[naviga:h3]Drinking lotion kills 30 people in Siberia[/naviga:h3]

MOSCOW — Russian health officials say that at least 30 people in a Siberian city have died of alcohol poisoning after drinking a bath lotion.

The local health department said today that 30 people had died of methanol poisoning after consuming the bath lotion containing alcohol in Irkutsk, Russia’s sixth-largest city with a population of 1.1 million. Another 15 people were in grave condition in the city’s hospitals.

Officials said the bottles with the lotion were clearly marked with warnings that they weren’t for internal use. Russia’s top investigative agency has opened a probe into the incident.

Poisonings with surrogate alcohol are a regular occurrence in Russia, but the Irkutsk case was one of the deadliest such incidents in years.

[naviga:h3]UK transportation faces holiday woes[/naviga:h3]

LONDON — The United Kingdom faces a Christmas of discontent as labor unions threaten to disrupt airports and rail service.

The Unite union and aviation services company Swissport announced negotiation plans Saturday intended to avert a Friday walkout by 1,500 baggage handlers, check-in staff and other workers at 18 regional airports from Belfast to Bournemouth.

Rolling strikes by two unions at Southern Railway already have disrupted much of England’s train service.