PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
To gain further support, truck drivers revert to traditional costume More rain raised floodwaters through- out England for the third week in a row. More than 3,000 people had their houses flooded; York escaped complete submersion when the Ouse rose to within two inches of flood defences. Mr John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, promised £50 million, not much really, to help build future flood defences. At the same time it became impos- sible to travel far by railway as Railtrack con- tinued its programme of track replacement while floods covered other lines. Mr Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, during his financial statement, said that he would freeze the price of petrol at the next Budget. Campaigners against high taxes on fuel planned more protests. Mr Chris Wood- head resigned as Chief Inspector of Schools, and will take up a job at the Daily Telegraph next year. The whole board of the Scottish Qualifications Authority resigned because of the mess that last summer's school examina- tion results got into. Britain was found in the High Court to have unjustly expelled the inhabitants of the Chagos islands 30 years ago to allow the United States to develop a base on the island of Diego Garcia. Siamese twins, whose parents were prevented by the courts from stopping their children's separa- tion, were cut apart by surgeons, with the immediate death of one. Mr Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, signed an agreement with the Spanish government to recruit up to 5,000 nurses from Spain. The Queen Mother broke her collar bone in a fall. Robbers who broke into the Millennium Dome to steal diamonds worth £350 million found that the gems had been replaced by imitations and that the police were waiting for them. Pains Fireworks took sparlders, of which they usually sell a million around 5 November, off the market for safety reasons.
THE electoral contest between Mr George W. Bush, a Republican, and vice-president Al Gore, a Democrat, to become the next president of the United States was so close that it depended on a recount in the state of Florida, where only a few hundred votes separated them. The Republicans retained a small majority in both Houses of Congress. Mrs Hillary Clinton won a Senate seat for New York. Mr Yasser Arafat, the President of the Palestinian entity, and Mr Ehud Barak, the Prime Minister of Israel, flew to the United States on separate days for talks with President William Clinton, whose term of office has not yet expired. President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic party won a large majority in parliamentary elections in Egypt, during which Muslim Brotherhood supporters alleged police violence. New Azerbaijan, the party of President Geidar Aliyev, a for- mer communist, won parliamentary elec- tions in Azerbaijan a long way ahead of opposition parties. The Chama Cha Mapin- duzi party won chaotic elections for the Zanzibar legislature, though Mr Shaaban Khamis Mloo of the opposition Civic Unit- ed Front said, 'This was not a fair election.' Former President Ion Iliescu of Romania, who is the favourite to win the presidential elections on 26 November, said, 'We will not be led by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.' Mr Basdeo Panday, the Prime Minister of Trinidad, sought a second term for his United Nation- al Congress party (supported by people of East Indian descent), appealing to support- ers of the People's National Movement (mostly people of African descent) not to vote by race in the elections on 11 Decem- ber. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, forces loyal to Mr Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, the leader of anti-government rebels known as the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Movement for the Liberation, fought forces loyal to his rival, Mr Mbusa Nyamwisi. Daiwoo, the South Korean car makers, went bankrupt. The Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, who was murdered and buried hugger-mugger in 1975 by a Marxist regime, was reburied with solemnity in Addis Ababa.
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