Search

President Yeltsin, his family and other influential Russians are accused of being involved in a bribery scandal after $1 million was put into a Swiss bank account held by a property manager at the Kremlin. Yeltsin and his family had access to the money. The money was supposedly deposited by a building company called Mabetex after the company won a contact to renovate the Kremlin. The Mayor of Moscow is insisting that Yeltsin's family admit or deny the charges.

The Northern Ireland Arts Council (NIAC) has withdrawn funding for a new play about the history of the RUC, 'Forced Upon Us', agreed with production company Dubbeljoint earlier in 1999. 'Forced Upon Us' portrays Catholics as honest and good and Protestants as mad, bad bigots. Nevertheless the NIAC insisted on Aug. 4, 1999, that its decision not to release the funding had nothing to do with politics. The NIAC's director of performing arts Philip Hammond explained that the play was considered not to meet the required artistic standard. Dubbeljoint maintains that it is the victim of Stalinist censorship.

The IRA is widely believed to be have been responsible for the killing of a man whose body was discovered in a remote alleyway off the Falls Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Jul. 30, 1999. The dead man, unofficially identified as 22-year-old Catholic taxi driver Charles Bennett, was found with his hands tied behind his back and a piece of cloth wrapped around his head. Local human rights group the Northern Ireland Human Rights Bureau claimed that Bennett's name had been on a death list recently drawn up by the IRA. The shooting bore the hallmarks of an IRA execution.

Four members of a 10-strong team of young British explorers have reached the summit of two previously unconquered peaks in the Eastern Pamirs, a mountain range straddling the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan and China. Al Boardman and Elliott Forge scaled a 4,700-metre high peak on Jul. 18, 1999, while Martin Hartley and Danny Haylock scaled a 4,900-metre peak. Boardman explained that heavy snowfall had made conditions very difficult but that walking where no-one had ever walked before was an extraordinary feeling. More attempts on the major summits of the previously uncharted area are planned.

UK Home Secretary Jack Straw apologised publicly on Jun. 29, 1999, for the passports backlog. Straw explained that the backlog was due to the introduction of compulsory passports for children, teething troubles with a new computer system, and an unexplained increase in the number of people going abroad. Government figures show that the number of telephone calls to the passport call centre that had remained unanswered rose from 118,000 in Jan. 1999 to 1.1 million in May 1999. Extra staff are being recruited and Straw expects the backlog to have been dealt with by Sep. 1999.

The case of Manjit Kaur Basuta, a British woman found guilty by an American jury on Jun. 14, 1999, of killing the baby in her care, has many similarities with the Louise Woodward case yet has received virtually no coverage in the UK. PR adviser Max Clifford has no doubt that Basuta's background and appearance is a major factor in the media's lack of interest in her case. Basuta is a 44-year-old Asian woman who left England for America in 1989. Founder of Fair Trials Abroad Stephen Jakobi admits that newspapers tend to be interested in young, white, good-looking women.

A Nigerian-born woman who had lived in the UK for 16 years and had married a British man in 1998 was deported to Lagos, Nigeria, on May 25, 1999. Kiki Gil had not been back to Nigeria since her father sent her to boarding school in Wales at the age of 10. She had gone to university in the UK and had just started a new banking job in the City. Gil was arrested on May 22, 1999, following a protracted legal battle to remain in the UK. Gil had allowed her immigration status to lapse after her father abandoned her to fend for herself when she was only 16 years old.

Alan Hopkinson, the paedophile sentenced to life imprisonment on May 28, 1999, for kidnapping and assaulting two 10-year-old girls, was a successful computer programmer with an IQ in excess of 150. He was also a loner who confessed to police that he could not remember a time when he had not wanted to abduct and assault children. Hopkinson had convinced psychiatrists with whom he had regular counselling sessions while serving a seven-year prison sentence for kidnapping and assaulting an 11-yeat-old girl in 1990 that he was 'cured.' However he was planning his next offences while still in prison.

Research into women's attitudes towards planning a baby published by the Family Planning Assn. (FPA) on Mar. 23, 1999, identifies seven 'loose groupings' of would-be mothers. The research found that women tended to be influenced by their socio-economic backgrounds, with women who were better-off, better-educated and had better job prospects planning their lives, and the less well-off tending to allow events to shape themselves. The FPA also found that women moved from one of the seven categories to another as their lives changed.

