Boris Yeltsin's younger daughter and aide Tatyana Dyachenko, her little son Gleb, First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, Yeltsin's press secretary Sergei Yastrzhembsky and other senior officials escaped unharmed from a helicopter emergency landing yesterday. The aircraft, which had been heading to Yeltsin's Valdai holiday retreat, landed near the town of Torzhok after a fire alarm went off in the cockpit.
Yeltsin made his first appearance for a week when ORT state television yesterday showed him driving a snowmobile. He looked relaxed but did not speak in the film, which the station said was shot at Valdai.
The wife of British Home Secretary Jack Straw was yesterday appointed as director of resources at the Department of Health. Alice Perkins (48) was previously working as the deputy director of public spending at the Treasury and will be earning a salary between £75,210 and £109,420.
Shirley Bassey slapped and insulted her personal assistant during a row in a hotel room, a court was told yesterday. Hilary Levy (44), who had worked for the singer on and off for 15 years, claimed she was sacked by Bassey following a dispute over her working hours. During the hearing in London, Levy claimed that after consuming "a fair amount of champagne" Bassey hit her on her back and called her a "Jewish bitch".