UK & Euro-Asian News
Alan McEwen
Edinburgh Evening News
Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:26 UTC
Police have identified the woman whose head was discovered in a shopping bag in Newhaven as 44-year-old Heather Stacey from Edinburgh.
DNA tests confirmed her identity and police said she is believed to have died within the last two years.
Tests are continuing to establish the exact circumstances of her death.
The head and other remains were found on a footpath at Hawthornvale by a dog walker on Hogmanay.
Ian Traynor
The Guardian
Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:51 UTC
European leaders announced a breakthrough deal with Moscow last night that could see Siberian gas flowing to the households and heating systems of Europe. But hundreds of thousands of families across the Balkans and central Europe faced a freezing weekend without heating amid uncertainty over whether the deal settling the dispute between Russia and Ukraine would stick.
With large stretches of eastern and southern Europe blanketed in snow in some of the coldest weather in a decade, an air of panic gripped parts of Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, and Bosnia, all almost entirely dependent on Russian gas for central heating. The gas has been cut off since Wednesday.
Dozens of companies and factories were closed across the region, while some schools, clinics and hospitals also had to shut or improvise heating systems.
RIA Novosti
Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:31 UTC
Ukraine should pay a market price for Russian gas, and in the first quarter of 2009 the price for Eastern Europe is about $470 per 1,000 cu m, the Russian energy giant Gazprom said Friday.
"If the price for gas Gazprom supplies to Eastern European states neighboring Ukraine is around $470 per 1,000 cu m in the first quarter of 2009, then Ukraine should also pay the market price for gas," Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told journalists.
Kupriyanov said Gazprom's position is the same as the position of the Russian president and government. "Russia and Ukraine should switch over to market relations in the gas sphere," he said.
Sky News
Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:59 UTC
© Sky News
Emergency services at the scene of the blast
Emergency services were called to the Drumtochty Arms Hotel in Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire at about 5.30pm.
One person had to be rescued from a roof skylight following the "significant" blast.
Police said a man in his 20s, another in his 50s and a woman were taken by ambulance to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
It is thought they may have been drinking at the hotel bar. Their conditions are not believed to be life-threatening.
Grampian Police said the building had partially collapsed in the explosion, which appeared to be linked to a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder.
Christopher King
Middle East Online
Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:36 UTC
Russia has made a serious mistake on this occasion both in hasty action and in failing to perceive the probable hand of the US and a trap, notes Christopher King.
You will probably have heard of the present situation - you might well be suffering from it. Russian gas for Europe is being disrupted in transit through Ukrainian pipelines. Ostensibly it is about payment by Ukraine for its gas and renewal of the Ukraine-Russia contract for transit of the gas.
Russia says that Ukraine has not paid for its gas and in retaliation has reduced the amount pumped into the pipeline by the Ukraine proportion. Ukraine, it is said, nevertheless continued to "steal" gas from the pipelines, so reducing the amount available to European Union customers. As a further escalation, Ukraine restricted the quantity of transit gas to the EU and, Russia says, finally closed the pipelines.
The Ukrainians say that they are not stealing gas and there are "technical difficulties" that have caused problems with the onward flow of gas. Russia, they say, has now shut down the pipelines.
Richard Owen
Times Online
Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:44 UTC
A diplomatic row between Israel and the Vatican cast doubt over Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit to the Holy Land yesterday, after a prominent cardinal said that Gazans were living in a "big concentration camp".
In his annual speech to diplomats in the Vatican the Pope sought to damp down the dispute. He said that the war was "provoking immense damage and suffering for the civilian populations" in Gaza and Israel. He urged "the rejection of hatred, acts of provocation and the use of arms" and added: "Violence, wherever it comes from and whatever form it takes, must be firmly condemned. The military solution is never an option," he said.
His remarks came amid outrage from Israelis over a statement by Cardinal Renato Martino, the head of the Vatican Council for Justice and Peace and a former Holy See envoy to the United Nations, who compared Gaza to a concentration camp. The cardinal criticised Israel for killing civilians who had taken shelter at a UNrun school in Gaza.
Associated Press
Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:49 UTC
Budapest, Hungary - Police say a masked gunman has shot to death the principal and a teacher at a school in the Budapest neighborhood of Csepel.
Budapest Police spokesman Endre Kormos says the unidentified gunman also shot a security guard in the hand in Wednesday evening's attack.
Kormos says the gunman fled the school after the shootings and there is no information yet on the motive for the attack. A reward of 5 million forints ($25,300, euro18,600) has been offered for information leading to the capture of the assailant.
The TimesOnline
Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:35 UTC
Governments across Europe declared states of emergency and ordered factories to close as Russia cut all gas supplies through Ukraine yesterday in their worsening dispute over unpaid bills.
José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, accused the two countries of taking the EU's energy supply "hostage" amid a cold snap across the Continent, and urged them to reopen the pipelines immediately.
Schools and factories were closed and trees were felled to keep home fires burning after Russia turned off the gas taps to more than a dozen countries. It was a clear demonstration of the dependence of the Continent on Russian gas supplies.
Despite temperatures as low as minus 27C and the threat of heating cuts to millions of households, Moscow said that it had no choice but to cease supplies because Ukraine, the country through which 80 per cent of Russian gas bound for Europe flows, had closed its pipelines. The claim was denied by Kiev.
Times Online
Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:22 UTC
Tim Shipman
Telegraph
Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:08 UTC
The CIA has begun an unprecedented intelligence-gathering operation in Britain to help MI5 monitor 4000 terrorist suspects.
More than four out of 10 CIA operations to prevent attacks on US soil are now conducted against targets in Britain.
This has led to friction between British and American spies, with some US intelligence officers irritated that resources are being diverted to gather intelligence on suspects in their closest ally's backyard. British intelligence officers do not know the identity of all the CIA informers and are uneasy about some of the uses to which the intelligence has been put.
Comment: Strange as it seems, Britain is now being policed by the CIA and Mossad... just remember these people can 'extradite' anyone they choose, for 'undisclosed national security reasons'.....
58,336 people have viewed this page since Fri, 26 Jan 2007
Emails sent to Signs of the Times, Ark, Laura, or Cassiopaea become the property of Quantum Future Group, Inc and may be republished without notice.
Some icons appearing on this site were taken from KDE-look.org, Afterglow, Mayosoft, Everaldo, IconDrawer, VisualPharm, IconFactory, Klukeart, Icons-land, TpdkDesign.net, and IconShock.com.
Remember, we need your help to collect information on what is going on in your part of the world!
Send your article suggestions to: 
Original content © 2008 by SOTT.net/Signs of the Times. See: Fair Use Policy
![[Valid Atom 1.0]](/images/valid-atom.png?1222505720 "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
![[Valid RSS 2.0]](/images/valid-rss.png?1222505756 "Validate my RSS 2.0 feed")