Up to three people may have been killed on Mar. 1, 1999, when more than 100 armed Rwandan Hutu rebels overpowered guards at a number of camps in the Bwindi National Park in Uganda and captured 14 tourists. The kidnap victims are thought to include six Britons. Another 12 people, including one Briton, are reported to have escaped. The kidnappers are understood to belong to the notorious Interahamwe death squads responsible for the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. The British High Commissioner in Uganda Michael Cook explained that the kidnap took place in a very remote area where communications are poor.

The Commission for Racial Equality and the Institute for Race Relations welcomed the findings of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry report published on Feb. 24, 1999, as a landmark in race relations in the UK. However the Society of Black Lawyers and the Assn. of Black Probation Officers argued that Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Paul Condon should have been forced to resign. Sir William Macpherson's call for the law on double jeopardy to be changed to allow a second prosecution caused controversy, and there was debate over his definition of institutionalised racism.

Fellow writers have paid tribute to one of the greatest British novelists of the second half of the 20th century, Dame Iris Murdoch, who died on Feb. 8, 1999. Murdoch had suffered from Alzheimer's disease in her final years and was not aware that she was the author of 27 novels as well as books on philosophy. Murdoch's husband, John Bayley, described the effects of his wife's illness in a memoir published in 1998. Murdoch's literary career began in the mid-1950s when she was a lecturer in philosophy at Oxford. Her last book, published in 1997, was a study in religion and philosophy.

Spokeswoman for charity the National Missing Persons Helpline Angela Holland explains that Christmas is a particularly distressing time for the families of missing people because they feel guilty if they enjoy themselves. Alison Yates, whose husband disappeared without explanation in Jul. 1998, finds the uncertainty overpowering. She and the 16,000 other families of missing people across the UK just want to know what has happened to their relative. However Holland points out that Christmas can sometimes prompt missing people to get in touch with their families.

The British High Court ruling on Oct. 28, 1998, giving former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet immunity from prosecution as a former head of state provoked both disgust and jubilation. Amnesty International pronounced itself extremely disappointed with the judgement although it was pleased that the High Court had ruled that Pinochet should remain under arrest until an appeal could be heard in the House of Lords. Chilean exiles in London, England, were outraged at what they saw as a first step towards freedom for Pinochet but the Chilean government expressed satisfaction with the ruling.

The Weybridge, England, company that employed three of the four engineers taken hostage in Chechenia on Oct. 3, 1998, admitted on Oct. 5, 1998, to knowing that the country was probably the world's most dangerous place for kidnapping. Granger Telecom Chief Exec. Ray Verth defended his company's decision to ignore Foreign Office advice about the dangers, pointing out that the contract was worth an estimated 190 million pounds sterling and that precautions had been taken. He insisted that the engineers were aware of the risks and had gone to Chechenia voluntarily.

Irish dance maestro Michael Flatley was portrayed as a prima donna with a huge and sensitive ego when he appeared in the High Court on Oct. 1, 1998, to fight a damages claim brought by his former manager, John Reid. Reid, who was once Elton John's manager, is seeking damages of around 10 million pounds sterling on the grounds that Flatley breached a management contract by summarily dismissing him on Jan. 16, 1997. Reid claims that Flatley had given him very little sign that he was dissatisfied with his performance until just before he sacked him.

The trial opened at Southwark crown court on Sep. 23, 1998, of John Drewe, a 50-year-old from Reigate, England, who is alleged to have commissioned high-quality forgeries of works by leading 20th century artists and falsified documents to add authority to the forgeries. The court heard that Drewe fooled a number of art galleries and private dealers into believing that the paintings were genuine. This damaged both the reputations of such artists as Graham Sutherland and Ben Nicholson and the archival sources of the London, England, art world.

Former Beirut hostage John McCarthy stresses the importance of time alone for Jon James and Camilla Carr, freed on Sep. 20, 1998, after having been held captive by rebels in Chechenia, Russia, for 14 months. McCarthy explains that former hostages need time to assimilate their experiences and learn to cope with their new freedom, away from the public gaze. McCarthy reveals that he and another former Beirut hostage, Brian Keenan, noticed that they were feeling a great deal better when they had been free for the same length of time as they had been in captivity.

The Metropolitan Police was facing new allegations of racism on Sep. 16, 1998, after an inquest found that a black musician, Michael Menson, had been unlawfully killed. Menson was found wandering naked, with horrific burns, in Edmonton, London, England, in the early hours of Jan. 28, 1997. He told the first police officer on the scene that he had been attacked but the police assumed he had set fire to himself and did not open an investigation until 12 hours later. Police did not interview Menson in hospital, where he died in Feb. 1998, despite his repeated claims that he had been attacked by four white youths.

