9am Briefing: Forestry Commission staff to strike over 150 job cuts

FORESTRY Commission staff in Edinburgh are set to demonstrate today over plans to slash up to 150 jobs at the government agency's city HQ.

The proposed cuts at the Corstorphine HQ, where the demonstration is to be held, come as 26 per cent of the commission's budget is cut between now and 2015.

Between 100 and 150 jobs will go, along with another 300 in England, staff were told yesterday.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said the cuts will "decimate the Forestry Commission, where many staff had spent their entire careers".

• EDINBURGH University security officers had to be brought in last night after 50 protesters claimed to have shut down a lecture by the Israeli foreign minister's special advisor.

The talk by Ishmael Khaldi, hosted by the University's Jewish society and held in Appleton Tower at 5.30pm, was delayed, then interrupted by students chanting support for Palestinian refugees.

However, security did not have to intervene and Mr Khaldi, advisor to Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, left the stage after 45 minutes.

The protest followed a talk, hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine, earlier that day by US Iraq war veteran Mike Prysner, in which he linked US foreign policy to the suffering of the Palestinians.

• RESIDENTS of a terraced row of cottages had to be evacuated as a large blaze broke out in the early hours of this morning.

Fire crews rushed to Merrylees Cottages on the A904 Newton - Linlithgow at 4.50am this morning to find the roof of a central cottage well alight.

Neighbouring residents were evacuated as the fire threatened to spread while four firefighters using breathing gear tackled the blaze with three lines of hose.

A spokeswoman for the fire service said that road, which is on the county border between Edinburgh and West Lothian, had been closed by police.