A vast mass grave for half a million slaughtered livestock was
dug at a disused airfield near Orton, Cumbria, to be filled with carcasses by army teams. The action came after Professor David King, the chief scientific adviser to the government, said that foot-and-mouth was out of control. and unless diseased livestock were slaughtered within 24 hours of diagnosis, half the farm animals in Britain might well die. Even after his warnings, an unprecedented 270,000 condemned animals were still awaiting slaughter; dead animals lay in fields for days. Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, agreed to the killing throughout the land of livestock within three kilometres of any other outbreak; the government then discovered that it had no legal power to kill.healthy animals. Country roads and paths were closed and the stench of pyres filled the air; the government said tourists should not be deterred. Mr Blair visited Carlisle and announced that action would gear up. He then flew to Stockholm for a summit of European Union leaders; he was overheard telling Mr Romano Prodi that he had ten days to decide whether to hold the election on 3 May. He flew home after a day and spent a few hours in disease-stricken Devon, and was later said to be 'bashing the phones'. The House of Lords over
turned a ban on fox-hunting passed by the Commons and then voted for self-regulation by hunts. The stock market fell again and rallied in the wake of the American stock market. Talks between the Mayor of London's department and the government on reform of the Underground failed. Customs men at Dover found 12 Indians, Turks, Yugoslays and Romanians hidden in an 8ft by 4ft crate, and 13 more in a similar crate. Sir Bob Geldof announced the sale of Deckchair.com, his online travel company, to World Travel for about £10 million. Brian Trubshaw, the test pilot of Concorde's maiden flight in Britain, died, aged 77. Cambridge won the 147th Boat Race, which was restarted (a minute under way). The year to the end of March, with an average of over 51 inches of rain in England and Wales, was found to be the wettest since 1766, although 1872 was almost as wet.
A PALESTINIAN suicide bomber killed two Israeli teenagers waiting for a bus: earlier a ten-month-old Israeli baby and an 11year-old Palestinian had been shot dead. France allied with Germany at the Stockholm summit to prevent deregulation of energy supply; British manufacturers complained of having to pay higher prices for gas because Britain was linked up to pipelines from Continental Europe. Wall Street slipped downwards; the euro fell against the American dollar. Bombs in three southern Russian towns killed more than 20 and wounded 100; Chechens were blamed. Police killed two Albanian-speakers, one of whom had thrown a grenade at an army post in Tetovo, the second city of the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia; the government there brought two Ukrainian helicopter gunships into use against guerrillas near the border with Kosovo. Mir. the Russian space station that had been orbiting the Earth for 15 years, was allowed to fall through the atmosphere, burning up with its remnants splashing into the Pacific off Fiji. Japan had its strongest earthquake for six years and two died. The Swiss parliament voted to allow abortion, but a referendum will be held before the vote becomes law. In Kenya 58 schoolboys died in a dormitory after it was set on fire. A bus full of pilgrims returning from Fatima crashed from a bridge into a 100ft ravine, killing 14. A Brazilian priest of the Candomble cult said that Mr Peter Mandelson had held a chicken that he sacrificed to an idol, and that he had been asked by Mr Mandelson's friend to stop Mr Charles Whelan's politically hostile activity. A Saudi Mufti delivered a fatwa against Pokemon cards.
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