Speed Dating

A young snowboarder who was found 3 days after going missing on Mount Seymour in North Vancouver told rescuers he saw other tracks on the mountain.

Revellers eager to close the books on a year marked by global economic gloom, conflict and uncertainty over the future looked to Thursday’s midnight session for renewed hope as the world celebrated the dawn of 2009.

John Tavares scored 3 times, including into an empty net, to lead Canada in a wild 7-4 comeback over the United States at the world junior hockey championships in Ottawa on Novel Year’s Eve.

Israel rejected any temporary halt to its five-day bombing campaign in Gaza yesterday and continued to hit targets in the Palestinian territory amid the first signs of disagreement over strategy among Israel’s leaders.

Israeli troops and tank crews gathered in larger numbers on the Gaza border prepared for a novel stage in the fighting. A possible invasion by Israeli forces could range from limited ground incursions to a much larger land invasion of Gaza, home to 1.5 million Palestinians. Another call-up of reservists has been approved, bringing the total to 9,000.

Israel widened its buffer zone under military authority around Gaza to a radius of 25 miles after the reach of Hamas rockets extended to the town of Be’er Sheva.

In the first indication of a division over the course of the engagement since the conflict began on Saturday, the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, personally championed a continuation of the military campaign while his defence minister, Ehud Barak - Israel’s most decorated soldier and a former chief of staff - proposed a 48-hour halt on Tuesday night.

“If conditions will ripen and we think there will be a diplomatic solution that will ensure a better security reality in the south, we will consider it. But at the moment, it’s not there,” an aide quoted Olmert as saying.”We didn’t start this operation just to end it with rocket fire continuing as it did before it began. Imagine if we declare a unilateral ceasefire and a few days later rockets fall on Ashkelon. What will that do to Israel’s deterrence?”

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said last night that Israeli attacks on Gaza had to stop before any truce proposals could be considered.

“First, the Zionist aggression must end without any conditions … Second, the siege must be lifted and all the crossings must be opened because the siege is the source of all of Gaza’s problems,” he said in a televised speech to Palestinians.”After that it will be possible to talk on all issues without any exception,” Haniyeh said, referring to current truce proposals raised by all parties, including Israel.

Olmert met Barak, foreign minister Tzipi Livni and his senior commanders for an apparently tense four-hour encounter on Tuesday night. A security cabinet encounter yesterday then decided against any pause in the bombing.

The French government had tried to convince the Israelis to accept the pause and to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. But Israel’s leaders are keen not to repeat the experience of the 2006 Lebanon war when divisions over strategy led to recriminations and loss of confidence among the Israeli public.

Israeli jets yesterday bombed smuggling tunnels on the Egyptian border as well as a mosque in Gaza City, which the military said was used to store weapons.

Palestinian militants continued to fire rockets into southern Israel, reaching a novel range of around 25 miles and hitting the city of Be’er Sheva. The rockets have killed 4 Israelis since Saturday. The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza rose to 393 with 1,650 wounded in 5 days.

Some defence officials have suggested that as the weather improves later this week tanks and troops might be sent into Gaza in another attempt to stop the firing of rockets into southern Israel. A long column of tanks and other army vehicles was seen yesterday on an access road leading into Gaza. Dozens more tanks were parked in fields by the border.

Most military analysts say it is unlikely that Israel would embark on a costly complete reoccupation of Gaza and not enough troops are in position for that. More likely is a series of smaller raids. However, although Israel faced little international criticism when the conflict started, pressure for a halt to the violence is growing from western governments as well as the UN and aid agencies.

Gordon Brown yesterday called for an urgent ceasefire amid the”humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.”It is vital that moderation must now prevail,” he said after speaking by buzz to Olmert - the first time the 2 leaders have spoken since the crisis erupted.

Brown said:”I have talked to the prime minister of Israel and had assurances from him that there will be access for humanitarian reasons to get stocks in, to get supplies to people in Gaza and to help with the casualties.”

Israel has allowed in around 100 trucks loaded with humanitarian supplies on each of the past 2 days, but that comes after months of severe economic blockade and big shortfalls in Gaza of food and medical supplies. The UN said it was still well short of what was needed.

1 Hamas spokesman in Gaza said the group was open to another ceasefire, but wanted Israel’s economic blockade lifted. For more than a year Israel has prevented all imports, except limited humanitarian supplies, and prevented all exports from Gaza - in effect destroying personal business.

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At least 59 people died and more than 130 were injured in a fire at a Bangkok nightclub packed with Novel Year’s Eve revellers, Thai police said last night.

