WHAT HAPPENED ON 28th February 2001?

27th February 2001

MEXICO MAYOR TRIES TO HOLD BACK TIME

The mayor of Mexico City has set off a constitutional crisis by refusing to carry out a government decision to bring clocks forward nationwide. Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez says the government does not have the power and the president's office says the mayor is acting in an unconstitutional manner The time-change is aimed at saving millions of pounds in energy costs. City dwellers do not like the time- shift but do not want a time-zone at odds with the rest of the country.

28th February 2001

FATALITIES AFTER PASSENGER TRAIN CRASH

Thirteen people have died & 70 others are injured after a crash between a coal train & an intercity service. The accident to the 0445 Newcastle to London service happened around 0620 at Great Heck south of Selby Yorkshire. The express hit a car which had rolled on to the track after skidding off the M62 overhead before it derailed & hit the oncoming coal train. Eight people in hospital in Pontefract were said tonight to be seriously ill. Emergency number:020 7834 7777

28th February 2001

BLIZZARD-HIT TRAIN'S 40-HOUR JOURNEY

A train has arrived at its destination 40 hours after leaving London & getting stuck in blizzards. The ScotRail train left Euston London at 9.30pm on Monday but only got to Glasgow at around 2pm today. Meanwhile helicopters are being used to identify damaged supply lines as work to reconnect power homes goes on. Some 40 000 people remain without electricity in Scotland & another 70 000 in Northern Ireland.

27th February 2001

AGENDA AT WESTMINSTER

Questions to Foreign Secretary Robin Cook will be followed by debate on the remaining stages of the Government's Hunting Bill. In Westminster Hall debates include aviation & the environment operation of the National Minimum Wage & the Youth Rate & Bedford Hospital. In the Lords the Social Security Fraud Bill reaches report stage. There will also be a short debate on promoting general aviation.

28th February 2001

FATALITIES AFTER PASSENGER TRAIN CRASH

Thirteen people have died & 70 others are injured after a crash between a coal train & an intercity service. The accident to the 0445 Newcastle to London service happened around 0620 at Great Heck south of Selby Yorkshire. The express hit a car which had rolled on to the track after skidding off the M62 overhead before it derailed & hit the oncoming coal train. Eight people in hospital in Pontefract were said tonight to be seriously ill. Emergency number:020 7834 7777

28th February 2001

NEW FIGURES SHOW WAITING LIST INCREASE

The number of people on hospital waiting lists in Scotland has risen by almost 10% since December 1999 according to official figures. The Information & Statistics Division found that more than 85 000 people were waiting for treatment at the end of last year. But the number on in-patient & day case waiting lists fell by 1 279 since last September. More than half those on the lists were waiting for day case treatment.

27th February 2001

What People were saying on

"The cruellest & most successful moments in an argument are when you turn someone into a caricature."

TV historian Dr David Starkey branded "the rudest man in Britain".

"My understanding is that there are 100 bureaucrats to the euro."

Helen Finch of London in The Guardian.

"You're like an Avon lady being told what to say when you knock on the front door."

Veteran Labour MP Tony Benn criticising the "control."

exercised by New Labour over its MPs.

28th February 2001

FATALITIES AFTER PASSENGER TRAIN CRASH

Thirteen people have died & 70 others are injured after a crash between a coal train & an intercity service. The accident to the 0445 Newcastle to London service happened around 0620 at Great Heck south of Selby Yorkshire. The express hit a car which had rolled on to the track after skidding off the M62 overhead before it derailed & hit the oncoming coal train. Eight people in hospital in Pontefract were said tonight to be seriously ill. Emergency number:020 7834 7777

28th February 2001

BLIZZARD-HIT TRAIN'S 40-HOUR JOURNEY

A train has arrived at its destination 40 hours after leaving London & getting stuck in blizzards. The ScotRail train left Euston London at 9.30pm on Monday but only got to Glasgow at around 2pm today. Meanwhile helicopters are being used to identify damaged supply lines as work to reconnect power homes goes on. Some 40 000 people remain without electricity in Scotland & another 70 000 in Northern Ireland.

27th February 2001

What People were saying on

"I am getting to the stage where if I hear any more of my own music I'll kill myself."

Singer Caprice.

"The competition everyone is dying to enter."

The slogan for a competition to find Britain's best cemeteries.

"Is it not time the Conservative Party supported the police instead of insulting them?"

Labour MP Gerald Kaufman claiming that Tory posters were scattered around Manchester describing the police as "paper shufflers".

28th February 2001

FATALITIES AFTER PASSENGER TRAIN CRASH

Thirteen people have died & 70 others are injured after a crash between a coal train & an intercity service. The accident to the 0445 Newcastle to London service happened around 0620 at Great Heck south of Selby Yorkshire. The express hit a car which had rolled on to the track after skidding off the M62 overhead before it derailed & hit the oncoming coal train. Eight people in hospital in Pontefract were said tonight to be seriously ill. Emergency number:020 7834 7777

28th February 2001

ENGINE OF SELBY TRAIN ALSO AT HATFIELD

The engine on the train in the Selby crash was the same one involved in the Hatfield disaster last October Operator GNER has confirmed that engine No 91023 was attached to both trains. "It had no material effect on the accident; it is just a coincidence " a spokesman said. Four people died at Hatfield when part of an express train was derailed by a broken rail prompting a huge programme of track repairs. Emergency number:020 7834 7777

27th February 2001

FOOT-AND-MOUTH FORCES FURTHER CLOSURES

The Yorkshire Wildlife trust is closing all 80 of its nature reserves until the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak is over All events volunteer works public & contract jobs will halt with only emergency repairs permitted. It follows calls from the National Farmers' Union to curb the risk of spreading the contagious disease. Yesterday much of Dartmooor was sealed off hunting was banned in Scotland & three London parks were closed.

28th February 2001

FATALITIES AFTER PASSENGER TRAIN CRASH

Thirteen people have died & 70 others are injured after a crash between a coal train & an intercity service. The accident to the 0445 Newcastle to London service happened around 0620 at Great Heck south of Selby Yorkshire. The express hit a car which had rolled on to the track after skidding off the M62 overhead before it derailed & hit the oncoming coal train. Eight people in hospital in Pontefract were said tonight to be seriously ill. Emergency number:020 7834 7777

28th February 2001

DEATH Detectives are treating as suspicious the death of a man whose body was found on allotments at Leigh- on-Sea in Essex. The area has been cordoned off. SCHOOLS More than 80 000 children in 510 schools across England are receiving a free piece of fruit each day as part of the Government's drive to improve child health & nutrition. ROBBERY Police are hunting for four masked robbers who tied up a couple and their two children during a house raid in Scarborough North Yorkshire.