Russia has offered the Ukraine a three month delay in a dispute over gas prices. The deal consists of the Ukraine paying the normal price of $50 per cubic meter untill April 2006, when a new price of $250 per cubic meter will come into affect. If the deal is not signed and agreed by the Ukraine, Russian gas supplier Gazprom will turn off the supply at 0700 GMT on Sunday.
The deal was offered by Russian president Vladimir Putin at a meeting of his Security Council. The Ukraine president, Mr Yushchenko, reacted by saying the price hike was unjustifiable as Belarus, who pays $47 per cubic meter, wasn't being asked to pay the same price of $250.
Update: Ukraine has rejected offer by Russian president Putin. Gas supplies will be cut off to the Ukraine on 0700 GMT today.
Iraq's largest oil refinery, Baiji, is losing $20 million a day due to death threats to tanker drivers. A spokesperson for the oil ministry in Iraq said they are trying to get drivers back to work and are hoping the refinery would be back up and running within the next few days.
The Polish government has decided to postpone plans to withdraw troops from Iraq untill the end of 2006. The country has around 1,500 troops stationed in the south of Iraq and is the fifth biggest army in the country.
Like in much of America the decision to deploy Polish troops into Iraq is an unpopular one according to opinion polls in Poland. The Polish prime minister, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, said the decision was a difficult one.
The European Space Agency has asked French chef, Alain Ducasse, to create food for astronauts on long-term voyages. Currently astronauts have to eat food that has been pre-packaged and dehydrated to make it lighter which means if you ever find yourself in space and want a lovely Sunday Roast(roast beef) then your out of luck as it has to be cooked in an oven, which you wouldn't normally find in a spacecraft. The other chefs working on the project said the idea is to create meals that would remind the astronauts of home. The main ingredients for the food on these voyages would include onions, lettuce, potatoes, spinach(yuk!), and rice. Much of the food like onions and potatoes would be grown on-board the spacecraft. The project is part of reasearch by ESA scientists on how growing food on-board a spacecraft could help astronauts survive long periods of time in space.
The niece of the worlds most infamous terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, has spoken out saying she wants to be accpeted by the American people. Speaking to fashion magazine GQ, Wafah Dufour told the magazine she is constantly being harrassed by the media because of her connection with Osama Bin Laden, even though she has never met him. The American born musician has also received death threats which have sent her into a bout of depression. Dufour grew up in Santa Monica where her parents studied at the University of Southern California.
Not that I need to tell you what the 9/11 attacks were but there is the slight chance that someone reading this has been living in a cave without contact to the rest of the world. So for that person who is still reading: The 9/11 attacks were a series of suicide attacks in which members of the terrorist group Al Qaeda hijacked four U.S commercial airplanes, two of which were used to bring down the World Trade Center in New York City killing over 2,000 people, while the third crashed into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crash-landed in a rural field following passenger resistance.
All I,ve been doing for the past few minutes is looking at other blogs and it seems that all of them have a Merry Christmas post with something like a poem or "What does christmas really mean?" on it. So I decided if they all have a Merry Christmas post then I should have one, despite how unenthusiastic and half assed it is.
So merry christmas everyone and try not to eat too much.
A 24 year-old woman living in Missouri decided to end an argument with her boyfriend not by simply walking away but swallowing a mobile phone. The couple were having an arguemnt over the phone when she swallowed the phone so he couldn't take it from her.
The police in Blue Springs said the phone was lodged in her throat but they expect her to make a full recovery.
A hospital in Switzerland has decided to allow assisted suicide to it's patients. Starting next year patients who have persistently asked that they be allowed to kill themselves and are terminally ill will be able to get the help of a docter or another member of staff to kill themselves.
Suicide isn't illegal in Switzerland but untill now it's never been allowed to happen on hospital premises throught Switzerland. The decision was made after three years of debating wheater it was right to allow sucicde to happen in hospitals.
Health officials in Tehran have said the air pollution in the city has reached critical levels. Hospitals throughout the city have reported increased heart attacks, breathing problems, fatigue, and headaches. Offices and schools have been closed in the hope that traffic would reduce.
Sheydar Malik Afzeli, head of the anti pollution unit in Tehran, said the number of deaths and casualties are more than the number of people killed in a plane crash on Tuesday in the capital which killed more than 100 people, however there has been no official reports of deaths from hospitals. The city has more than three million cars most of which are without modern exhaust filters. Authorities have said the levels of casualties could reach thousands if the smog doesn't clear.