The cause of the fire was unclear; some clubbers blamed it on fireworks while others said it had been caused by an electrical fault in the Santika club.

“We were all dancing and suddenly there was a big flame that came out of the front of the stage and everybody was running away,” Oh Benjamas told Reuters outside the smouldering wreckage of the club. Another told how the ceiling caved in, burying victims in the rubble.

Police Major General Chokchai Deeprasertwit said the fire may have been caused by firecrackers brought into the club by guests or by sparks flying from a pyrotechnics countdown on the stage.

Chokchai said most deaths were caused by burns, smoke inhalation and injuries inflicted by the stampede to escape from the club, which had exclusive 1 door for entry and exit. A firefighter at the scene, Watcharapong Sri-saard, said another door at the rear of the building was known exclusive to staff. He said a number of staircases inside the club as well as bars across the second-floor windows had also made escape difficult.

Dozens of bodies wrapped in white cotton sheets lay on the pavement outside the club as fire crews moved in.

The Foreign Office said representatives were at the scene but it was unclear whether any Britons had been hurt.

The club is based on Ekkamai, a street in central Bangkok’s Thong Lor district, which is popular with foreign revellers and well-to-do Thais.

Officials said many of the bodies had been charred beyond recognition. Rescue teams used pick-up trucks to ferry corpses from the scene while survivors were taken to 14 different Bangkok hospitals. Most of the bodies were found in the basement of the two-storey building.

The Thai capital was hit 2 years ago on Novel Year’s Eve by a series of small explosions in which several people were killed and dozens injured. The blasts were blamed variously on fallout from the 2006 coup against the then prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, and Muslim militants who have waged a separatist rebellion in Thailand’s southern provinces since 2003.

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Despite Israel’s intense five-day bombing campaign of Gaza, Palestinian militants have begun using longer-range rockets that now reach up to 25 miles inside Israel, hitting cities such as Ashdod and Be’er Sheva for the first time.

Israeli military officials say the rockets are 122mm Grads, which they believe have been smuggled into Gaza through tunnels under the Egyptian border in current months. The rockets, which are up to 3 metres in length, can be disassembled and were almost certainly brought through the tunnels in parts, under the border town of Rafah.

In the past, regular Grad rockets had reached up to 12 miles inside Israel, hitting cities such as Ashkelon. But now an enhanced, longer version with a slightly larger 22kg warhead has reached ranges of 25 miles. Rockets fired on Tuesday night and yesterday hit the city of Be’er Sheva, in the Negev desert, for the first time, although they remain inaccurate and are not fired from sophisticated launchers.

Palestinian rockets and mortars have killed 4 Israelis since Israel’s bombing campaign began last Saturday and have caused 20 deaths in Israel in the past 8 years. More than 370 Palestinians have died in the past 5 days of bombing in Gaza.

Israeli military officials believe the rockets are either made in Iran or transferred from there. However, reports in the Israeli press yesterday said some recently fired rockets appeared to have been made in China. Grads, sometimes known as katyushas, have been manufactured by many countries since the second world war.

For the last 2 days, the Israeli military has bombed the tunnels on the Gazan border with Egypt in an attempt to stop more rockets coming in and 1 Israeli condition of any ceasefire will be to insist that no smuggling tunnels are allowed in future. The vast majority of the tunnels, however, brought not weapons but food, cigarettes, electronic goods and even farm animals in an attempt to bypass Israel’s economic blockade of the Gaza Strip.

1 Egyptian official was quoted as saying that Israel had so far destroyed around 120 of more than 200 tunnels.

The use of the longer-range rockets has also raised questions about how much damage the bombing campaign has done to the military wing of Hamas. On Tuesday 1 Israeli cabinet minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, said it was too early for Israel to accept a ceasefire.”Hamas has not suffered enough damage in the current strikes,” he said. Several of the targets being hit are government buildings in Gaza that are deserted and which have been targeted repeatedly in the past.

Jonathan Fighel, a retired Israeli army colonel and a senior researcher at the Institute for Counter Terrorism in Herzliya, said he believed the bombing had damaged Hamas’s ability to govern in Gaza but had yet to seriously upset its armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

“I think not enough damage was done,” Fighel said.”The Izzedine al-Qassam’s power was not severely damaged and the fact that they were capable of launching rockets this morning shows that the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] didn’t accomplish their mission in providing security to the southern part of Israel.” Fighel said he believed Hamas had further rocket and weapons stores in crowded urban areas that could not easily be destroyed by aerial bombing without large civilian casualties, but which needed to be attacked byIsraeli troops, though not necessarily through a major invasion or a long occupation.

