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First, in the wake of the fuel crisis even Labour’s standing in the polls has begun to look fragile. True, double-digit poll leads have started appearing again, but still only 29 per cent are satisfied with the Government’s performance. Voters might still be in the mood for an old fashioned by-election protest.Second, Labour has to worry about Scots’ greater reluctance to back the party in Scottish parliament elections than in Westminster ones, preferring instead the SNP. For in Glasgow Anniesland voters will be voting for a new MSP to send to Edinburgh as well as a new MP to represent them in London.

If some of them decide to split their ballots, then the MSP contest in Anniesland at least could be closer than Labour would like.John Curtice is deputy director, ESRC Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends. Avalanches claimed the lives of four skiers in the Austrian Tyrol yesterday in a series of snow slides. The accidents come little more than a week after 155 skiers died in Austria’s biggest skiing disaster when their train caught fire inside a tunnel in the Kitzsteinhorn Mountain in Kaprun resort near Salzburg. Avalanches claimed the lives of four skiers in the Austrian Tyrol yesterday in a series of snow slides.

The accidents come little more than a week after 155 skiers died in Austria’s biggest skiing disaster when their train caught fire inside a tunnel in the Kitzsteinhorn Mountain in Kaprun resort near Salzburg.
Three Germans died yesterday near the resort of Obergurgl in the Otztal, close to the Italian border, after an avalanche of freshly fallen snow buried their group. One, who was pulled out of the mass of snow by rescue workers who were helped by specially trained dogs, died on the way to hospital.Five others who were only partially blanketed by the snow slide were able to free themselves.While the rescue effort was under way, another avalanche at nearby Hochburgl buried a ski piste. Witnesses said one person had been trapped underneath, but helicopter crews reported three ski tracks into and out of the area. The search was continuing last night.An avalanche in Gölbner took place hours later, only a few miles away in eastern Tyrol. The slide, which roared down a mountainside without warning, killed an Austrian skier.

Six others with his party were able to dig themselves out.The accidents occurred at a time when skiers were attracted to the resorts because of near-perfect conditions, with early snow and sunshine. The immense quantity of new snow, however, has created a high level of avalanche danger.The tiny resort of Obergurgl, south of Innsbruck, is very isolated and is located nearly nearly 10,000ft above sea level. Witnesses said the Germans, aged in their twenties and all belonging to a ski club in Mannheim, had ignored avalanche warnings and skied on pistes that had been closed.The Austrian news agency APA reported that the Obergurgl avalanche had been triggered by the skiers themselves. The group in Gölbner is also believed to have caused the accident in which they were involved.About 100 members of the regional mountain rescue services, aided by tourists and skiers, searched in Oberburgl for survivors through snow 18ft deep before recovering the bodies of two men and a woman. A fourth person was still missing last night.Avalanche warnings have been in place throughout eastern Austria, following heavy snows in recent days.Last year, avalanches killed 39 people in Austria.. A pledge by European Union governments of about 100,000 troops for a new rapid-reaction capability will today herald an historic attempt to forge a network of modern, flexible and complementary military forces from Europe’s disparate armies.

A pledge by European Union governments of about 100,000 troops for a new rapid-reaction capability will today herald an historic attempt to forge a network of modern, flexible and complementary military forces from Europe’s disparate armies.
After the meeting of EU defence and foreign ministers in Brussels, the EU will be able to boast a pool of around 400 aircraft, 100 warships and a six-figure number of soldiers on which it can draw for crisis intervention missions.It will not be a European standing army. Under the European defence policy, the EU aims to be able to deploy a peace-keeping or intervention force of 60,000 men up to 4,200 km (2,400miles) from Europe, sustaining them in the field for up to a year.The EU’s three big military powers, Britain, Germany and France, will offer the backbone of the bloc’s military initiative, each pledging to put between 12,000 and 13,000 soldiers in the field at one time. The figures need to be treated with caution as soldiers usually have a tour of no more than six months, which means that the EU may need up to 180,000 troops to allow for the target of 60,000 to be “rotated”.Some of today’s pledges will be for troops earmarked for the larger pool – in the case of the UK, up to 24,000. Some of those pledged will be trained to operate in hot countries, others will have experience in cold conditions. The UK will also offer 18 warships and 72 military aircraft.The force commander, or director general, will be the General Rainer Schuwirth of Germany, with a Briton, General Graham Messervy-Whiting, as his second-in-command.But even after today’s pledging conference, the forces and equipment needed to allow the EU to mount large-scale military missions by 2003 will have important gaps. Javier Solana, Europe’s high representative for foreign affairs, will argue that, while this is a significant step, it is only the beginning.Since Tony Blair signed the St Malo declaration on defence co-operation with the French government two years ago, things have moved quicker than expected. At the time, the initiative was seen in London as a political coup from a government keen to play a leading role in Europe but hamstrung by its refusal to join the European single currency.