Breakdown of talks to resume gas supplies prompts Nato response

By Calvin Palmer

A deal that would have seen supplies of Russian gas to Europe resume faltered at the eleventh hour in Brussels when Russia’s state-controlled gas company Gazprom insisted Russians join the EU monitors in Ukraine.

Kiev had initially agreed to the EU monitors but not Russians.

“This is an issue between Russia and Ukraine,” said EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.

But Gazprom stuck to its position, and VladimirPutin, Russia’s Prime Minister, urged the EU to resolve the situation.  He told reporters: “Our European partners must act quickly in these unusual conditions.”

“We don’t need some group of ladies and gentlemen to go to Kiev and sit and drink vodka in the hotel,” Putin said. “We need people at the points where our gas enters and exits Ukraine in the direction of Europe.”

The row has left 12 countries without any deliveries since Wednesday and with those countries in the grip of freezing temperatures, hundreds of schools and factories have closed to conserve fuel.

Alexandr Vondra, the Czech Deputy Prime Minister whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency attacked “completely unacceptable blackmail” in a dispute that has now hit two thirds of the Union’s members.

“We want supply returned immediately without anymore blackmailing,” he said.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President and German Chancellor Angela Merkel joined angry calls for Russia to resume supplies as gas shortages and heating rationing threatened to spread from Eastern to central Europe and beyond.

“The Russians must respect their contractual obligations to the Europeans,” said President Sarkozy.

Hundreds of thousands of people across the Balkans, the worst-affected region, found themselves without heating and some hospitals were forced to close in Serbia as the thermometer dipped below minus 10 degrees Celsius. 

A senior US diplomat warned that Nato might have to intervene to help alliance members such as Bulgaria and Romania if the crisis drags on.

“There is a commercial dispute at the heart of this, but this also has political overtones – we have seen Russia over time using such events to gain political leverage,” said US Ambassador to Nato Kurt Volker. “If this persists, I think Nato will have to think how to assist allies who suffer.”

Russia stopped all natural gas supplies to Ukraine on January 1 but kept supplies flowing to Europe through Ukraine’s pipelines until Wednesday, when all deliveries stopped. Russia accused Ukraine of siphoning off gas intended for European customers. Ukraine denied this.

Putin said Ukraine must pay the current European price for natural gas, which is more than twice what Ukraine paid last year. Russia then would agree to double the fee it pays to ship that gas over Ukrainian pipelines to Europe, he said, a change from Gazprom’s earlier stance that it would not pay more in transit fees.

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Ukraine’s Naftogaz CEO Oleh Dubina returned together to Russia to continue talks.

Meanwhile people in places such as Bosnia, Bulgaria and Slovakia braced themselves for another cold night as temperatures were expected to fall to 15 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius) and below.

[Based on reports by The Times, Associated Press and The Daily Telegraph.]

Texas man arrested in Thailand on child sex charges

By Calvin Palmer

A man wanted in Texas for raping four girls and videotaping the attacks was arrested today in Thailand, police said.

Darren Ray Castelberry, 41, a former resident of Spring, was arrested in a shop in central Bangkok.  Police believe he has been living in Thailand since 2006.

Castleberry, who was the subject of a global manhunt after Interpol issued an arrest warrant for him, is being held at the Thai Immigration Bureau pending extradition to the United States.

Scott Durfee, a spokesman for the Harris County, Texas district attorney’s office, said that the process was already under way to extradite Castleberry to the United States, where he faces charges that could have him imprisoned for life.

“He could be on American soil as quickly as two days from now,” said Durfee. who added that the prosecutor handling the case was well-versed in bringing back suspects from overseas and was ready to act “aggressively” on the matter.

Castleberry is sought on four charges of aggravated sexual assault against a child, each of which carries a penalty of not less than five years and up to life in prison and a $10,000 fine, said Durfee. The charge applies to sexual assault on a child younger than 14 years of age.

He also faces two charges of sexual assault on a child between the ages of 14 and 17, for which the penalty is not less than two years and up to 20 years in prison, Durfee said.

Castleberry’s relatives said they believed he was living with a new girlfriend overseas. Before that, he is believed to have worked in the Middle East.

[Based on reports by Associated Press and The Houston Chronicle.]

17-year-old charged with four killings

By Calvin Palmer

A 17-year-old high school dropout has been charged with the murder of four people during the Christmas holidays in Rochester, New York.

Jaquan Clark was a passenger in a minivan pulled over Tuesday by police who found a fully-loaded .357-caliber Magnum under a seat, police Chief David Moore said.

