World Briefs

The Dutch strapped on skates and flocked to icy canals this weekend as freezing temperatures afforded an increasingly rare chance to skate across their flat country.

After more than a week of cold, an estimated 2.3 million skaters, out of a population of 16 million, have taken to frozen canals and lakes, according to a poll released ahead of the weekend.

That number is expected to double if Queen Beatrix decides to don her skates as well.

"The number of opportunities you have to skate in the Dutch winter is decreasing," said Jochem van de Laarschot, who usually speaks on behalf of Dutch food retailer Ahold but took a half a day off last week to skate.

"Once the opportunity comes up you have to get your skates out and jump on the ice," he said.

Warmer global temperatures have led to less natural ice forming in the low-lying Netherlands, where the topography of interconnected waterways makes it an ideal winter skating playground. Speed skating is the national sport.

Slow economy to spur social unrest

Russia faces a jarring economic slowdown in 2009, leading the government to tackle severe social instability, the Eurasia Group Consultancy said in a report.

Investors this year face uncertainty over the rouble, currency reserves, slower growth of gross domestic product (GDP) and real incomes.

"Russia... demands serious reassessment of long-held assumptions," analysts Alexander Kliment and Cliff Kupchan said in the report.

They added that GDP growth in 2009 was "unlikely" to top three per cent - in line with other analysts' expectations - and negative growth is a real possibility early in the year.

Man's body dumped on motorway

Police have charged a 51-year-old man from east London with the murder of a man whose burning body was found by the M45 motorway in Warwickshire, Scotland Yard said yesterday.

The victim was found on the eastbound embankment of the motorway on December 30 and a post mortem revealed he died from head and neck injuries.

Police believe he was killed in east London before his body was driven to Warwickshire to be dumped and set alight.

Scotland Yard said it had charged Irshad Mohammed Wali, 51, with the murder. He was arrested last Wednesday along with five other men in separate raids in east London.

A 46-year-old man has been released on bail until this week and the remaining four have been released and face no further action.

Police said the victim had yet to be formally identified and his next of kin notified.

UK urges firms to give jobs to graduates

Britain is urging companies to give temporary jobs to thousands of students finishing university courses this summer to counter a cutback in graduate recruitment due to an economic slowdown.

High street bank Barclays and US software firm Microsoft have already agreed to offer up to three months' work to graduates, a spokeswoman for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills said yesterday. The programme, to be called the National Internship Scheme, follows the announcement last week of £140 million of government funding for 35,000 extra apprenticeships next year.

Five Bosnians injured in gas blast

Five Bosnians were injured in a natural gas blast at their home in the capital Sarajevo yesterday, a hospital spokeswoman said. Police were investigating the cause of the explosion.

"The Hadrovic family ...(was) admitted to the Sarajevo University Clinical Centre. The mother suffered heavy burns in the gas explosion," hospital spokeswoman Biljana Jandric told Reuters. Serbia started pumping around 0.5 million cubic metres of gas into Bosnia yesterday after Bosnian imports of natural gas were cut off earlier last week when shipments of Russian gas via a pipeline that runs through Ukraine and Hungary were halted.

Between 1 to 1.5 million cubic metres of gas from German utility E.on was also expected to be delivered. When the gas imports were halted on Tuesday in Bosnia, where many remember heatless winter nights during the 1992-95 war, more than 100,000 households were left without heating.

Bosnia uses around 350 million cubic metres of gas annually and has no gas reserves. Natural gas accounts for up to eight per cent of Bosnia's energy use.