[so much for the war in Iraq was for Oil-ed]
BUSINESSES could be forced to close down and lay off workers this winter because the country’s energy reserves are so low, the director-general of the CBI warned yesterday.
“If we have a cold winter, we are going to throw the switch, businesses will shut down, people [...]

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We recently reported on the case of the lone Suffolk policeman commendably striving to patrol some twenty two square miles of rural Suffolk because his local force claimed to lack the financial where-with-all to provide additional manpower – this, despite being in receipt of huge funding courtesy of the compulsory police precept levied on council [...]

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THE wreck of a cargo ship which sank in Scottish waters is to be monitored for pollution over the next three years.
A report by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency into potential pollution caused by the sinking of the MV Jambo said consumers were not at risk from shellfish caught in the area.
However, it [...]

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Thousands of patients have received letters saying they may be at risk of developing the human form of “mad cow disease”. Health Secretary John Reid said the patients may have been exposed through blood plasma products.About 4,000 people may be at a very small risk of developing vCJD.
The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, [...]

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MILLIONS of trees are to be planted in the Central Belt in an effort to improve the health of Scots living in areas blighted by poverty.
The Central Scotland Forest Trust has said that it is aiming to plant one million native Scottish trees a year over the next four years to improve the landscape [...]

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Unstable fuses could cause unsalvaged World War II bombs aboard an abandoned shipwreck in the river Thames, UK, to blow, reveal investigations by New Scientist.
For 60 years the people of Sheerness in Kent have been living next door to a 1400-tonne time bomb. A lethal mixture of unstable second world war bombs is in the [...]

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TWO years ago today, Scotland got its first national park. After a long haul from concept to Scottish parliamentary bill, the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs national park was in business.
But that was only the beginning, says Mike Cantlay, the chairman of a national park committee charged with “promoting sustainable economic and social development [...]

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FOOD producers stung by criticism that they are contributing to Britain’s obesity epidemic are rushing to develop low-fat, low-calorie alternatives to popular brands in a bid to head off tough new government controls, the threat of a “fat tax” and potential US-style lawsuits.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) this week said the industry had two [...]

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A NEW community centre will be opened today, symbolising a turnaround in the fortunes of an island which was once in serious decline. But, according to the outgoing chairman of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the building also represents the ambitions of the organisation he leaves next month after six years.
The £677,000 An Talla centre [...]

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CLIMATE change could have helped provoke the most intense and widespread attack of heather beetle seen in Scotland.
It is feared that huge areas of the countryside face being stripped of heather this year and next due to an unprecedented onslaught by the destructive insect.
The beetles, lochmaea suturalius, emerge during spring to feed on [...]

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CAR-OWNERS face being banned from Edinburgh’s Princes Street in less than a year’s time as part of a major traffic shake-up of the city centre, The Scotsman has learned.
Private vehicles are expected to be prohibited from the gardens side of Princes Street from next May – nine years after they were removed from the [...]

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A NEW strategy to protect and enhance the unique wildlife and habitats of Scotland will place the country at the “cutting edge of international biodiversity conservation”.
Allan Wilson, the deputy environment minister, made the claim yesterday as he launched Scotland’s Biodiversity: It’s In Your Hands – a plan developed over three years by wildlife experts, [...]

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FOLLOWING the disappearance of the female from England’s sole pair of golden eagles, hopes that help might come from Scotland’s burgeoning population are slim.
Warnings that the species could die out in England were expressed by wardens at Haweswater, in the Lake District, yesterday. The female has not been seen for several weeks and conservationists [...]

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AFTER decades of population decline, some parts of the Highlands and Islands are now increasing their numbers.
A new report, published today, shows why people have moved to the area and has challenged some commonly-held perceptions. The results will now be used in efforts to help develop other more vulnerable and fragile areas.
The spectacular [...]

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GAMEKEEPERS who claim that a deer cull could harm their livelihood have been told the action should create more jobs, not fewer.
More than 100 keepers from all over Scotland staged a major demonstration on the Glenfeshie Estate in Speyside on Monday evening in protest at a cull of red deer.
The Deer Commission for [...]

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ONE of the world’s leading opponents of genetically modified crops has backed the campaign to keep Scotland GM-free.
Devinder Sharma, an award-winning journalist, writer and researcher on food and trade policy, said campaigners in other parts of the world had been inspired by protesters in the Highlands who fought GM field trials in the Black [...]

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BIRDS of prey, including species such as the osprey and peregrine falcon, are on the increase in Scotland, according to figures obtained by The Scotsman.
A report into the number of raptors, compiled by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), found numbers rising – despite 19th-century practices to eliminate predators from [...]

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Throughout the Isles there is a small but growing band of people who are determined to defend our their way of life from those who seek to destroy it.
Find out more about them in this website.
>>>| land-and-people.org

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Scaredy-rats die young
High stress life may take toll on longevity.
9 December 2003
HELEN PEARSON

As many as 15% of children may suffer from severe shyness
© GettyImages
A new study raises the prospect that shy people might die younger than extroverts.
As many as 15% of children are thought to suffer from neophobia — a [...]

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