Permanently anchored in the ice-free Kola Bay, the Belokamenka lies safely sheltered from the harsh Barents Sea.

Less than three years after the old supertanker was converted into a mammoth floating trans-shipment oil terminal, it has become a powerful symbol of Russia's oil and gas adventure.

Soaring oil prices have helped transform Russia from an economic basket case into one of the richest and, yet again, one of the most powerful nations in the world.

And given that Russia's arctic north is said to contain up to a quarter of the world's oil and gas reserves, Belokamenka's journey through the choppy energy markets is only just beginning.

In August, about 500,000 tonnes of crude was exported on behalf of state-owned Rosneft and its private rival Lukoil, up from 340,000 tonnes in July and 220,000 tonnes in June.

"Murmansk is not far from Europe and the US, so I think our exports of oil and gas will go up year after year," says Belokamenka's general director, Vadim Ovchinnikov.

Her single Womanizer clambered up four places to
number three.
Take That's fifth studio album - their second
since reuniting - ranks third in terms of first
week sales.
Only Be Here Now by Oasis in 1997 and Coldplay's
2005 album X&Y have sold in greater volumes
during their initial seven days.
The foursome said it was "an incredible feeling
to have the new album do what it's done this
week.
"We set out to make a record that each of us was
really proud of and we did that.
"To then have it fly off the shelves like it did
this week has been just amazing," they added.
But the band's latest single was knocked off the
top spot by Leona Lewis's Run, which is her third
number one since triumphing on The X Factor at
the end of 2006.
Her song was given a release after performances
on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge and The X Factor
received positive reactions.
It also appeared on an enhanced re-release of her
debut album Spirit, which became the first re-
issue to debut at the top of the album chart and
has sold more than four million copies around the
world to date.
The singer received a Grammy nomination for
record of the year earlier this week, while her
song Bleeding Love was announced as iTunes' most
downloaded track of 2008.
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As the Pakistani military strategists who organised Afghan guerillas against the Soviets in the 1980s discovered to their delight, Kurram is the best location along the entire Pakistan-Afghanistan border to put pressure on the Afghan capital, Kabul, which is just 90km (56 miles) away. But because the region is inhabited by a Shia tribe that opposes the Taliban for religious reasons, the Taliban have not been able to get a foothold here.

The Taliban, with their primary interest in the war in Afghanistan, have also steered clear of Orakzai tribal district because it does not share a border with Afghanistan and is therefore of no strategic value.

But Taliban groups motivated by sectarian strife, or those trying to drive Pakistani forces out of the tribal region, have set up bases both in the Lower Kurram region, where there are few Shias, and Orakzai.

This area links up with the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan to the south, and Afridi tribal territory in Darra Adamkhel and Khyber in the north. It is overseen by Hakimullah Mehsud (alias Zulfiqar Mehsud), a deputy of top Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and a cousin of Qari Hussain, another deputy of Baitullah Mehsud's who is known for running training camps for suicide bombers in South Waziristan.

Hakimullah Mehsud is believed to command an armed force of more than 2,000 fighters of varying ability. From their bases in Orakzai and areas north of Mir Ali in North Waziristan, these fighters have tried to squeeze the Shias of Upper Kurram valley and those living in the Hangu distict of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Over the past year, they have also infiltrated Khyber region and forged ties with mostly criminal groups that have been operating there in the guise of Taliban. One such group is led by Mangal Bagh. Apart from kidnappings-for-ransom and car-jacking, these groups have also been involved in looting supplies being shipped to international forces in Afghanistan via a road that connects the Pakistani port of Karachi with the country's north-west and passes through Darra Adamkhel-Khyber region.

These groups have also carried out rocket attacks and bombings inside Peshawar city, the capital of NWFP. More recently, they are suspected of setting fire to hundreds of trucks carrying Nato supplies at a transit terminal in Peshawar.

Afghanistan's Zabul province lies to the north of Kandahar, along the Toba Kakar mountain range that separates it from the Pakistani districts of Killa Saifullah and Killa Abdullah. The mountains are remote, and have been largely quiet except for a couple of occasions when Pakistani security forces scoured them for al-Qaeda suspects.
Reports from Afghanistan say militants use the area in special circumstances. In early 2002, Taliban militants fleeing US forces in Paktia and Paktika provinces took a detour through South Waziristan to re-enter Afghanistan via Zabul. Occasionally, Taliban insurgents use the Toba Kakar passes when infiltration through South Waziristan is difficult due to intensified vigilance by Pakistani and Afghan border guards.
Zabul provides access to the Afghan provinces of Ghazni, Oruzgan and Kandahar. There are few Afghan or foreign forces in the area, except on the highway that connects Qalat, the capital of Zabul, to Kandahar in the south-west, and Ghazni and Kabul in the north.
Taliban activity along parts of this highway has forced government officials, aid workers and journalists to give up travelling on this road.
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Hundreds of soldiers and riot police are still surrounding the Brazilian embassy compound in Tegucigalpa, where Mr Zelaya has been living since his dramatic return to Honduras last week.

On Sunday, the interim government gave Brazil 10 days to either grant Mr Zelaya asylum or hand him over. Mr Micheletti said Brazil could lose its right to a diplomatic mission in Honduras.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he would ignore the threat but the UN Undersecretary General for Political Affairs said they were "a very serious problem".

"It would be a disaster if any action were taken to violate international law on the inviolability of the embassies," said Lynn Pascoe.

Mr Micheletti said there would be no move to remove Mr Zelaya from the embassy by force.

