Ukraine forces have ended a rebel blockade of a strategic airport in the east, killing at least 30 rebels, as the country traded charges and threats with Russia, over violations of their joint border during a weekend of fierce military combat.

Ukraine's military said on Monday that its warplanes had inflicted heavy losses on the pro-Russian separatists during air strikes on their positions around Luhansk airport. An armoured convoy, which Kiev said had crossed the border from Russia, was also hit.

Government forces, taking the lead from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko who swore to "find and destroy" the separatists who killed 23 servicemen in rocket strikes on Friday, went on the offensive across a broad range of targets at the border town of Luhansk.

NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, has denounced the UK's emergency surveillance bill, criticizing its heightened powers of intrusion along with the distinct lack of public debate it encompassed.

During an exclusive interview in Moscow with the Guardian, the whistleblower suggested it was highly unusual for a state to process legislation so hastily other than at a time of acutely endangered national security.

"I mean we don't have bombs falling. We don't have U-boats in the harbour", he emphasised. Yet suddenly this legislation has become an absolute priority. "It defies belief", he stated.

Snowden found the duress with which the UK government processed the Data Retention and Investigation Powers Bill to be remarkable, comparing it to the Bush administration's introduction of the Protect America Act in 2007. The Protect America Act was issued after the New York Times exposed a "warrantless wire-tapping programme" that was both illegal and "unconstitutional", he said.

BRUSSELS - Leaders meeting on Wednesday (16 July) are likely to pick only the new EU foreign policy chief, with a decision on the successor to Council head Herman Van Rompuy "possibly" delayed until autumn.

According to one EU source, "if a complete deal is feasible, we should go for it. Otherwise, it will be only the high representative."

A second source told this website that it is "certainly a possibility" that only the foreign affairs chief is picked.

Both the foreign policy head - Catherine Ashton - and the Council president - Herman Van Rompuy - have five months to go until their terms end. But in the case of the foreign affairs job, the successor also has to undergo hearings in the European Parliament and to be voted together with the rest of the new EU commissioners in October.

Spain's government Friday approved controversial new fines for holding unauthorised demonstrations, sparking protests from civil rights groups.

Following warnings from judicial authorities, Madrid watered down measures from an earlier bill, but maintained tough penalties for unauthorised demos if they are deemed a security threat.

Critics have branded the reform repressive. But Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz insisted it would "guarantee greater security for citizens with greater legal security... and protect the rights and freedoms of citizens".

○ William Hague quits as foreign secretary in cabinet reshuffle

Prime Minister David Cameron said: "William Hague has been one of the leading lights of the Conservative Party for a generation, leading the party and serving in two cabinets. "Not only has he been a first class foreign secretary - he has also been a close confidante, a wise counsellor and a great friend.

"He will remain as First Secretary of State and my de facto political deputy in the run up to the election - and it is great to know that he will be a core part of the team working to ensure an outright Conservative victory at the next election."

Amnesia and Gaza Genocide

What is clear she suggested is that the reason for Dalli's loss of office as presented by the commission president has "changed again".

"It wasn't [Dalli's] knowledge about the bribe, Barroso emphasised, but all the meetings with the tobacco industry; by the way, meetings in which the lobbyist did not say that she even worked for the tobacco industry.

"The commission president is applying double standards. The commission should not behave as if the tobacco lobbyists are lepers. If they were then a lot of people in the commission would be infected - including the commission president.

"This constant change of argument shows that the case rests on clay feet. The errors and infringements committed by the commission and OLAF are outrageous."

Barroso testified before the European court of justice, in a case filed by the former EU health commissioner John Dalli over a claim of unfair dismissal.

The Maltese official 'resigned' as commissioner in charge of health and consumer policy in October 2012 just before the commission launched the revision of the tobacco products directive.

The questions were not a hoax, but part of a new effort to measure the size of the Spanish economy. As of September, all European Union countries will be required to take fuller accounting of trade in sex, drugs and other underground businesses as part of an overhaul of economic measurements by Eurostat, the European statistics agency.

The point of counting everything, including the wages of sin, is to get a more accurate reading of each country's gross domestic product. Because G.D.P. is such an important number -- one that can sway national policies and make or break politicians -- the European Union wants numbers "better reflecting the economic environment," Vincent Bourgeais, a Eurostat spokesman, said.

With European Union governments obliged to reduce debt as a percentage of their economies, the changes are also expected to make growth rates from Spain to Sweden look better, possibly also making debt ratios seem rosier.