Ever feel like somebodyrsquo;s watching you? If yoursquo;ve traveled to the UK recently, chances are somebody has. An article from Sundayrsquo;s New York Times: ldquo;Britons Weary of Surveillance in Minor Casesrdquo; details some troubling surveillance tactics being used in Britain. According to Londonrsquo;s Evening Standard, more than 10,000 cameras have been set up around the city at a cost of $326 million. These cameras are being used to monitor comings and goings along the streets, nbsp;and to help solve a range of crimes ndash; from pickpocketing and loan-sharking to failing to clean up after a pet. A controversial law enacted in 2000 allows the authorities to install the cameras. The costs are tangible, both in dollar terms and loss of privacy, but the benefit is less clear: The parts of London with the most cameras have a below-average rate of solving crimes, the Evening Standard says. Read ldquo;Britons Weary of Surveillance in Minor Casesrdquo; All opinions ...

Corporate truce: Norway's Telenor and Russian partner Alfa have settled their long-standing legal wranglings and decided to pool their Russian and Ukrainian assets into a New-York listed mobile operator.  The Moscow Times reports that Prime Minister Putin has asked Renault to throw a financial bone to struggling partner AvtoVAZ, 'or we will have to discuss our relative stakes'.  Russia may borrow between $2 and $4 million in 2010 from the World Bank.  Retail giant X5 is looking to buy local supermarket chain Paterson.  Nokia will not be fined for violating Russian competition laws; it remain unsure if the same can be said for Ikea.  Rumors that Opel may move its van production from England to Russia have English workers in an uproar; Magna has denied the reports.  Digital Sky Technologies is buying more shares ...

The Central Bank has cut its key refinancing rate to 10.5%, the sixth such cut since April.  Russia could borrow less than $18 billion abroad next year if oil prices stay high.  Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has defended BRIC as a 'locomotive of the global economy'.  Apparently Opel will be sending less funds to Russia than initially reported: €170 million rather than €600 million.  Sberbank has insisted that the operations of Opel will not be directly influenced by the government.  Almost 5,000 Avtovaz employees face redundancy, according to ITAR-TASS.  Mikhail Prokhorov has complained that his charitable foundation has been forced to leave the city of Norilsk because of threats from 'feudal lords'.  Billionaire Alexander Lebedev has offered to give away shares in some of his firms to 'big western names' to bring them ...

TODAY: Wide-ranging talks with China conclude;  opinion suggests Russia the weak link in BRIC; milk war with Belarus over, but gas battle to begin?; NGO law reforms presented; extradition of Chichvarkin demandedThe 'friendly, constructive and confidential' talks between Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese Chairman Hu Jintao have confirmed their 'strategic relationship', says the Russian President, who believes the example of cooperation set by the two nations is 'exemplary'.  The countries have pledged to increase the use of their national currencies in bilateral trade.  They have expressed serious concern about North Korea and agreed that diplomatic efforts should be made to ease tensions over its nuclear program as well as that of Iran.  According to RFE/RL, Medvedev ...

TODAY: Putin likens Oleg Deripaska and other Pikalyovo factory owners to 'cockroaches' in open castigation of the super-rich; fears of social unrest due to unemployment becoming a reality?; Poland angered by Russian 'rewrite' of the origins of World War TwoPrime Minister Putin has made an all-guns-blazing appearance in Pikalyovo to reprimand the owners of the town's three factories and instruct them to pay their workers' wages, in what Bloomberg calls 'the most visible industrial action in Russia since the Siberian miners' strike of 1998.'  He launched a stinging attack on the businessmen behind the wage arrears, including Oleg Deripaska, saying: 'you have made thousands of people hostages to your ambitions, your lack of professionalism -- or maybe simply your trivial greed'.  He also ...

TODAY: Victory Day parade and a stern warning from Russia; Putin suggests financial crisis will determine who is to run for President; NATO games prove a spanner in the works of US-Russia restart; 'sorry' not good enough for ex-Standard editorSergei Lavrov's meeting with Hillary Clinton has apparently reaped 'reassuring' results.  Putin has said in an interview with the Japanese media that NATO's military exercises are a sticking point in US-Russia relations and hopes that America will 'hit the brake hard'.  The Prime Minister has made clear that for Russia the issues of nuclear disarmament and Washington's planned missile-defense system are 'inseparably bound up'.  The Guardian finds Russia's policy of polarizing Europe and NATO 'baffling'.  Putin has urged against upping ...

By Toni Straka

Having blogged earlier on a physical silver shortage and the drying up of gold bullion purchases, recent events in the precious metals markets justify an update that again arrives at the conclusion that last Friday’s silver and gold price plunge on COMEX has pretty little to do with the actual physical investment demand for gold and silver. Tim Iacono had a good post with the headline “Gold prices getting fishier and fishier,” that does away with the myth that the US mint faces unprecedented demand. I stumbled across several more reports that show the ongoing dichotomy between official spot or futures prices and premiums actually paid by investors, if they can get their coins or bars at all.

The British Evening Standard ran a story over the weekend

...