PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Mrs Cherie Blair, the wife of Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, gave birth to her fourth child, a son, Leo, weighing 61b 12oz. Mr Blair took a fortnight off from Ques- tion Time in the Commons and from Cabi- net meetings; Mr John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, stepped in. The drug tamoxifen was credited with helping to cut the number of deaths from breast cancer by 30 per cent in the past decade. Boo.com, the Internet clothes sellers or e- tailers, went bust after spending £90 million of its investors' money. The Millennium Dome received another £29 million from the lottery under 'stringent conditions', one of which turned out to be getting rid of Mr Bob Ayling, its chairman (whose first act had been to sack Miss Jennie Page, the chief executive); he had only two months earlier been sacked as chief executive of British Airways. British Airways announced profits of only £5 million for the year (even after selling off parts of its business for £249 million), down from £225 million last year. Marks & Spencer saw profits fall to £417 million from £546 million, and cut its dividend for the first time in its history, from 14.4p to 9p. The Halifax bank is to remove charges for the use, even by cus- tomers of other banks, of its hole-in-the- wall money machines. Connex, the French- People have become much ruder to each other
(News item) owned rail operator, planned to cut 120 of its 1,761 daily services. A crane jib at Canary Wharf in London fell 400 feet, killing three. Dame Stella Rimington, the former head of MI5, had her memoirs cleared for publication by the service. Dame Barbara Cartland, who had written more than 700 romantic novels, which she said had sold 750 million copies, died, aged 98. Sir John Gielgud, the actor, died, aged 96. Sir Larry Lamb, who intro- duced Page Three girls to the Sun, died, aged 71.
ISRAEL withdrew from southern Lebanon after 22 years as its client militia of Chris- tian Lebanese collapsed under the advance of the Islamic extremist Hezbollah. Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian authority were interrupted by a week of demonstrations demanding the release of hundreds of political prisoners from Israeli jails, leaving five Palestinians dead and 1,000 wounded; a two-year-old Israeli girl was burnt all over her body by a firebomb. Ethiopian forces advanced deep into Eritrean territory as war continued between the two famine-hit countries. British Marines are to assist the armed forces of Sierra Leone in place of Para- troopers, and 10,000 rifles will also be sent. A coup in Fiji led by Mr George Speigt entailed the capture and threats to kill Iv° Kahendra Chaudry, the Prime Minister; Ratu Tevita Bolobolo, the leader of the opposition, rejected any settlement involv" mg a return to power by Mr Chaudry, the first prime minister of Indian descent; (Indians make up about 44 per cent 01 Fiji's population of 813,000; native Fijians 51 per cent.) An attempted coup Paraguay was said by President Luis GoII: zalez to have been quashed. Mr Rudolph Giuliani, the Mayor of New York, decided not to stand against Mrs Hillary Clinton for a seat in the Senate because of 1115 prostate cancer and separation frorn.111 wife. The European Commission finalised rules governing whether members of the European Union are allowed to cut taxes' China made an agreement with the Elir°„ pean Union that brought it close to joinnln the World Trade Organisation. Canadl scientists were reported to have implanted genes in goats so that they c°13 produce silky strands in their milk for us, as sutures. An Italian banker who tried to drown himself in the river Sews° ilea, Milan was swept for seven miles throug'; the city's sewers and was rescued aftc
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