T he government ordered the slaughter of all pigs, sheep and
goats, sick or healthy, in areas within three kilometres of any outbreak of foot-and-mouth in Dumfries and Galloway and Cumbria. Some cattle would also be killed. A similar scheme was planned for Devon, and the army was alerted. Mr Nick Brown, the Minister for Agriculture, made a statement in the Commons that by mistake declared that all cattle in the areas would be killed; in any case, farmers who had carefully quarantined prized pedigree flocks were outraged that apparently healthy sheep must die. The government action came when more than 250,000 livestock had been slaughtered and the number of outbreaks had risen above 300. Farmers complained that when they had reported outbreaks, the Ministry of Agriculture let days go by before slaughtering the animals; at one point in the past week more than 90,000 condemned animals were waiting to be slaughtered, and more than 70,000 slaughtered animals were waiting to be burned. The Queen asked the British Horseracing Board to think again about allowing racing; it did and decided to continue its limited programme. The stock market plunged and leapt, mostly plunged, reaching a level equal to that of three years ago. Underlying inflation edged up a tenth
of a percentage point to 1.9 per cent; the headline rate stayed at 2.7 per cent. Correspondence was released that had been exchanged between Mrs Elizabeth Filkin, the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, and Mr Keith Vaz, the minister for Europe, showing his response to questions about a series of allegations against him, only one of which was upheld. The Church of England set up a committee to report on the possibility of making women bishops. England won the Test series against Sri Lanka.
MACEDONIA used artillery and tanks against attacks by ethnically Albanian guerrillas near the border of Kosovo, some close to the Macedonian city of Tetovo; there were well-founded fears of another war. Japan reduced its base rate to zero in another attempt to resuscitate the economy. The United States Federal Reserve cut interest rates by half a percentage point. Mr Qian Qichen, a vicepremier of China who is responsible for its foreign policy, visited President George Bush of the -United States in Washington, in an attempt to prevent American arms sales to Taiwan, Mr Bush had just received Mr Yoshiro Mori, the doomed Prime Minister of Japan, and
then received Mr Ariel Sharon, the new Prime Minister of Israel. Dr Henry Kissinger played table tennis with another Chinese vice-premier in Peking to mark the 30th anniversary of his 'ping-pong diplomacy'. More than 100 died at Shijiazhuang in north China when four blocks of flats were bombed by unknown assailants at night. Saudi troops stormed an aeroplane hijacked by Chechens at Medina airport, and left a stewardess, a passenger and a hijacker dead. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries reduced production by a million barrels a day, a change that will put up the price of petrol in Britain by 2p a litre. M. Bertrand Delanoe, an open homosexual and a Socialist, was elected Mayor of Paris, the first of his political persuasion since the Commune; the Left also won Lyons, the third city of France, but failed in other municipalities. St Petersburg faced a bill of 1115 million to renovate the Konstantinovsky Palace for President Vladimir Putin. Power-cuts of four hours swept across California, where the electricity system is in financial and mechanical low water. Mr Bush said that it would be New York next; 'There are no short-term fixes,' he added gnomically.
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