BBC News with Nick Kelly.
The UN Security Council is meeting to reconsider an appeal by Arab governments for a resolution to ensure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Israel has continued to bomb targets in the Gaza Strip for a fifth day. Palestinian militants have fired more rockets into southern Israel. President Bush has urged Hamas to end the rocket attacks as a first step towards a truce. From Washington, Kim Ghattas reports.
Washington continues to put the onus on Hamas to end the violence in Gaza. When asked whether President George W. Bush was disappointed that Israel had not agreed to a 48 hour truce, the White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Mr. Bush was disappointed Hamas had not stopped firing rockets. “What was needed”, he said, “was a durable and sustainable ceasefire”. The difference between that and an immediate ceasefire may be just semantics, but it’s seen as tacit backing for Israel’s military operation and it provokes a lot of anger in the Arab world.
The Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom has confirmed that it will cut off supplies to Ukraine on Thursday morning after last-minute efforts to settle a pricing dispute broke down. But a Gazprom official told the BBC that the two sides needed to reach an agreement and would eventually do so. The head of Gazprom Alexei Miller said supplies to European countries would not be affected.
Gazprom will continue to fully export gas to its consumers in Europe. We haven’t acted transit contract. As for gas supplies to the Ukraine, since there were no new contract, Gazprom has no juridical obligations to continue to supply gas over its custom borders. The Ukraine carries the whole responsibility for this situation.
Police in Thailand say more than 50 people have been killed by a fire at a nightclub in central Bangkok. More than a hundred were injured as they celebrated the New Year at the Santika club in the Thong Lor district popular with Thais and foreign tourists. Jonathan Head is in Bangkok.
Eyewitnesses say they saw flames shooting out from the stage in the popular Santika nightclub in Bangkok shortly after midnight as hundreds of revelers were celebrating the New Year. They say the ceiling quickly caught fire and collapsed onto people as they struggled to escape through the front entrance which appeared to be the only way out. According to the police, the death and injuries were caused by burns, smoke inhalation and being trampled by the panicking crowd.
British forces in Iraq have handed over to the government in Baghdad two Iraqi nationals whom they held for five years for allegedly killing two British soldiers. British government said that despite the ruling this week by the European court of human rights, that the men should not be transferred, Britain had no legal power to go on holding them. The two Iraqis had argued that their human rights would be breached if they were handed over to Iraq for trial over the killings.
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Security forces in Ghana have dispersed supporters of the governing party’s presidential candidate after they gathered outside the electoral commission’s office to dispute results declared so far. Police and troops fired warning shots, tear gas and water canon to disperse a crowd of several hundred protestors. Their candidate Nana Akufo-Addo, is fractionally behind the Ghanaian opposition contestant John Atta-Mills. However, polling still has to take place on Friday in one final constituency which has enough voters to give Nana Akufo-Addo a chance of victory.
The common currency across fifteen European countries the Euro marks its tenth birthday in a few hours time. And on Thursday, Slovakia will become the 16th eurozone member and the first former Soviet Bloc country to adopt the Euro. Slovaks will have five years to replace their holdings of the old currency the koruna. (www.hXen.com)
The last day of trading on world markets confirmed the year 2008 as one of the worst for more than 50 years. The Dow Jones Index in the United States closed down more than a third over the year, its worst performance since 1931. The main London Index lost 31% of its value during 2008, and Stock Markets in France and Germany fare even worse.
Here in Britain, engineers have been adjusting Big Ben to make sure the clock’s movement takes into account an extra second before it strikes midnight. Officials at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich are adding the extra second this year, to allow for slight slowing in the Earth’s rotation. Ian Westworth is among those entrusted with adding the extra second or leap second to Big Ben this evening.
We are going to have do with the leap second, because we have a two second pendulum so we can’t just do it quickly, so throughout the evening, what we’ll have to do will remove a little pile of coins we have on the wrong pennies and that will slow the clock down just enough and we’ll check it throughout the evening to make sure we get it absolutely perfect on the first strike mid-night.
And that’s it; we wish you a pleasant
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