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Iraq Plans to Send 10,000 Students to Colleges in U.S., Abroad July 25, 2009 WASHINGTON — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says his country plans to send up to 10,000 Iraqi students a year to colleges in the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia over the next five years as a part of a new scholarship program. Al-Maliki says stability in Iraq has allowed the country to focus on education after years of war. He says there's great ambition behind the new program "because our needs are great." The Iraqi government is funding the scholarship program. It will allow students...

One of the most significant transformations in U.S. graduate education and the international market for highly-trained workers in science and engineering during the last quarter century is the representation of students from outside of the United States among the ranks of doctorate recipients from U.S. universities. In all but the life sciences, the foreign share of Ph.D. recipients now equals or exceeds the share from the United States. Students from outside the United States accounted for 51 percent of Ph.D. recipients in science and engineering in 2003, up from 27 percent in 1973. In 2003, doctorate recipients from outside the...

CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) SNIPPET: "Each time he looked up, Cox said, Zhu was on top of Yang, who was on the floor. Zhu stared at Yang's face as he cut through her neck, Cox said. "It wasn't really an angry face at all," said Cox, at that point the only witness to the gruesome events. "It was just a really blank, determined look." By the time police arrived, Zhu was holding the woman's head in his hand, an officer testified."

BLACKSBURG -- Virginia Tech police on Thursday released gruesome details of a killing in a campus cafe, as students wondered why a campus that went two decades without a murder before the April 16, 2007, shootings has become the site of so much tragedy. When police arrived Wednesday night at Au Bon Pain inside the Virginia Tech Graduate Life Center, they found a decapitated female victim who had arrived on campus just two weeks ago and a young man they have now charged with killing her. The events have shocked a campus still coping with the 2007 shootings of 32...

I went to a PUMA site and found this mentioned. The poster claimed he had a scholorship that was given only to foreign students. Hmmm Barack Obama from Africa Scholarship winner; Phi Beta Kappa; portraits Neg# A62-00099 For more see post #19 here: http://hillbuzz.wordpress.com/2008/10/25/hey-eeyores-another-take-on-those-polls/

America continues to grow in stature as the most-favoured destination for Indian students with the last seven months showing a 38% increase in the number of candidates going there. What's more, Chennai seems to be one of the largest exporters in the country. Sample this: 38,274 student visas were issued from across the country in fiscal year 2006-07 (October 2006 to September 2007), of which the Chennai consulate gave out 19,973. Correspondingly, between October 2007 and April 2008, 50,316 student visas were issued from across the country, of which the Chennai consulate alone accounted for 24,975. With a rising middle...

Foreign Students Do Not Help with the Balance of Payments WASHINGTON (May 2008) – Lobbying groups frequently claim that foreign students are a benefit to America’s balance of payments, comparable to a booming export sector. For instance, the Institute for International Education (IIE) asserts that foreign students contributed a net $14.5 billion to the U.S. economy during the 2006-07 school year by paying for tuition and living expenses with resources from abroad, representing a net inflow of nearly $25,000 per year, every year, from the average foreign student. To assess these claims, the Center for Immigration Studies has published a...

Kingdom Come [Kathryn Jean Lopez] From the Arab News: Al-JOUF, 10 April 2008 — US Ambassador Ford Fraker said in Sakaka that his country aims to double the number of student visas issued to Saudis. “Currently there are 15,000 Saudi students in the US,” he said during an event on Sunday with local business leaders to an audience at the Al-Jouf Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “We aim to increase their numbers to 30,000 over the next five years.” Fraker said Saudi Arabia should bolster its English-language programs because it is generally required for Saudis seeking to pursue higher studies...

US Ambassador Ford Fraker said in Sakaka that his country aims to double the number of student visas issued to Saudis. “Currently there are 15,000 Saudi students in the US,” he said during an event on Sunday with local business leaders to an audience at the Al-Jouf Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “We aim to increase their numbers to 30,000 over the next five years.” Fraker said Saudi Arabia should bolster its English-language programs because it is generally required for Saudis seeking to pursue higher studies in the US. Fraker also stressed the need for popularizing English teaching programs because...

