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President George Bush of the United States said that the Indonesian leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian terrorist group, who goes by the name Hambali, had been involved in a plot to attack, in 2002, the Library Tower in Los Angeles, the tallest building on the west coast of the United States; Hambali was arrested in Bangkok in March 2003. The leader of the Maoist rebels in Nepal, who goes by the name Prachanda, demanded on the tenth anniversary of the insurrection that King Gyanendra should be driven into exile or executed by a ‘people’s court’. In London the News of the World publicised a video, which was shown all over the world, of British soldiers beating and kicking Iraqi youths after a street disturbance. Saddam Hussein returned briefly to the court in Baghdad where he is on trial and shouted ‘God damn your moustache’ at the judge. The H5N1 strain of avian influenza was found among poultry in Nigeria and Greece and in dead wild swans in Italy and Germany. Mr Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister of Italy, said, ‘I am the Jesus Christ of politics, a patient victim. I put up with everything, I sacrifice myself for everyone.’ Gold prices rose above $570 an ounce as gold-backed tracker funds bought tons of the precious metal. Russia, which despite its shaky economy is acting this year as President of the G8, held a conference of G8 finance ministers to discuss energy supplies. It snowed a great deal on the Eastern seaboard of the United States, with 26.9 inches falling in Central Park, New York, the most since recording began in 1869. Tesco announced it would spend £250 million a year opening convenience stores in California. Mr Dick Cheney, the vice-president of the United States, out for a day’s quail-shooting, shot instead Mr Harry Whittington, aged 78, leaving pellets in his face and chest; he later had a heart attack.
CSH
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