was born on March 3, 1901, in the British town of Pershore, Worcestershire, a family of seven children. As a child, she was told her mother had died - a lie meant to cover a painful truth: she left when he was 5 to pursue an acting career. Abandonment affected him deeply, said his daughter Anne Pow, and he grew up determined to create a happy home for her own children.

In his autobiography, "The Last of the Last" published just two years ago, he forgot the day of the first automobile led through the city, an event that brought all the villagers outside to watch. It brought when a pack of cigarettes cost a penny. He brought learning to surf to the coast of South Africa, and how strange it was that black people were forced to use a separate range of whites.

He has drawn on the water at an early age, fishing and swimming in the local brook. Later in life, he would regularly swim in the warm waters off the coasts of Western Australia State, only stopping when he turned 100.

World war raging when Choules started his training with the Royal Navy, just a month after he was 14 years old. In 1917, he joined the battleship HMS vengeance, wherever he looked at the surrender of the German high seas fleet, fleet combat of the German Navy during the war of 1918.

"No there was no sign of fight left in the Germans that they are out of the haze at around 10 hours," Choules wrote in his autobiography. The German flag, he recalled, was transported down to the sunset.

He wrote "until the end of this day the most memorable in the annals of the naval war". "A fleet of ships surrendered without drawing a fire kick".

Choules and another British, Florence Green, became last survivor service members known war on the after the death of Frank Buckles us in February, according to the order of the first world war, a group based in the United States which tracks the veterans. Choules was the last surviving veteran of the war. Green, who became the 110 in February, served as a waitress in a women's Royal Air Force.

Choules met his wife, Ethel Wildgoose, in 1926, the first day of a six weeks of England in Australia boat trip, where he was dispatched to serve as a naval instructor at the Flinders Naval Depot in the State of Victoria. Ten months later, they married. They have three children - Daphne, Anne, and Adrian, now in the 1970s and 1980s.

Battle is raging in the Western mountains of the Libya (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi intensified their assault on the rebel areas in the mountains west of the Libya late Monday, rebels said, and said refugees in isolated region are on the brink of famine.

At least 10 Grad rockets fell on the town of Zintan, rebels spokesman Abdulrahman told Reuters by telephone. "They were fired by Gaddafi forces positioned North of Zintan,"he said."".

Berber cities in the mountains of the West, near the border with the Tunisia, were beaten by Government forces after joining the rebellion which broke out two months ago.

"If I had remained there my two little girls were among the dead," Fatma Douri, 35, who fled the city besieged of Yafran, said in a refugee camp in the town of Dehiba from the Tunisian border.

"The siege of the city must absolutely be removed, otherwise thousands of children will be among the dead in the coming weeks."

As with other anti-Gaddafi in other parts of the Libya, rebel groups in the mountains of the West want more help to combat aircraft West. (A) requested that the air strikes of NATO on the pro-Gaddafi forces around Zintan had been effective, Abdulrahman said:

No.. "They are better than no strikes at all, but they could do much better. The goals are clear. If rebel fighters can see, certainly NATO planes are able to detect and destroy them. ?

PORT OF MINES BLOCK

More far East, a spokesman for rebels in the coastal besieged city of Misrata said fighting took place Monday near the airport of the city, which remains under the control of the forces of Gaddafi.

The NATO mine-sweepers sought the approaches to the port of Misrata Monday a drift mine blocking aid supplies.

A NATO statement, said that the alliance had destroyed two of the three mines laid by Government forces. It is said that mines are small and difficult to detect, but can do serious damage.

The International Organization for migration, said that a ship assistance was still awaiting Misrata offshore to stop bombing and mines to be cleared before that she is trying to deliver supplies and evacuate the some 1,000 foreign and injured Libyan.

Interim Chief rebel spokesman of the National Council abdel Hafiz Ghoga has urged NATO to intensify air strikes on Gaddafi forces near Misrata, saying they were trying to destroy the port.

"We would like to see more heavy and more intense shelling of Gaddafi, especially now that they're building troops in 50 or 60 km outside Misrata areas," he said. "They build troops in preparation for attack."

A resident of Misrata and sympathizer rebel named said Ghassan of hospital records Reuters showed 110 civilians and rebels were killed in the city under siege since April 24 and more than 350 wounded.

Crowds chanting for Gaddafi met in Tripoli Monday for the funeral of her son, Saif al-Arab aged 29. The Government said that an air raid of NATO killed Saturday him and three young grandchildren of Gaddafi.

The announcement of the death triggered attacks by a mob angry on British and French embassies and diplomatic mission American in Tripoli and the accusations of the Libyan officials that NATO had attempted to assassinate Kadhafi.

About 2,000 people carrying flags and pictures of Kadhafi has proved for the funeral. They pumped their punches in the air and Jura to avenge the death of Saif al-Arab.

"We are all with the Libya of Gaddafi," read a placard.

The coffin, covered with flowers and wrapped in the green flag who represented the Libya since Kadhafi took power in a coup in 1969, was carried through the crowds to the grave in the cemetery of Hani.

Kadhafi does not appear to be at the funeral but Saif al-Islam, the most important of his seven sons, assisted with his elder half-brother Mohammed.

MEMBER OF THE PACE INCREASING

Despite the denials of Western leaders that the air raid was an assassination attempt, it has renewed the debate on the question of whether strikes are exceeding a UN mandate to protect civilians.

British Foreign Secretary, William Hague said that NATO would intensify military operations in Libya.

"Time is not on the Gaddafi regime," he said during a visit to Cairo. "The policy is to continue to increase pressure on the regime of Kadhafi - diplomatic, economic and military pressure." We have increased the pace of military operations of the 1973 United Nations resolution and will go. ?

Switzerland said that he had found 360 million Swiss francs ($415 million) of potentially illegal goods related to Gaddafi and his circle. Some 410 million had been traced to the former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and 60 million to the former President of Tunisia Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.