SPRINGFIELD, Tenn. - The Robertson County school district faces some problems Friday morning after a recent crackdown on illegal immigration. The illegal immigration crackdown led to the vanishing of 11 percent of Hispanic students. The district has been under state watch for failing to educate pockets of students, which includes non-English speakers. Now of the 768 Hispanic students, 60 have formally withdrawn and another 25 to 30 can't be accounted for. Public schools are required by a U.S Supreme Court decision to educate all students - regardless of their immigration status. If the missing students don't return soon, they will...

BATON ROUGE, La. — Two students were found shot to death in a home invasion at a Louisiana State University apartment, and officials decided to keep the campus open Friday while police searched for three suspects. The victims, Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, both doctorate students from India, were found inside an apartment at the Edward Gay complex late Thursday night after authorities received an emergency call. Police patrols were increased on the 30,000-student campus Friday and students were told to be cautious, but the university was not locked down. Students were taking the last of their final...

International Ph.D. Scholars Discovered Slain In Campus Apartment; Home Invasion Suspected BATON ROUGE, La., Dec. 14, 2007 Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, two international Ph.D. students at Louisiana State University, were found dead inside a campus apartment, police said, Friday, Dec. 14, 2007. (AP / CBS) (CBS/AP) Two international students were found shot to death inside an apartment at a university in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and authorities said Friday the men were likely slain during a home invasion. The victims, Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, both international Ph.D. students at Louisiana State University, were...

CNN) -- Two graduate students were found shot to death Thursday night in an apartment on the edge of the Louisiana State University campus, a spokeswoman for the school said. No suspects have been identified in what police are investigating as a double homicide, LSU spokeswoman Kristine Calongne said. The bodies of Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, both Ph.D. candidates from India, were found inside an apartment of the Edward Gay Complex. The complex is near the LSU band's practice field, Calongne said. -snip- The Associated Press reported that Allam's pregnant wife found the bodies and called 911....

Two years ago this month, a Saudi prince caused a media splash — and raised eyebrows — when he donated $20 million each to Georgetown and Harvard universities to fund Islamic studies. Although few details have been released about how the money has been spent, at Georgetown, the money helped pay for a recent symposium on Islamic-Western relations held in the university's Copley Formal Lounge. The event attracted about 120 persons: students, Catholic priests, men in business suits and several women in colorful head scarves who all came to hear religion experts from several American universities, as well as from...

Two University of Virginia students snatched a man off a street corner in the Tysons Corner area, tied him up in a Falls Church motel bathroom and demanded a $500,000 ransom, police said yesterday.

Santiago, Chile - When US Education Secretary Margaret Spellings arrived in Chile this week, she brought an important message. The US wants "Chilean students to know that American higher education is open for business to students from our neighbors," said Ms. Spellings. Her trip to South America this week is an attempt to attract students put off by lengthy visa delays in the years after 9/11. While in Chile, she confirmed the creation of 100 annual scholarships for students who want to complete their doctorate studies in the United States, as well as future programs aimed at furthering education exchange...

TAMPA - The FBI searched a Temple Terrace home Saturday morning in connection with the two University of South Florida students jailed in South Carolina on charges of possessing a pipe bomb. Authorities had a search warrant for 12402 Pampas Place, FBI special agent Dave Couvertier said. He would not say what authorities were looking for, what was removed or how the house is connected to the two students. The house is owned by Noor and Ana Salhab, according to the Hillsborough County property appraiser's Web site. Ahmed Bedier, executive director of the Tampa office of the Council on American-Islamic...