Clark’s fingerprints matched those at a house where Donald MacMaster, 62, Jeffrey Szymkowski, 33, and Arielle Griffin, 17, were killed on the night of December 26.  MacMaster operated a jewelry business from the house on the city’s northwest side, and the bodies were found by his brother the next day.

MacMaster was killed by a shotgun blast, Szymkowski suffered shotgun and knife wounds as well as being battered by an unidentified object, and Griffin died of stab wounds and blunt force trauma, investigators said.

Clark is also accused of killing Alfredo Ocasio, 37, who was hit with a shotgun blast on a sidewalk in another Rochester neighborhood on the night of December 23 and collapsed in a nearby driveway. He was found dead the next morning.

Authorities declined to say whether that killing was linked to the triple homicide three days later or provide a reason the four were targeted.

At an arraignment hearing this morning, Clark pleaded not guilty when charged with four counts of second-degree murder.

Clark, who dropped out of high school in the 10th grade, was ordered to be held without bail and will reappear in court tomorrow.

“I can’t get it out of my mind why a 17-year-old was involved in four cold-blooded murders,” said Mayor Robert Duffy, a former police chief.

The high homicide toll in Rochester dropped to 44 deaths last year from 50 in 2007 but, for the last two decades, the city of 207,000 has been termed “New York’s murder capital.”

[Based on a report by Associated Press.]

Ronaldo unhurt after crash wrecks Ferrari

By Calvin Palmer

Soccer fans the length and breadth of England will be rejoicing at the news that Manchester United and Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo has written off his £200,000 Ferrari in a road accident this morning.

The 23-year-old escaped unhurt after crashing his car into a roadside barrier in a tunnel near Manchester Airport.

Ronaldo's wrecked Ferrari. Picture courtesy of Manchester Evening News.

The accident happened at 10:20 a.m. on the A538 Wilmslow Road as Ronaldo was on his way to training.  He emerged unscathed and later took part in the training session.

Police were called to the scene and breathalysed the player.  The test proved negative.

It is believed Ronaldo’s 599 GTB, with Portuguese registration plates, was traveling ahead of a Bentley Continental being driven by his team mate, Edwin van der Saar.

An eye-witness said: “The front of Ronaldo’s car was completely mangled. There was metal all over the road, and debris. We had to dodge our way through it.

“Ronaldo was just standing at the side of the road looking forlorn and bewildered.

“My daughter said to me, ‘Oh my God – that’s Cristiano Ronaldo!’ It’s amazing he was okay because his car looked so bad.”

Ronaldo’s Ferrari is just one of his fleet of cars that are worth around £2 million.  His other cars include a Bentley Continental GT Speed, a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, two Porsche Cayennes and a BMW M6.

While most English soccer fans admire Ronaldo’s skill and ability, they detest his gamesmanship on the field.  At the slightest physical challenge, he falls to the ground as though he has been shot and wins a free-kick.

In the 2006 World Cup, his remonstration with the referee resulted in England’s Wayne Rooney, now one of Ronaldo’s team mates at Manchester United, getting sent off, effectively ending England’s World Cup hopes. 

Put purely and simply, the man is not liked.
 
[Based on reports by The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian.]

Army apologizes for ‘John Doe’ error in letters sent to families

By Calvin Palmer

The Army has apologized for 7,000 letters sent out to family members of the 3,544 soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 in which the recipients were addressed as “John Doe.”

The letters were sent out in December to inform the family members about private organizations that offer gifts, programs and other assistance to families of soldiers killed.

Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman, said the letters, printed by a contractor in California, should have been automatically addressed with the specific names of the family members.  Instead, they contained the placeholder greeting — “Dear John Doe.”

“It’s our fault for not catching it,” he said. “We are certainly sorry.”

“There are no words to adequately apologize for this mistake or for the hurt it may have caused,” Brig. Gen. Reuben D. Jones, the Army adjutant general, said in the statement.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey, Jr., is sending a personal letter to all the families who received the improperly addressed letters as the result of a printing error, the Army said.

Bonnie Brown of Troy, Ala., whose son John E. Brown was killed in Iraq on April 14, 2003, said she received a copy of the erroneous letter this week. She said she found the salutation odd but not offensive.

“I did notice it said, ‘Dear John Doe,’ ” she said. “But it didn’t really bother me. I didn’t think too much about it.”

Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the greeting was an “unfortunate mistake.” But he applauded the military’s efforts to stay in touch with families.

“It is embarrassing,” he said. “But it’s very good that they are trying to reach out to families to say the Army is there to support you.”

Paul Rieckhoff, founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, was less forgiving, arguing that the Army needed to do more to support military families.

The Army declined to release the name of the California company that printed the letters, insisting the responsibility for preventing the error was the military’s alone.

[Based on reports by Associated Press and Los Angeles Times.]