T he total number of foot-and-mouth outbreaks rose above 200. More
than 30,000 slaughtered cattle remained unburnt while pyres were with difficulty prepared in the wet weather. A rendering plant at Widnes, Cheshire, was designated for destruction of carcases that would have to be transported from Wales and the West, in sealed lorries. The stock market fell in the shadow of falls in America. Prudential strangely annnounced an all-share takeover of an insurer in the United States called American General; Prudential shares fell by 14 per cent on the news. A report by Mrs Elizabeth Filkin, the parliamentary comissioner, upheld a complaint against Mr Keith Vaz, the minister for Europe; she found that nine other complaints against him were 'not upheld', but eight were 'not completed'; Mr Vaz had refused to answer questions and his 'behaviour was not in accordance with his duty of accountability under the code of conduct', she said. A report by Sir Anthony Hammond concluded that no one was to blame in the farrago surrounding the resignation of Mr Peter Mandelson, whose uncharacteristic quietness in response made people wonder if he had been promised some consolation by Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister. Anomalies in the Budget emerged, such as the slight impoverishment of those earning between
£30,000 and £33,000, whose tax relief was overtaken by increased National Insurance payments. Mr Tavish Scott resigned from the executive of the Scottish Parliament because, despite a vote by MSPs, it would not pay compensation to fishermen prohibited from fishing for haddock. Three of the Romanian asylum-seekers who had been found in a compartment beneath a Eurostar train at Waterloo later absconded from the holding centre where their claims were being considered. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommended that the National Health Service should make available a drug called Xenical, which inhibits the digestion of fat, but that it should be prescribed only for very fat people who had already succeeded in losing 51b 8oz in a month. Dame Ninette de Valois, the ballet dancer, died, aged 102. Wycombe Wanderers beat Leicester to play Liverpool in the semi-final of the Football Association Cup.
THE stock market fell in the United States; there were fears of decline in shares around the world as Japan floundered in a recession that has lasted a decade. An outbreak of foot and mouth was discovered for the first time in France, at a farm in the region of Mayenne. In Italy, Professor Severino Antinon i threatened to produce human clones for parents seeking offspring. Patients in America who had had cells from aborted foetuses implanted in their brains in an attempt to ameliorate Parkinson's disease developed terrible side-effects, with constant chewing movements and flapping of the wrists. Macedonia retaliated against Albanian guerrillas from Kosovo who had set up positions inside its borders. A Natobrokered ceasefire began between Albanian guerrillas and Serb police in Kosovo's buffer zone. President Joseph Kabila of Congo met Mr Blair at Downing Street. Subcomandante Marcos, the balaclava-swathed, pipesmoking leader of the Zapatista movement in Chiapas state, led a march to Mexico City where 100,000 gathered demanding better treatment of Indians. In Madrid 100,000 marched to protest at a scheme to use water from the river Ebro to irrigate the southeast. The government of Afghanistan, under the direction of the Taleban Islamic extremists, made sure that ancient Buddhist statues were destroyed, including one 165ft high, at Bamiyan. The Pope canonised nine men and women, bringing the number of saints he has made to 477. Riot police in Jakarta fired tear gas at stone-throwing students demonstrating against President Abdurrahman Wahid. Three students were injured and the army warned that it would intervene if the violence continued. CSH
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