Goose Creek - Two men are being held in the Berkeley County Detention Center after police find explosive making devices in their car. The quantity of explosive making materials in that vehicle is unclear. The FBI (website) reports that there is no known link to terrorism. The Berkeley County Sheriff's Office believes that among materials in the car's trunk were a bomb and bomb making materials that include chemicals, fuses, and igniters. The men 21-year-old Yousef Megahed and 24-year-old Ahmed Mohamed were pulled over Saturday evening during a routine traffic stop near Myers Road and Highway 176. Few details about...

Ind. grad student convicted of threatening to kill Bush By The Associated Press 06.29.07 HAMMOND, Ind. — A Purdue University graduate student was convicted of threatening to kill President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and others in postings on the Internet. Vikram Buddhi, 35, an Indian national who was attending advanced engineering classes at Purdue’s West Lafayette campus, was found guilty by a federal jury yesterday on 11 counts of making threats that were posted in a chat room in 2005 and 2006. Buddhi faces up to 35 years in prison when he is sentenced later this year. Buddhi hijacked...

The Mysterious Case of Missing Saudi Student On October 15, 2006, a young Saudi Arabian male named Anwar Al——,* (His full name will not be used for legal reasons) claiming to be an engineering student at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, presented what must have been false documents to United States Customs and Immigration at an east coast airport and managed to slip into the country illegally. This is something that is not easily done: for a citizen of Saudi Arabia to get into the United States to attend an institution of higher learning requires the scrutiny of...

Dozens of Foreign Pilots Training Illegally at US Flight Schools September 25, 2006 1:09 PM Brian Ross and Eric Longabardi Report: Apg_plane_060925_nr_1Dozens of foreign student pilots with questionable visas have been able to slip between the cracks and gain entry to American flight schools, federal officials tell ABC News. The FAA says it is conducting an investigation of a number of flight instructors and schools, including one school which was attended by 9-ll hijackers Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi. An internal Homeland Security document obtained by ABC News, says the post 9-11 program to prevent terrorists from entering US flight...

"MANHATTAN, Kan. - Thousands of students from Saudi Arabia are enrolling on college campuses across the United States this semester under a new educational exchange program brokered by President Bush and Saudi King Abdullah." "The program will quintuple the number of Saudi students and scholars here by the academic year's end." " By January, U.S. government officials say the program will expand to 15,000 students, which means Saudi Arabia will send more foreign students to the U.S. than Mexico or Turkey. As funding for the scholarship program expands, those numbers are likely to grow." " So, as Kansas State students...

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Thousands of Saudi students are enrolling on college campuses across the United States this semester under a new educational exchange program brokered by President Bush and Saudi King Abdullah. This will quintuple the number of Saudi students and scholars in the United States by the academic year's end. And big, public universities from Florida to Oregon are in a fierce competition for their tuition dollars............... ....Clark Kent Ervin, a former inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said the U.S. government has yet to ensure proper safeguards are in place to do effective background checks...

U.S. Schools Compete for Saudi Students By GARANCE BURKE : Associated Press Writer Sep 9, 2006 : 2:29 am ET MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Thousands of students from Saudi Arabia are enrolling on college campuses across the United States this semester under a new educational exchange program brokered by President Bush and Saudi King Abdullah. The program will quintuple the number of Saudi students and scholars here by the academic year's end. And big, public universities from Florida to the Kansas plains are in a fierce competition for their tuition dollars. The kingdom's royal family -- which is paying full scholarships...

MANHATTAN, Kan. - On a recent afternoon at Kansas State University, a familiar set of late-summer rituals were under way. Piccolo and tuba players practiced their formations in clusters on the lawn, and fraternity hopefuls started Rush Week. This semester, the central Kansas agricultural powerhouse was also preparing for its first-ever celebration of Ramadan to welcome the newest members of its student body: 150 students from Saudi Arabia. This school year, college towns from Florida to Oregon will host an estimated 15,000 new Saudi students, nearly all of whom have full scholarships paid for by the Kingdom's royal family. They're...

