PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
r Charles Kennedy was elected lead- er of the Liberal Democrats after a compli- cated vote in which he finally got 56.6 per cent against 43A per cent for Mr Simon Hughes, who is much less keen on co-opera- tion with the Labour party. Five British offi- cers, a lieutenant-colonel and four majors, were released a few days after being held captive with 23 others by rebels who were in theory loyal to Major Johnny Paul Koroma, the leader of an alliance with the Revolu- tionary United Front (RUF) against the government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone; the rebels have made a speciality of chopping off oppo- nents' limbs with machetes. Five British men and two Algerians were jailed by a court in Yemen on charges of conspiring in a Muslim fundamentalist bombing cam- paign at the end of last year; three other British men were released, having served long enough already. A committee set up by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport recommended that the BBC receive an increase of perhaps £200 million a year to fund its investment in digital technology, to be paid for by temporary licence-fee sup- plements of £24 a year; the BBC said that would not be enough. The Office of Fair Trading extracted from the Football Associ- ation and the Premiership clubs undertak- ings not to demand replica football outfits be sold at set high prices. Millwall fans fought with Cardiff City fans outside the Ninian Park ground, injuring 14. The Post Office agreed to pay £20 million for a 20 per cent stake in Camelot if it is given a new seven-year licence to operate the National Lottery. The number of unemployed claim- ing benefit fell to 1,236,300, the lowest since May 1980. By the International Labour Organisation measure the number was 1,760,000. Jennifer Paterson, cook for The Spectator and on television, died, aged 71. The sun was eclipsed behind clouds in Cornwall. Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minis- ter, offered to give some money to charity because he was being provided with a free seaside villa near Pisa. Thousands of British holidaymakers flew home from the Canary Islands without their luggage because of a strike by Spanish baggage-handlers.
PRESIDENT Boris Yeltsin of Russia sacked Mr Sergei Stepashin as prime minis- ter and the whole Cabinet for the fourth time in less than 18 months. Mr Stepashin's last act had been to fly to the Caucasus mountain region of Dagestan where Rus- sian helicopter gunships had been firing missiles at towns that had fallen to Chechen soldiers. The new Prime Minister is Mr Vladimir Putin, a former KGB spy. Indian fighter planes shot down a Pakistani surveillance aircraft, killing 16; the two countries had previously been fighting over territory in Kashmir. An aeroplane from Chile landed 48 Argentinians, including 35 journalists, at Mount Pleasant airport on the Falkland Islands, the first such flight since the war of 1982. Boeing asked armed forces around the world to ground Chinook helicopters after a fault was found in one. General Mustafa Tlass, the defence minis- ter of Syria, called Mr Yasser Arafat, the president of the Palestinian entity, 'a son of sixty thousand whores' for making conces- sions to Israel. The Australian parliament debated the wording of a referendum on getting rid of the Queen. China told the Pope that he could not visit Hong Kong. More than half of Italy's agricultural workers — mostly from Africa and the Balkans — were working in jobs outside the legal employment system in 1997 according to the Italian institute of statistics, Istat. The New Zealand inland revenue allowed $2,000 as a non-taxable expense for a ear-dealer who paid for clients to visit a brothel if they bought a car from him. A German who insisted on using his mobile telephone in a Hamburg beer- garden was bludgeoned to death with a beer bottle. People in Anatolia banged saucepans during the eclipse. CSH
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