Royal Opera House (ROH) Chmn. Sir Colin Southgate's use of brinkmanship has secured extra money for the opera house in return for promises to sanction major reforms of the structure of the company, cut costs and change staff working practices. Southgate told Culture Secretary Chris Smith on Sep. 7, 1998, that the ROH was 13 million pounds sterling in debt and would be forced into liquidation within months, even weeks, unless extra money was forthcoming. Smith agreed to provide extra funding after Southgate had drawn up a series of radical proposals that include closing the ROH for most of 1999.

The Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Fund was up and running within five days of the princess' death, but it has taken many months for it to determine what it represents and establish a permanent role. Institute of Charity Fundraising Managers director Stephen Lee comments that the fund made countless mistakes in its first three or four months and was on the verge of collapse when Andrew Purkis, a former press secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury, was appointed chief executive in Jun. 1998. Nevertheless the voluntary sector generally seems to think that the fund has been a force for good.

The four women peace campaigners who remain outside the main gate of the former Greenham Common airbase near Newbury, England, have stated that they will leave as long as West Berkshire Council allows a peace garden dedicated to their struggle for nuclear disarmament to be constructed at the site, which is now a business centre. Some observers believe that a peace garden would become a shrine attracting large numbers of peace women. Furthermore, it may be vandalized, reflecting the resentment felt by local people about the years of disruption caused by the peace campaigners.

Orangemen at Drumcree, Northern Ireland, were grief-stricken and horrified on Jul. 12, 1998, at the firebomb attack that killed three young brothers in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland, but remained determined to continue their protest. They accepted that the attack was probably carried out in support of their protest but argued that the Parades Commission was to blame for refusing to allow them to march down the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown, Northern Ireland. One protestor argued that the Orangemen must continue their protest to prevent Catholics walking all over Protestants.

France's first ever appearance in a football World Cup final has focused a country in which there are marked racial tensions on the solidity and solidarity of a team made up of blacks, whites and Arabs. An editorial in daily paper Liberation on Jul. 10, 1998, praised the growing nationalist feeling that has accompanied the French team's victories. Sociologist Michele Tribalat commented that the French football team had done more for integration than decades of government policy, citing the way in which people of all colours have been fervently signing the Marseillaise.

UK Home Office officials, women's groups, lawyers and the police are concerned that the rise in the number of women raped by someone they know has been accompanied by a fall in the proportion of rapists convicted. The number of men convicted of rape in 1996 was roughly the same as in 1985, even though the number of reported rapes trebled and the proportion of rapes carried out by a close acquaintance rose from just over a third to 50%. So-called date rapes make prosecution more difficult since police may decide the evidence is too weak or lawyers persuade the jury that the victim consented.

Gay activists appear to have much cause for celebration since Members of Parliament are certain to vote to reduce the age of consent for gay sex to 16 in Jun. 1998, but campaigners point out that equality is still a long way off. Gay rights campaigners are fighting to counter deeply rooted cultural attitudes and obtain equal treatment for homosexuals in such areas as the criminal justice system and the workplace. Campaigners also want Section 28 of the Local Government Act, 1988, to be repealed to allow schools to provide non-judgemental information about homosexuality.

The Government has set out plans for accessible, affordable, high quality childcare for children up to 14 in every neighbourhood in England in a green consultation paper launched on May 19, 1998. The Government's national childcare strategy includes encouraging unemployed lone parents to train as playworkers to provide some of the estimated 90,000 new workers that will be needed to staff a massive expansion of out-of-school clubs. Childcare campaigners welcomed the proposals while stressing the need for continuing resources to provide training.

A study of women's sexuality in 53 developed and developing countries published on May 14, 1998, reveals that the UK has the highest level of unmarried teenage motherhood in the world. The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) report reveals that 87% of the children born to mothers aged 15-19 each year in the UK are outside marriage, compared with 62% in the US and just 10% in Japan. IPPF youth officer Roni Liyanage explains that poverty and a lack of education and employment opportunities mean that adolescent women in the UK have low aspirations.

A British government report published on Apr. 27, 1998, to coincide with a white paper on tackling drug misuse reveals that around one in 10 people aged between 16 and 59 use drugs each year. Most people have never taken an illegal substance but drug use among children is increasing. Although 90% of secondary schools and more than 80% of primary schools have drug education co-ordinators, a 17-year-old maintains that many children would remain ignorant about drugs and their effects were it not for theatre in education companies and their drug use projects.