WASHINGTON -- Immigration officials have now picked up all but two of the 11 Egyptian exchange students who came to the U.S. for a summer course in Montana but never showed up for classes. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tracked three of the students to Des Moines. They were arrested at about 8 p.m. Friday, and are being held in the Polk County Jail. They will be here until a federal immigration judge decides if they will face charges or be deported. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents won't say what led them to find these students in Des Moines...

Anxious families of some of 11 Egyptians who failed to show up for studies at an American university said Thursday that the students may have decided to try to look for work and live in the United States. The students' failure to show up for their monthlong study program at Montana State University prompted a police hunt for the 11, though U.S. authorities said they had no indication there was a terrorism threat from any of the 11. Three of them were taken into custody or turned themselves in this week -- one in Minnesota, the other two in New...

Six of the 11 Egyptian exchange students who recently entered the United States and failed to show up for their college program were in custody Thursday after three more were arrested, officials said. Police arrested Ahmed Mohamed Mohamed Abou El Ela, 22, at O'Hare International Airport after he tried to check in for a Chicago-to-Montana flight using an invalid ticket marked for a New York departure, Chicago police said. El Ela raised his voice and became unruly after an employee at a Delta ticket counter refused to let him exchange the ticket for a valid one, said Timothy J. Bolger,...

Six of the 11 Egyptian students, gone AWOL are now in custody, according to Fox News. One was reportedly "lost" in Minnesota, two surrendered to authorities in New Jersey and another two were thought to have been apprehended in New York. 1. IBRAHIM, EL SAYED AHMED ELSAYED; DOB OF 4/29/1986, PASSPORT 954757 2. EL DESSOUKI, ESLAM IBRAHIM MOHAMED; DOB OF 02/21/1985, PASSPORT 1002756 3. EL BAHNASAWI, ALAA ABD EL FATTAH ALI; DOB OF 04/02/1986, PASSPORT 934679 4. ABD ALLA, MOHAMED RAGAB MOHAMED; DOB OF 02/15/1984, PASSPORT 860972 5. EL LAKET, AHMED REFAAT SAAD EL MOGHAZI; DOB OF 09/01/1986, PASSPORT 943306...

Montana State University has been bombarded with national media queries and a few nasty e-mail messages ever since the FBI issued an alert for 11 Egyptian students who failed to show up for a cultural exchange program in Bozeman. "It got pretty crazy" when the story broke Tuesday, MSU spokeswoman Cathy Conover said. The news story has been listed on Internet blogs like the Drudge Report and the Web site of syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin (author of "Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores" and "In Defense of Internment"). National reporters have been...

Chicago police on Thursday morning arrested one of the 11 Egyptian students who were wanted for failing to show up for an exchange program in Montana. At 8 a.m., about four hours after heightened security restrictions went into effect following a foiled terror plot in Britain, a man at the Delta terminal at O’Hare International Airport tried to use a ticket to go to Bozeman, Montana, but his ticket was out of New York rather than Chicago, police Supt. Philip Cline said at a news conference. A disturbance then ensued. “He was raising his voice for the level for the...

6 of 11 Egyptian students now in custody 21 minutes ago Six of the 11 Egyptian exchange students who failed to show up for their college program are now in custody after three additional students were arrested Thursday, the FBI said. El Sayed Ahmed Elsayed Ibrahim, 20, and Alaa Abd El Fattah Ali El Bahnasawi, 20, were arrested at a residence in Dundalk, Md., outside Baltimore, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Chicago police detained Ahmed Mohamed Mohamed Abou El Ela, 22, at OHare International Airport as he was attempting to book a flight to Montana, the FBI said....

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 9 — Three Egyptian students who failed to appear for their exchange program in Montana were in custody on Wednesday, the authorities said. The whereabouts of eight other Egyptian students were unknown. One student, Eslam Ibrahim Mohamed el-Dessouki, 21, was arrested here on an administrative immigration violation, federal officials said. Two others, whose names were not released, surrendered at police headquarters in Manville, N.J. “In response to hearing in the media that they should turn themselves in to the nearest police station, they did just that,” Steven Siegel, a spokesman for the F.B.I. in Newark, said. The bureau...

