News.Scotland.Org

February, 2

It was announced yesterday that the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be in the UK next week. Her visit is said to be an official visit which includes talks with Foreign Secretary David Miliband, it was known that the top agendas in the talk will be relating to Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. The spokesman Sean McCormack also confirmed that the main issues will be Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Meanwhile it was known that the visit also came due to the raging controversy over the role of multinational troops in Afghanistan and the president Hamid Karzai hoisting doubts over the effectiveness of their presence. There are also doubts for an insurgency and it may be possible that military effort would be called to control the situation. Acting to this growing concern US has already planed to send 3200 marines to join the troops in Afghanistan. It also looks forward to its European allies to come forward with its initiative and step up their military commitments.

It was later learnt that US has written a strongly worded letter to Nato members asking to send the combat troops to the sensitive areas in the south of the country. Mr Cormack clearly told that we need to end the violent extremists in Afghanistan no matter its al Qaida or the Taliban. This visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be a crucial one for both the countries.

Scotland, Feb 2: The real estate sector is undergoing a huge growth as the desire for a better quality life attracts people to the north of Scotland. The prices of the houses in the Highlands have undergone a rapid increase than any other areas in Scotland as according to the new statistics.

According to bank of Scotland the cost of a home in the region has experienced a three fold rise since 1997 by 221% as against Edinburgh that experience 201% growth during the same period. The survey has identified East Renfrewshire as the most expensive place in Scotland to buy a property. In the year 2007 the average price of a house in the Highlands was £173,081 it experienced a three fold increase as compared to the rates 10 years ago.

While commenting on this the manager of Highland Solicitors Property Centre, Sarah Woodcock said: “In the Highlands particularly around Inverness, we have seen an unbelievable growth with business opening flourishing in the area and lots of people are eager to settle in Inverness. High quality of life, modern lifestyle and opening to outdoors are some of the attracting features of Inverness. Some people are showing tendency to sell their property down south to settle in Highlands to get more for their money.”

Although the house price is high in the north of the border when compared to the other parts of the UK it is lower. As a contradiction to that five out of 10 least expensive areas in the UK were also in Scotland. House prices were expected to increase in Scotland in the year 2008.