Publishing giant Steve Forbes, promising a "new information age campaign", yesterday became the first person to announce his candidacy for president on the Internet.
While looking ahead toward the 21st century, Forbes, a self-described tax-cutting "Reagan conservative" Republican who opposes abortion and favours overhauling social security, also looked back to past Republican successes. He called his campaign "the beginning of a national crusade to restore Ronald Reagan's vision of hope and prosperity for all Americans".
Forbes (51), head of his family's publishing empire that features Forbes magazine, announced his candidacy for the 2000 Republican nomination in a taped address on his new website, www.Forbes2000.com.
He is the fourth person to announce his candidacy for the party's 2000 presidential nomination.
Monica Lewinsky endeared herself to an entire city yesterday as she donned a football scarf on the latest leg of her mammoth book-signing tour.
Before signing copies of Monica's Story, the 25-year-old former White House worker charmed about 600 people in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne by sporting a "Toon Army" scarf. A large crowd outside the Dillons bookstore cheered as she arrived.
Nicky Watson (16) from Whitley Bay, first in the queue, said: "She was lovely, she signed my copies of the book and said I should go and get some breakfast because I had been waiting for her since before six this morning."
A retired US army general has agreed to a court-martial on charges that he had improper sexual relationships with the wives of four officers and lied to investigators.
Major Gen David Hale waived his right to a hearing before a military jury which was to decide whether to convene court-martial proceedings.
Hale (53) retired with honour after spending four months as a deputy inspector-general at the Pentagon despite allegations of improprieties while he was a NATO commander in southern Europe. He faces seven counts of improper conduct and one of lying to investigators. He is accused of having the relationships with officers' wives in Turkey and in Virginia, Maine, Connecticut and Nevada between 1996 and 1998.