PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Ford plans to stop motor-car production at Dagenham after 70 years, directly putting an end to 3,000 jobs; Downing Street con- firmed that in the past few weeks Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, had spoken to Mr Jack Nasser, the chief executive of Ford. There were claims of intimidation of the jury that found a Norfolk farmer, Tony Martin, guilty of the murder of a 16-year-old boy who had joined two men in burgling his house. Mr William Hague, the leader of the opposi- tion, said that the law should be changed to allow `a strong presumption that the state will be on the side of people who protect their homes and their families against crimi- nals'. Mr Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, said: 'It is up to Tony Blair, not the IRA, to save the Northern Ireland peace pro- cess.' But Mr Bertie Ahern, the Taoiseach of Ireland, blamed dissident paramilitary groups: 'The very small minority of republi- cans who oppose the agreement of course have the right to do so politically,' he said. 'What is not acceptable is to try to set aside by force the will of the people.' Delegates at the annual conference of the National Union of Teachers voted for a ballot of members over strikes in protest at government plans to link teachers' pay to their pupils' results. Pro- fessor Edwin Morgan, aged 80, won the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. On the first morning of new telephone dialling codes in London, Portsmouth, Southampton, Coven- try, Cardiff and Northern Ireland, a third of diallers rnisdialled and were connected to a recorded message. First-class stamps went up a penny to 27p. Manchester United was ready to pay Eindhoven £19 million for Ruud van Nistelrooy, but delayed clinching the deal because they didn't like the look of his knee. Mr and Mrs William Hague walked up Ben Nevis and picnicked on chicken, smoked-salmon sandwiches, fruit, chocolate and bottled water.
THE presidents of South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique, in a summit with Presi- dent Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe at Victo- ria Falls, called on Britain to fund the redis- tribution of land in Zimbabwe in order to help bring an end to the violent occupation by squatters of farms owned by white people. But in private talks Mr Mugabe was urged by President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa to end the violence by supporters of his Zanu- PF party and to hold the elections that are due in May. Members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change contin- ued to be murdered, tobacco barns and fields were burned and workers beaten. Helmeted and armed federal agents stormed a house in Miami to snatch a six-year-old boy, Elian Gonzalez, from relatives who had been look- ing after him since November, when he had been rescued from the sea after his mother drowned attempting to reach the United States from Cuba; US courts had ruled he should be returned to his father in Cuba, and the case strongly affected relations between the two countries. The Sri Lankan army with- drew 10,000 soldiers from the Elephant Pass, which commands the approach to Jaffna, a city which rebel Tamil Tiger forces hope to retake after being driven from it five years ago. A thousand troops killed 20 rebels in an operation to free dozens of hostages held by Islamic guerrillas in the southern Philippines. King Abdullah of Jordan made his first visit to Israel since coming to the throne. Mr Vladimir Meciar, a former Slovakian pre- mier, was arrested after armed police blew open the door of his house; he was charged with fraud. Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, is expected to reduce supplies to domestic consumers because of diminishing reserves. Mr Giuliano Amato presented him- self to President Carlo Ciampi as the leader of a Left coalition to form Italy's 58th gov- ernment since the war. An actor playing Judas Iscariot in a Passion play at Camerata Nuova, 50 miles from Rome, died when the noose around his neck was pulled too tight. Greek police confiscated 100 goats that a boy was trying to smuggle across the border from Albania for the Orthodox Easter.
CSH
Previous page