“A land phase will be necessary to roll down as much as possible their capabilities of launching attacks,” he said.”The problem is that Hamas’s motivation was not suppressed. They feel they have changed the agenda for the Israeli population in the south. They have disrupted the life of part of the state of Israel.”

He said Israel’s goal in continuing its campaign now was to win the most favourable political solution.”The question is now how do you manage to leverage the military campaign into political gain?” He said Israel would look for a ceasefire but under its preferred conditions, which would include a halt to smuggling tunnels and the ability for Israel to continue to attack militants in the occupied West Bank without reprisals from Gaza.

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Hundreds of thousands of revellers braved the coldest Novel Year’s Eve in more than a decade last night at outdoor events, defying the weather and the economic gloom.

Many more celebrated in pubs and clubs but big numbers had opted to batten down the hatches and celebrate at home. A survey of 2,160 people by YouGov estimated that 63% stayed in by the fire, with 8 out of 10 of those attributing their decision to the economy, and 1 in 10 to being made redundant.

Some of the most heavily subscribed events in the Novel Year’s Eve calendar still had tickets accessible just before they were due to start and many offered discounted entry. Those who did venture out tried to forget the credit crunch and party as usual. In London thousands of revellers braved chilly temperatures and thronged the streets to see in the Novel Year.

Crowds applauded and cheered during a 12-minute fireworks display on the banks of the Thames. Colombian students Yadica Guerreo, 26, and Johana Sosa, 21, who celebrated in the shadow of Big Ben, said that being in London to see in 2009 was”like a dream come true”.

Miss Guerreo said:”It’s been beautiful cold but it’s also been beautiful cool. I’ve exclusive been in London for 1 month and it’s a dream come true to be here.” Miss Sosa added:”It’s amazing. I’ve never thought I would be here to see this.”

Kimberley Harvey, 20, from north London, said:”We’ve been here since 8pm and we’ve been dancing all night. I’ve never been here before even though I live in London. I love it. I’ve had a great time.”

Joelle Peeters, 43, and her son Tom, 12, travelled from Brussels to spend Novel Year’s Eve in London. She said:”I love the fireworks. We spent the last 2 Novel Years in Paris, but this was far better. It was well worth the wait, even if it has been very cold.”

The countdown lasted for a moment longer, due to the Earth’s erratic rotation. Official timekeepers around the world inserted a”leap second” to bring the most accurate atomic clocks in line with the astronomical day.

It was expected to be the coldest Novel Year’s Eve since 1996 - significantly colder than even Iceland with temperatures expected to be below 0 in most areas.

In Edinburgh temperatures dropped as low as -3C as about 100,000 people joined in at the big Hogmanay event and organisers released extra passes after the first 50,000 sold out 4 days earlier than last year, despite doubling in cost from £5 to £10. Scotland was expected to be colder than many places in Europe including Moscow, Paris and Berlin.

The Met Office advised revellers to wrap up and be careful of slippery pavements.”The last Novel Year’s Eve we had that was this cold was in 1996, when it was -3C degrees,” said Dave Britton, a senior forecaster at the Met Office.

Just over part of people questioned by National Saving & Investments had chosen to celebrate locally to cut costs, with many also opting for free events.”It is good to see that people are finding creative and less expensive ways to celebrate in an attempt to avoid a novel year hangover,” a spokesman said.

Yesterday it was still possible to make an 11th-hour decision to attend London’s most extravagant offerings - including the Dorchester hotel’s six-course meal and live music for £320, or Elton John’s Novel Year’s Eve concert at the O2 arena, where tickets, many of which were originally £100, were being reduced by 50%.

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Britain’s most senior civil servants are to hold formal talks with the Liberal Democrats on their plans for government as Whitehall prepares for a hung parliament in which Nick Clegg could hold the balance of power after the next election.

In a departure from the Lib Dems’ practice at the last election, Clegg has agreed that members of his front bench will meet Whitehall’s permanent secretaries to discuss the party’s manifesto. The decision to hold the meetings, which are also being offered to the Tories, comes as the”golden triangle” at the top of Whitehall makes preparations for an election in which no party gains an overall majority.

Opinion polls indicate that Britain may be heading for a hung parliament, the first since 1974. The failure of David Cameron to secure a decisive breakthrough in the polls after appearing to build up a lead in the summer has convinced senior figures in Whitehall to make coalition plans.

