Moscow  - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday Russia would reopen gas flow to Europe only after European monitors are in place in Ukraine to monitor its safe flow.

"What must happen today is that controlling mechanisms are put in place and monitors are sent to the border where our gas enters Ukrainian territory," Putin told journalist in televised comments Thursday.

Putin said the government in Kiev had "collapsed" and showed proof of a "high-level criminal structure."

Ranchi, Jan 8 : Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren on Thursday lost his Tamar Assembly seat to Jharkhand Party candidate Gopal Krishna Patar by a margin of 9000 votes.

Elections for the seat, which fell vacant after the gunning down of JD (U) legislature party leader Ramesh Singh Munda on July 9, 2008, were held on January 3 this year and counting was taken up today.

Meanwhile, the BJP has demanded resignation of Shibu Soren from the Chief Ministership of Jharkhand and president''s rule in the state.

Tel Aviv - The hardline, opposition Likud party of former Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu is gaining ground amid the fighting in Gaza, according to an opinion poll published Thursday, one month before elections are scheduled in Israel on February 10.

If the elections were held today, Likud would become the largest party in the 120-seat Israeli parliament, obtaining some 33 mandates against some 27 for the ruling, centrist Kadima party of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the poll predicted.

While earlier in the campaign the Likud also led Kadima, according to other polls published two and three weeks ago, Kadima had managed to bridged the gap.

New Delhi, Jan 8: The recent volcanic eruption of protests and voices against the political class of India has highlighted one aspect, if nothing else-this was the cry of the people of India looking for a leader? As Bombay, nay India got brutalised by a 60-hour commando terror attack, the people of India felt orphaned? There was not a towering leader around whom they could rally and take solace.

Brussels  - Russia was wrong to cut off all gas supplies to and through Ukraine regardless of who was in the right over the two countries' gas dispute, a top United States official said Wednesday.

"We want to have good relations with Russia, but they should be based on 21st-century principles, not principles of spheres of influence ... Is there no better way to handle a commercial dispute than cutting off gas and affecting third parties?" US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Daniel Fried said in Brussels.

Colombo - The Sri Lankan government Wednesday proscribed rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with effect from midnight, a cabinet minister said.

Tamil rebels had initially been declared a proscribed organization in January 1998 after they carried out a suicide bomb attack on a sacred Buddhist venue in central Sri Lanka, but the ban was later lifted in September 2002 to facilitate their return for peace talks under a Norwegian backed ceasefire.