The interim government had also said it is inviting representatives of the OAS to return to Honduras after turning them away on Sunday.

A statement said an OAS delegation was being invited to the country on 7 October to try to re-establish negotiations with Mr Zelaya and that a preparatory mission would be allowed to enter Honduras on 2 October.

Mr Zelaya was forced from office at gunpoint after announcing plans to hold a non-binding public consultation on whether people supported moves to change the constitution.

His opponents said the move was unconstitutional and was aimed at removing the current one-term limit on serving as president, so paving the way for Mr Zelaya's possible re-election. He has denied this.

The interim leader of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti, has said civil liberties could soon be restored in the country.
They were suspended in response to a call for protests by deposed President Manuel Zelaya, who remains holed up in the Brazilian embassy in the capital.
Mr Zelaya, addressing the UN General Assembly by phone, appealed for help to reverse "the dictatorship" in Honduras.
The interim authorities have invited the Organisation of American States (OAS) to return to Honduras for talks.
A group of four diplomats - including some OAS representatives - were turned away by the interim government at the weekend.
Speaking to the UN General Assembly by telephone, Mr Zelaya decried the suspension of civil liberties.
"If there was any doubt that what we have here is a dictatorship, now with everything that has happened in these past 93 days of repression, I believe those doubts no longer exist," he said.
The emergency measures were put in place on Sunday after Mr Zelaya urged his supporters to converge on the capital, Tegucigalpa, in what he called a "final offensive".
The measures, which allow unauthorised public meetings to be banned and news media to be temporarily closed down, were intended to last 45 days.
Two media outlets critical of the interim government - Radio Globo and Cholusat Sur TV - have been shut.
On Monday, Mr Micheletti said there were concerns the decree "could affect the elections", planned to take place in November.
"If it's necessary, we'll revoke it," he said.
Mr Micheletti he would discuss the matter with Congress "as soon as possible" and that "by the end of this week we'll have this resolved," the AP news agency quoted him as saying.
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The real-life son of Last of The Summer Wine actor Bill Owen - who died last month - is to join the cast of the comedy show.

Tom Owen, 50, will play the long-lost son of Bill's character Compo in the programme's 22nd series, which will be shown on BBC One next year.

He said: "It's a great honour and privilege to follow my father into such an established and well-loved programme and to work with such a wonderful cast."

Bill died on 12 July after suffering from cancer, midway through work on the new series.

Writer Roy Clarke has now reworked the remaining programmes to show how Compo knew he was ill, but kept it a secret from his friends Clegg and Truly - played by Peter Sallis and Frank Thornton.

It emerges Compo wrote to the son he had never met - his wife left him shortly after they married - but Tom Simmonite, who in contrast to his Yorkshireman father is a southerner, arrives too late to attend the funeral.

Tom, who is described by Clarke as "an old age, new age traveller", stays in Holmfirth to see if there is any money in Compo's will to pay for a new exhaust for his bus.

Tom Owen has been an actor since his teens and now runs his own production outfit. His film roles include a part in Goodbye Mr Chips alongside Peter O'Toole and Michael Redgrave.

Roy Clarke said he was inspired to ask Tom to join the cast after seeing a photograph of him in a newspaper after Bill's death.

"His resemblance to Bill is uncanny - just one look at his picture and the idea came to me of writing Compo's son into the series," he explained.

Colleague Peter Thornton said: "I'm sure Bill is sitting up there quite delighted at the way things have developed."

Compo, with his woolly hat and wellington boots, became one of British television's most popular characters after Bill Owen took the part in 1973.

BBC head of comedy Geoffrey Perkins

After his release on Tuesday he told journalists: "I am free again, but my homeland is still a prison." Reuters news agency reported he was slurring his speech because of a missing tooth. He went on to say he had suffered beatings, whippings, electric shocks and simulated drowning at the hands of officials and guards. "At the time that Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said on television that he could not sleep without being reassured on my fate... I was being tortured in the worst ways, beaten with electric cables and iron bars," he said. He demanded an apology from Mr Maliki and said he would name the officials who tortured him in due course. all my relatives and people close to me that these services will use all means to trap and try to kill and liquidate me either physically, socially or professionally," he said. His allegations of abuse mirror claims made earlier by his family, who said he had been beaten, suffering a broken arm, broken ribs and internal bleeding. The Iraqi military earlier denied the allegations, but following Zaidi's news conference Sami Al Askari, an adviser to Mr Maliki, said his torture claims should be investigated. Zaidi's family has been preparing to throw a party for him. He has reportedly received offers of money, jobs and even marriage from across the Arab world. His relatives say he was offered a golden horse by the Emir of Qatar. http://www.easybuyying.com http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-womens-rainier-eskimo-c-46_47_291.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-bailey-button-5803-boots-c-46_47_290.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-baby-boots-c-46_47_289.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-5691-lo-pro-button-boots-c-46_47_288.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-5389-new-arrival-boots-c-46_47_287.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-ultra-short-sheepskin-boots-c-46_47_286.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-5125-coquette-slipper-c-46_47_285.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-5119-knightsbridge-boots-c-46_47_284.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-classic-cardy-boots-c-46_47_218.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-classic-crochet-boots-c-46_47_219.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-classic-mini-boots-c-46_47_220.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-classic-short-boots-c-46_47_221.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-classic-tall-boots-c-46_47_222.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-nightfall-boots-c-46_47_223.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-sundance-boots-c-46_47_224.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-ultra-short-boots-c-46_47_225.html http://www.easybuyying.com/ugg-boots-ugg-ultra-tall-boots-c-46_47_226.htmla