In the bottom-of-the-hour news during Rush, WMAL reported that one of the 11 missing Egyptian students was found in Montana and is now being questioned by the FBI.

One of 11 missing Egyptian students has been picked up in Minneapolis, Minn., NBC News’ Pete Williams reported and the FBI confirmed Wednesday. Local police in New Jersey also believe they have apprehended two more of the Egyptian students. Federal agents, however, have not yet confirmed the identities of these students. Eslam Ibrahim Mohamed El-Dessouki, 21, was arrested "without incident" by FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko said. El-Dessouki is being held on an administrative immigration violation because he did not turn up for his monthlong exchange program at Montana State University, Kolko...

Adding to the historical record of our times in song... MIDI - LOSING MY RELIGION Oh, they had come here...for studying That's what they said...that's what they were claiming But does anyone know...our government doesn't know...nobody knows They're not in Montana The Feds are in panic, they've lost their Egyptians This story really is bunk Maybe they had all gone to rush week And they just got stinking drunk...Allah said, "Get drunk" Our enemies all are laughing...our borders do not exist It's clear that they do not exist We have been told...don't worry...they will be caught Our guys seem clueless...Keystone...

2 Of 11 Missing Egyptians Surrender In N.J. POSTED: 4:20 pm EDT August 9, 2006 MANVILLE, N.J. -- Two of 11 Egyptian exchange students who failed to report for their college program in Montana after entering the United States surrendered to police in New Jersey on Wednesday, the FBI said. "In response to hearing in the media that they should turn themselves in to the nearest police station, they did just that," said Steven Siegel, a spokesman for the FBI's Newark office. The students are not suspected of any link to terrorism, he said. They turned themselves in at the...

The FBI has issued an urgent nationwide alert for 11 Egyptian students who entered the United States last week but failed to show up for their courses at Montana State University. An FBI advisory says there are, at present, no known connections to any terrorist group but that the students are to be "approached with caution" and taken into custody. They "are here illegally and wanted for questioning," the advisory says. The advisory comes just over a month before the five-year anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks on the United States. "This is of very serious concern and is...

Eleven Egyptian students who were supposed to travel to a Montana university after flying to JFK airport late last month disappeared in New York, spurring federal authorities to issue a nationwide alert, officials said yesterday. The students - who were traveling with six classmates from Mansoura University in Egypt - had their student visas revoked for failing to show up at Montana State University in Bozeman, the officials said. The other six students made it to the college. "The FBI and ICE [Immigration and Custom Enforcement] would like to locate these 11 students in order to speak with them," said...

The FBI alerted state and local authorities Monday to be on the lookout for 11 Egyptian exchange students who arrived in the U.S. last month but never showed up for class.

WASHINGTON — Eleven Egyptian students who arrived in the United States last month are being sought by authorities after failing to turn up for an exchange program at Montana State University. The Egyptian men were among a group of 17 students who arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York from Cairo on July 29 with valid visas, according to U.S. authorities and university officials. The other six have arrived at the Bozeman, Mont., campus for a monthlong program on English language instruction and U.S. history and culture, university spokeswoman Cathy Conover said. When the 11 didn’t turn...

A student at Yale University who was once a roving ambassador for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan has been denied admission to a degree-granting program at Yale, one of the student's financial supporters said yesterday. The student, Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, apparently can continue to take courses at the university as an untraditional student in a non-degree program, as he did during the past academic year, said Tatiana Maxwell, the president of the International Education Foundation, which was created to raise money to send Mr. Hashemi to Yale. It was uncertain yesterday whether Mr. Hashemi, who is 27, will do so;...

