T he FTSE 100 index closed 10 per cent lower at
the end of the year 2000 than it had been at the beginning. Labour was pressed to name the anonymous donor of £2 million to the party a few weeks before legislation comes into force requiring the disclosure of such names. The donor turned out to be the publisher Lord Hamlyn, who is gravely ill. The Millennium Dome closed to the public after being visited by 6.5 million people while Legacy (a consortium run by Mr Robert Bourne, who has donated money to the Labour party), the bidder preferred by the government, announced plans to turn it into a business park and to build houses at a good profit. Six people were stabbed to death in Northern Ireland between Christmas Eve and the New Year. In the New Year honours, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, the composer, and Paul Scofield, the actor, were appointed Companions of Honour. Patrick Moore, the astronomer, Steve Redgrave, the rower, Tom Courtenay, the actor, and Peter Shaffer, the playwright, were knighted; Spike Milligan, the comedian, was given an honorary knighthood as an Irish citizen. Most people got an OBE or MBE including Jim Davidson. the comedian, Jeremy Beadle, the entertainer, and Bill Roache, Ken Barlow from Coronation Street. Mr Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, thought it might be a good idea if juries knew of the previous convictions of accused before they gave their verdicts. Sir Jimmy Shand, the Scottish accordion player, died, aged 92. Allan Smethurst, the Singing Postman, whose biggest hit was 'Hey Yer Got a Loight, Boy?' in 1966, died aged 73 in a Salvation Army hostel in Grimsby where he had spent the last 20 years of his life. George Carman, the feared libel barrister, died, aged 71. Princess Margaret was ill in bed.
A MAN working for an Internet company shot dead seven of his workmates at Wakefield, Massachusetts. Rebel Hutus in Burundi massacred 21 on a bus, including a British voluntary worker. In the Chinese city of Luoyang 309 died in a fire at a Christmas disco. In a Dutch club nine died in a fire. Hundreds of people in the northern Nigerian province of Kano, both Muslim and Christian, were arrested for speaking to members of the opposite sex in the street after the imposition of Sharia, Islamic law, Binyamin Kahane, the son of the extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, killed in New York in 1990, was himself killed with his wife when their car was ambushed by Palestinians; five of their children were wounded. Later that day Thabet Thabet, an official of Fatah, the Palestinian movement led by Mr Yasser Arafat, was killed by Israeli soldiers as he walked near his house in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. Mr Arafat flew to Washington for talks with President William Clinton, but Mr Ehud Barak, the Prime Minister of Israel, doubted he was serious about coming to an agreement before the end of Mr Clinton's term in office on 20 January. Five synchronised bombs killed 16 and injured more than 100 in Manila, but the leader of the Abu Sayyaf group of Islamic guerrillas said it was not their doing. A car packed with 2001b of explosive was found and defused outside St Justa station in Seville; Euzskadi ta Azkatasuna, the Basque terrorist organisation, had telephoned to say it would go off. Victor Borge, the pianist comedian, died aged 91. The American spacecraft Cassini, launched in 1997, came close — within six million miles — of Jupiter. Contact with the Mir space station was lost for a day, and it was feared the thing might crash into some city on Earth. Eight people were injured in the streets of Moscow when a thaw sent icicles plummeting from eaves.
CSH
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