Just in case you're not a gamer, Microsoft recently launched their new XBOX360 games console in North America and Europe sellling an estimated 75,000 units in the UK and 400,000 units in the US.
Most video games stores throughout the US and Europe have reported to be sold out of the machine with thousands of other gamers bidding on eBay for a machine.While at first the machine's launch may have been all fine and dandy, there has been complaints about the 360 over-heating and freezing.
The latest complaint comes in the form of a lawsuit against Microsoft by Robert Byers. The lawsuit was filed on Friday in Illinois. The lawsuit seeks for a replacement or a total recall of all the XBOX360 games consoles, not to mention money.
Microsoft can only hope that things go smoothly as possible.
Lawrence Koomson, a 33 year old docter living in London, has finally gone through(and still is) puberty. The docter has Kallmann's syndrome, a condition which affects mostly men but also women. A small part in the brain called the hypothalamus didn,t work properly which caused a hormonal imbalance.
The treatment consisted of six implants in the buttock, which release 200 milligrams of testostorone over six months. Day three of the treatment, Lawrence experienced his first erection. Following that the docter went through the usual teenage things like surfing the net and searching through internet chat rooms for females.
"It was not Thursday. It was doomsday.", Saddam Trial
The first witness in the Saddam trial has given his account of what happend to the 148 Shia men in the village of Dujail. He said women and children were tortured, and that dead babies were often abandoned in public. The witness also told of what happened to his friend, "They broke him. They broke his arms, his legs, and they shot at his feet,".
The former leader was angered by the witness and argued with the judge before leaving the courtroom saying, "I am not afraid of execution!".
Archeologist Semir Osmanagic says he may have found a pyramid in Bosnia, Europe. Semir learned of the hill from Senad Hodovic, director of a local museum near the pyramid. Once Semir had a look he decided to get a permit to research the hill.
Semir Osmanagic,
"We have already dug out stone blocks which I believe are covering the pyramid," he said. "We found a paved entrance plateau and discovered underground tunnels. You don't have to be an expert to realize what this is.".
"We found layers of what we call 'bad concrete,' a definitely unnatural mixture of gravel once used to form blocks with which this hill was covered,".
The tunnels are said to be several kilometres in length. Evidence has also been found to suggest that slabs of stone used to make the entrance plateau have been cut by human hands.
Filiming of the new Rocky movie has begun in Las Vegas. The movie will show the boxer as an ageging, has-been coming out of retirement. Not much else about the new movie is known except the producers are setting up auditions in Philadelphia for locals to try out their acting skills. The audition was attended by hundreds many of them fans of the past movies.
Sylvester Stallone said he wanted to, "to capture the essence of the first couple of films.". Stallone is also planning to ressurect Rambo.
The European Space Agency(ESA) is asking it's 18 member states(17 European countries and Canada) to donate 8.8bn euros for future European space missions.
The money would allow ESA to put the ExoMars lander on the Red Planet by 2011, set up a sattalite to monitor Earth and build Cryosat 2 that would replace an ice-monitoring probe which was lost on launch.
The 17 European contries will meet in Berlin on Monday to dissuss the plans and whether the countires feel its worth contributing the money.
Porno, porno, porno, it's everywhere on the internet from typing the word into Google or receiving spam with links to it. Thats why internet people(as i'll call them from now on) came up with the idea to create a .xxx domain for anyone who wants to view porn easily without having to search Google. But there has been critisism over the merits of such a domain with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers(Icann) postponing it for a proper review. So it seems we'll all have to wait for an easier way to get porno. Now then....where did I put them pictures of those two women "doing stuff"....
Football legend George Best has been laid to rest today in Belfast. Thousands of mourners applauded as the coffin went by to the final resting place beside his mother Ann at Roselawn Cemetary. The funeral was attended by football fans and some of the biggest names in football, including Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson. Best died at the age of 59.
Sam the worlds ugliest dog has been announced dead on the official website for the dog. He passed away on Friday, November 18th. Sam had won the "Worlds Ugliest Dog" contest three times undefeated. Lets have a few seconds of silence for the dog that has touched people across the globe.
Yep people it's definetly a fucked up world with death everywhere, crazy fetishes, conspiracies, UFOs, near-death experiences and god knows what else! I'll be here to show you it all, you unlucky person.
Russia has offered the Ukraine a three month delay in a dispute over gas prices. The deal consists of the Ukraine paying the normal price of $50 per cubic meter untill April 2006, when a new price of $250 per cubic meter will come into affect. If the deal is not signed and agreed by the Ukraine, Russian gas supplier Gazprom will turn off the supply at 0700 GMT on Sunday.