The state's increasing eagerness to intervene to prevent so many marriages in the UK ending in acrimony was illustrated on Mar. 30, 1998, when ministers were reported to have called for the state to provide couples applying for a marriage licence with information packs and guidance. Couples would also be encouraged to attend special marriage preparation classes. Meanwhile the divorce provisions of the 1996 Family Law Act place a new emphasis on mediation as well as imposing a one-year period before settlement is permitted, thereby preventing couples from obtaining a quickie divorce.

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Chief Exec. Tim Lamb insisted on Mar. 12, 1998, that the organisation was not made up of old duffers. Lamb was speaking after an industrial tribunal ruled that a 32-year-old former receptionist at Lord's, Theresa Harrild, was a victim of sex discrimination. The tribunal found that the ECB pressured Harrild into having an abortion after it learnt that she had become pregnant by a highly-regarded, married, development executive. Evidence from a Lord's marketing secretary Sarah Bladon confirmed the ECB's outdated public school attitudes.

The National Union of Students claimed that a boycott of lectures on Mar. 4, 1998, over Government plans to introduce tuition fees of 1,000 pounds sterling/yr. was the biggest student protest in history. More than 2 million students are reported to have joined in the boycott, with Leeds students holding an overnight sit-in in a lecture theatre block. However, while around 10,000 Southampton University students were reported to have joined the shutdown, only 100 students attended an emergency general meeting in Manchester, England, which has the largest student population in Europe.

The future of flagship current affairs programme 'World in Action' was thrown into doubt on Mar. 3, 1998, when retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) won a 1.3 million pound sterling libel action against its maker, Granada Television. The judge, Mr Justice Popplewell, had taken the unprecedented step of asking the jury in advance of the trial what they thought the programme broadcast in 1996 conveyed to viewers. Granada agreed to pay a total of 700,000 pounds sterling in costs and damages to M&S after the jury decided that the programme implied that M&S knew that child labour was being exploited.

Facts, conjecture and wild speculation surround the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed in a car crash in Paris, France, on Aug. 31, 1997. Mohamed Al Fayed declared on Feb. 11, 1998, that he is 99.9% sure that Diana was not killed by accident. Al Fayed has no answers but one of the scenarios going through his mind is that people in the upper reaches of the racist establishment were horrified by Diana's romantic involvement with the Muslim playboy son of a controversial father. The number of unanswered questions surrounding the accident encourages conspiracy theories.

The government inquiry into the 1996 Sea Empress oil tanker disaster concluded on Feb. 11, 1998, that although oil damaged 125 miles of coastline and killed thousands of birds, the effects could have been much worse. Welsh Office Sea Empress environmental evaluation committee Chmn. Ron Edwards explained that the 72,000 tonnes of crude oil and 480 tonnes of heavy fuel oil spilled when the Sea Empress ran aground in the Milford Haven, Wales, harbour entrance was largely dispersed because the wind was blowing offshore. Furthermore, the spill occurred when birds were not nesting.

The first comprehensive audit of the sex industry in London, England, reveals that more than 5,200 women are working as prostitutes in the capital and that the trade is worth an estimated 194 million pounds sterling/yr. The Middlesex University study reveals a decline in street prostitution with only 115 prostitutes 'active' on the streets on any one night, but an increase in the number of prostitutes working out of escort agencies, massage parlours and 'working flats.' The study shows that nearly 50,000 of the 80,000 or so men who use prostitutes' services each week visit massage parlours and saunas.

The article presents news briefs from around the world. 42 people were killed when a passenger bus fell from a winding mountain road into a 300-foot ravine in Guatemala. The hiring of children under 14 to work as maids or low-paid waiters has been banned in India. Gem manufacturer South African Diamond has won the bidding for the world's 15th-largest rough diamond Lesotho Promise by paying $12.4 million for the 603-carat, golf-ball-sized gem that was found in a mine in Lesotho.

The article offers world news briefs. General Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, the army chief of Thailand, has agreed to hold talks with separatist insurgents in Thailand's largely muslim south. After the warning of a possible terrorist attack by the Swiss authorities, the United Nations has increased security at its center in Geneva, Switzerland.

The article reports on the state visit by France President Jacques Chirac to India aimed at reinvigorating relations with the country.

The article reports about the bombings in a train that was traveling to Pakistan from India in which nearly 66 people were killed. The attacks were condemned by governments of both the countries. The incident was called as an act of terror by the office of Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh and it was promised that those responsible will be apprehended.

The article reports on the demonstration made by Muslims against the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush in India