PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Bodyzone! The Dome secrets emerge
Mr David Trimble, the leader of the Ulster Unionist party, decided to support an agreement under which Sinn Fein would be allowed into Northern Ireland's power-shar- ing executive without prior decommissioning of weapons by the Irish Republican Army; he then set about persuading his party to change its policy to allow this. Another ele- ment was the appointment of a go-between between the IRA and General John dc Chastelain, the head of the body meant to monitor the decommissioning of arms. Mr Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, the political face of the IRA, said: 'All par- ties have an obligation to help bring decom- missioning about. Sinn Fein is committed to discharging our responsibilities in this regard.' May 2000 seemed to be the next deadline for disarmament, but there were few facts announced and much optimistic talk, orchestrated by Senator George Mitchell, the American convenor of talks, and Mr Peter Mandelson, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Far more prob- lematic seemed attempts by the Labour party to decide if it should remove Mr Ken Livingstone from its shortlist of candidates for Mayor of London. A new code of con- duct designed to accommodate homosexual recruits in the British armed forces will pro- hibit touching or displays of affection, even towards members of the opposite sex. Gary Glitter, the pop singer, was found not guilty of sexual crimes 20 years ago with a 14-year- old; she had been paid £10,000 by the News of the World with the offer of £25,000 more if he were found guilty. But the singer was jailed for four months for downloading images of child pornography on to his home computer. Both British Telecom and Bell Atlantic proposed a merger with Mannes- mann of Germany, which resisted a hostile £64 billion bid from Vodafone. Barclays Bank is to close 200 branches to save money. The headline rate of inflation rose from 1.1 per cent to 1.2 per cent in October; the underlying rate also rose by a tenth of a per- centage point to 2.2 per cent. Ford workers secured a 15 per cent pay rise over three years and a reduction of the working week from 39 to 37.5 hours. Louise Casey, the head of the government's Rough Sleepers Unit, said that 'with soup runs and other kinds of charity help, well-meaning people are spending money servicing the problem on the streets and keeping it there'.
AN earthquake in the same region of Turkey where thousands died three months ago killed hundreds more; survivors faced freezing nights. A block of flats collapsed in Foggia, Italy, killing 61. More than 20 died in storms in south-west France. President Yeltsin of Russia gripped the arm of Mr Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, as he told television viewers that electing Mr Putin as president in June 2000 was 'the only option'; Mr Putin has become popular in Russia for his prosecution of war against Chechnya, which continued and produced ever more civilian refugees. President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine was returned to power after beating his communist oppo- nent in elections that international observers said were riddled with gross vio- lations but valid. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela defended proposals to change the name of the country to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. China and the United States signed an agreement that should open up the Chinese telecommuni- cations and Internet market to foreign investors and pave the way for China's admission to the World Trade Organisa- tion. Western Europe was expected by the Economist Intelligence Unit to buy 277,000 lorries next year, a fall of 10 per cent. A small Gibraltar-based Internet betting con- cern was acquired by Coral, which is expanding its tax-free telephone betting business in the footsteps of Victor Chan- dler and Ladbroke. In New Zealand, with a population of 3.8 million, the annual num- ber of suicides, at 540, overtook the num- ber, 503, killed on the roads.
CSH
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