Eastern European students flock to US seaside resort for summer jobs 06-15-2006, 15h04 OCEAN CITY, United States (AFP) The summer season has kicked off in this resort city on the US Atlantic coast and thousands of eastern European college students are flocking here to fill seasonal jobs snubbed by their American counterparts. Along a 16-kilometer (10-mile) concrete jungle of hotels, amusement parks, fast-food outlets, restaurants and mini-malls, one can hear snatches of Russian, Serbo-Croat, Bulgarian or Polish being spoken among clusters of students strolling on the streets. The town, located some 240 kilometers (150 miles) southeast of the US capital,...

BRISTOL -- The president of Roger Williams University stands at the center of the school's leafy campus and gestures toward the three young Afghan women chatting under a tree a few steps away. "One of them will lead their country some day," Roy Nirschel promises. Which one? the women are asked. Nadima Sahar's hand shoots up. "Who will be president? That's me," she says. "No, no," Mahbooba Babrakzai corrects her. "That's only if I lose." What about Arezo Kohistani? What does she think? "I think I will permit you to run," she tells her friends, feigning seriousness. After waiting a...

Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi created a firestorm of controversy when it was revealed in February that the former Taliban official was enrolled as a student at Yale University. Now it appears Hashemi’s days at Yale may be numbered. In an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, John Fund writes: "The continued outrage over the news that an unrepentant former official of a criminal regime whose remnants are still killing U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan is part of the Ivy League is catching up with him. Yale is about to establish tougher standards for the program under which he is applying to become...

ATLANTA — A federal grand jury has indicted a 21-year-old Georgia Tech student for material support of terrorism, U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias said on Thursday. Syed Haris Ahmed, a naturalized citizen from Atlanta, is being held by federal authorities at an undisclosed location, known only to his family, his attorney and the government. He waived his right to arraignment with the right to revoke the waiver at any time. "This is the first internatinal terrorism charge filed in Georgia," Nahmias said. "The charge against Mr. Ahmet is serious and involved national security, and it will be prosecuted with that...

A Georgia Tech student born in Pakistan has been in federal custody for nearly a month, apparently because authorities suspect a videotape he made of a building may have been related to terrorism, his family said. Syed Haris Ahmed, a 21-year-old mechanical engineering major who had become increasingly religious in his Islamic faith, was arrested by the FBI March 23 and has been held since, his family said. ……. Ahmed's family denied that he could be involved in anything related to terrorism. He came to the United States with his family in 1997, is an American citizen and lived with...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The FBI has joined the investigation of a recent college graduate who faces attempted murder charges for allegedly injuring bystanders after driving a sport utility vehicle through a popular campus gathering spot. No one was seriously hurt in the incident at the University of North Carolina on Friday. The FBI joined the case because 22-year-old Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, a native of Iran, "allegedly made statements that he acted to avenge the American treatment of Muslims," said agent Richard Kolko, an FBI spokesman in Washington. "The ongoing investigation will work to confirm this." Taheri-azar, who graduated in...

Special programs welcome grown-up students to Yale From Afghani envoy to Buddhist ascetic, adult Yalies keep a low profile. BY THERESE LIM At Yale, it is commonly understood that the student next to you could be a high school valedictorian, a chess champion, or a musical prodigy; few Elis, however, would suspect their classmate to be a former Taliban official. Yet one of this year’s freshmen, 27-year-old Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi ’09, served for years as an Afghani diplomat for the Taliban government. Today he studies Political Science in WLH next to kids fresh out of Exeter. COURTESY PBS.ORG Sayed Hashemi...

February 27, 2006: Former Taliban Foreign Envoy now a member of Yale freshman class The Yale Bulletin and Calendar for March 23, 2001, announced a debate between a young Afghan man, Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi and Yale law professor Harold Hongju Koh. According to the Bulletin: Hashemi has represented Afghanistan in several European conferences and countries over the last two years. He has spoken on such topics as his country's three-year drought, the continuing 22-year civil war in Afghanistan and U.N. sanctions against the region, emanating from human rights grievances, drug trafficking and the decision of the Taliban government to offer...