1 senior Whitehall veteran said the”golden triangle” - the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O’Donnell, the No 10 permanent secretary, Jeremy Heywood, and the Queen’s personal secretary, Christopher Geidt - will look carefully at February 1974.”The civil service will be dusting down the tomes,” the Whitehall veteran told the Guardian.”They’ll be talking to the lawyers in the privy council office. The No 10 permanent secretary, the cabinet secretary and the Queen’s personal secretary will make sure they’ve all got the same understanding of what happens.”

The 3 will facial a delicate task in the event of a hung parliament. They would confer to advise the Queen on whom to summon as prime minister should Labour or the Tories fail to get a majority.

After the February 1974 election, Ted Heath insisted on staying on as prime minister to cobble together a coalition even though Harold Wilson had won 4 more seats. Heath eventually resigned and Wilson was invited to form a minority government; 8 months later he secured an overall majority in the October election.

As part of their preparations for a hung parliament, the 3 senior mandarins will be briefed by the permanent secretaries of Whitehall’s departments on the Tories’ and Liberal Democrats’ plans for government. The civil service will ensure they are versed in the main sticking points if Labour or the Tories embark on coalition talks with the Lib Dems.

1 Whitehall figure said:”You take the Liberal manifesto seriously not because you think it is going to be the government’s programme. But there could be a hung parliament and deals around constitutional change or proportional representation [electoral reform].”

The Lib Dems say their decision to take part in the Whitehall meetings simply shows they are sincere about developing policy.”Taking the opportunity to talk to senior civil servants shows how seriously we are taking the policy-making process,” 1 senior source said.”We are not talking about a hung parliament.”

The party turned down the offer of Whitehall talks before the 2005 general election because Charles Kennedy, the party’s leader at the time, did not want to look like he was preparing for government.

It comes after Gordon Brown confirmed he would allow the Tories to meet the permanent secretaries of the departments they hope to run. O’Donnell will oversee the process and will meet Cameron, who has appointed Francis Maude to run the process for the Tories. A similar process will be launched with Clegg.

The Whitehall machinery is taking the process so seriously that grandees are lending help to a parallel process by the Institute For Government. Lord Turnbull, the ex-cabinet secretary who accused Brown of acting with”Stalinist ruthlessness”, is to advise Tories in these seminars.

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Gordon Brown today braces Britain for potentially its worst recession since the second world war by promising to work with Barack Obama to create a novel progressive era across the world. He claims he can build”a global coalition for change” with the US president-elect.

The prime minister said 2008 would be remembered as the year in which”the old era of unbridled free market dogma was finally ushered out”. In his traditional novel year message, Brown struck a tone of tempered optimism, saying that Britain can this year build a better tomorrow through strategic investments while dealing with the dangerous challenges of today.

He said:”The failure of previous governments in previous global downturns was to succumb to political expediency and to cut back investment across the board, thereby stunting our ability to grow and strangling hope during the upturn. This will not happen on my watch.”

Brown said this year would not be easy but his aides pointed to Lord Carter’s digital Britain paper last month, big decisions on a third runway at Heathrow airport and plans to create tens of thousands of blue jobs as signs that the government will continue with capital investment even though the pre-budget report suggested there will be a capital spending downturn soon. The prime minister’s aides are waiting for key figures to be published tomorrow on how well the banks are lending to both small and big business, a key test of whether the recapitalisation package is working.

Brown is looking forward to working with Obama on the US fiscal injection package, a co-ordinated approach to climate change and on 2 April a encounter of the G20 countries in London to discuss setting up a novel global financial structure. A co-ordinated reflation is twice as effective as isolated action, he said.

He contrasted his government’s promise to help people through the recession with those putting forward”do nothing” policies, notably the Tories:”Today the risk of attempting to do too little is a greater threat than the risk of attempting to do too much. For those worried about jobs we will take every action we can. For those worried about their homes let me tell you that ordinary homeowners should not be the first to pay the price of financial failures. We will help people trying their best to pay their mortgages to stay in their own homes.”

But he insisted, in a delphic reference to Britain’s wartime spirit, that the British people, and the government, had demonstrated their ability to get through even greater challenges in the past.

“The scale and speed of the global financial crisis was, at times, almost overwhelming. I know that people felt bewildered, confused and sometimes frightened,” he said.”That is why the response had to be swift and decisive.”

George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, ridiculed the tone of Brown’s message, saying he was”living in a fantasy land of his own imagination - not the Britain of 2009. He talks of tomorrow, but ignores the role he played in creating the mess of today.”

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