The first act is like a Broadway tour of ancient Japan in which 'male' samurai warriors looking like

The first act is like a Broadway tour of ancient Japan in which 'male' samurai warriors looking like Kate Bush serenade the cherry blossom to music you'd normally hear on a television game show. Only those twins of Baathist displeasure, Syria and Iraq, still forbid its sale.But the real reason for the West's new confidence lies, paradoxically, in the immense popularity which King Hussein gained during what many Arabs now call the Second Gulf War. Rangers' manager, Gerry Francis, sent on Gary Penrice but it was Impey who continued to present the greater threat to Coventry. Figs and shortbread will be just that: ripe sectioned figs with chalky, perfect shortcake.

Amec is taking legal action to recover bad debts.The Australian workforce has been cut by 50 per cent during the past 18 months, reflecting the depressed construction market. IN RESPONSE to Eric G Fogg's request for 'real' travel agents in Scotland, Joe McElholm of Glasgow nominates Dalry Travel Services, 47 Dalry Road, Edinburgh EH11 2BU (031-337 1985). RACING'S planned insurrection turned out to be of the Citizen Smith kind yesterday when Bill Gredley withdrew his call for a strike on 2 November Britain's racehorse owners are not revolting Or not yet, anyway. However, personal accounts of a triumph over illness attached to a description of a specific regime are not illegal and are consequently widespread. Churchill once said that the British had two abiding passions: war and gardening Perhaps there's a connection.

One of its tenants is Marks and Spencer, which rents office space from LMS next door to M&S's Baker Street headquarters.LMS wants to add more retail properties, which make up 20 per cent of its assets, and to dilute its exposure in the capital.Nick Driver, a director of LMS, said: 'This purchase is a continuation of our current policy directed to increasing the retail content of our portfolio and to widening its geographic spread.'The 19 retail premises bought yesterday are spread throughout the country, from Blyth, near Newcastle upon Tyne, to Eastbourne, East Sussex. I hope the local authority will learn lessons from St Paul's and will spread them among its schools. Its first incarnation was as peasants' fare, stale bread moistened with diluted vinegar, with the addition of any little morsels available. In spite of scorning the Germans' expressed wish for a cheaper, lighter aircraft, Mr Rifkind also made clear that growing concerns about cost - spelt out by Giuliano Amato, the Italian Prime Minister, on Monday - had been taken to heart, while he declined to give any pledge that EFA would eventually be built.Responding to an emergency Commons question on the project's future, Mr Rifkind said the best way to a cheaper aircraft was to 'drive down the costs of the existing design'. That would not be a speedy process; British interests would come first. Sir: Your leading article 'Triple standards?' (20 January) deals with the issue of selective enforcement of UN resolutions, and of 'double standards' with regard to international action on Iraq and Israel, as if these were problems only because they are views held by the Arab world and apparently 'deliberately fomented for political purposes by Muslim fundamentalists'. IN 1981, when The Palace of Dreams was published in Albania, Ismail Kadare was the country's pre-eminent writer and President Enver Hoxha was in the process of ridding himself of a Politburo rival Mehmet Shehu (later said to have 'committed suicide at a Central Committee meeting').

The Finnish for 'mankind' is ihmiskunta, derived from ihminen, which refers to a person of either sex. As well as its being broadcast on the news, five newspapers froze a still from it so that what was clearly - on the video - a peck on the cheek between Michelle and Mr Shaughnessy appeared - in the press - to be a mouth-to-mouth kiss.And it was this highly emotive photograph, with its 'Judas Kiss' and 'Cheats Kiss' headlines, that also attracted most criticism from the appeal judges. A leading psychiatrist, Luigi Ravizza, said the forms were the work of psychopaths and accused the anonymous and overworked ministry officials of unloading their neuroses on the public. He apologised for the poor sound quality of his broadcast, caused because 'Richard Sage bounced me and my tape recorder around the funeral parlour and deposited us in a heap outside'. Mr Dawson announced the move as the company reported a 67 per cent leap in profits to pounds 7.9m in 1993. He said that the group's next logical development was to translate its skills to a wider international market place. Where a big state opposes a measure, it is rare for it to be outvoted: discussion continues until a consensus can be stitched up So the deal does little more than clarify existing practice But that is the point, diplomats of other states said. He had the style to arrange the delivery of 80 red roses to the Queen Mother - the patron of the RPO - five minutes after midnight on her 80th birthday, a practice that has been repeated each year since.

For a start, he has been in professional football for too long to be unworldly, but over the past few years, he has been aware of a spiritual side to his life that developed more deeply in France. Our first-class tickets (US Air, BA's American feeder) offered cheese snacks in plastic bags. PIRATES looking for buried treasure can now test their 'X marks the spot' techniques at Leicester University. Next month it is seeking to raise its profile with two new albums, a sampler album and the re-promotion of one of its original acts. 'We predict there will be a foregoing of profit streams in order to reduce the regulatory risk.' But he said that Eastern, whose average charges per household are the lowest of all the regional firms, is on a firm footing.The company said that the dividend policy is to provide real increases and to move toward a cover of 2.5 times compared with 2.3 times now.. Some 180 Vietnamese sailors and at least nine ships suspected by China of carrying goods destined to be smuggled into China are now being held in Chinese ports, officials said.. What is happening to the coal industry now is as bad as, if not worse than, the situation before Christmas.