Shares in Montedison and Ferruzzi Finanziaria had already been suspended on the Milan bourse pending an announcement.Ferruzzi and Montedison share prices have shed around half their value since the company first announced it was in crisis.'It is really not on,' one share analyst said. ALFA ROMEO's assets include a history studded with wonderful cars, famous victories and illustrious names But a glorious past is not the same as a successful present. The merchant banker SG Warburg, said to be reluctant to become a constituent, is expected to be recruited.Tiphook, the container leasing group, eased 4p to 309p. What is certain is that the 15 former Soviet republics are in the grip of an ecological crisis whose scale virtually defies calculation Lakes and forests are dying Marshes are turning into sandy wastes. 'If ever mine is compromised we shall go our separate ways,' he said. These were exciting occasions for me, for they introduced me to a host of new and ancient writers of whom my university syllabus had never heard.In 1955, as one of the founder directors of Editions du Seuil in the Rue Jacob, he became a great discoverer of new literary talent.

It seemed to me what I did was very ordinary.' The judges' response: if only such good food was ordinary.The reader recipe column returns next week.(Photograph omitted). Treasury ministers were constitutionally accountable for Customs' management and policy responsibilities but they would not get involved in specific prosecution decisions.Mrs Strachan, who became chairman of the Customs Commissioners last year, said cases were rarely referred to the Attorney-General.The decision in 1990 to refer the supergun prosecution to Sir Patrick Mayhew, the then Attorney-General, was so unusual that it sparked a series of false rumours. (Including an end to charitable status for private schools and an acceptance that richer parents must fund more of their children's university education in order to offer poorer families a better deal - both, in my view, welcome.) But although he was infuriatingly vague about the future for taxation, Mr Brown clearly mapped out a political agenda for employment and education that is incompatible with Labour thinking on a nationally-applicable minimum wage, and with a schooling policy ghost-written by the National Union of Teachers.If there is a ding-dong battle to be fought inside the Shadow Cabinet, the Conservatives also have some serious rethinking to do. The most obvious candidates are Tony Marlow, who last week called on Mr Major to go; Teresa Gorman; Kenneth Baker or Norman Lamont - although the ex-Chancellor's need for a seat following boundary changes may limit his scope for trouble-making.Some MPs believe that any of the possible candidates would be lucky to get more than about 60 votes and/or abstentions because all have their strong enemies and that although around 100 MPs would vote against Mr Major that figure could only be mobilised if credible alternatives came into the race. Tries from Tony Windo, Peter Miles and Mark Nicholson gave Gloucester a comfortable 29-9 victory. Orrell eventually overwhelmed Stourbridge 55-3, but the underdogs led 3-0 for 18 minutes and played with great vigour to trail 17-3 at half-time. The club should start by taking an interest in their local communities and by attracting Asian supporters to their grounds.

March cocoa futures on the London market jumped at one stage by pounds 31 to pounds 1,050 a tonne, on speculation over the health of the President.. Mr Slater has agreed not to deal in a share within six weeks before and after any mention in this column.(Photograph omitted). And when he sensed 'trouble with the natives', as when the Latin American Church dabbled in the Marxism that he grew to loathe in his native country, he was quick to crack down.The experience of having travelled to more than 50 different lands does not seem to have altered what he decided long ago in Poland. John Daly, who won the US PGA Championship at Crooked Stick in 1991 after being ninth reserve, has found here that his prodigious length - nobody hits the ball further than Daly - is not necessarily an advantage. In Ireland it is 18 per cent, but only 2.5 per cent in Greece.The figures show falling numbers of births in the EC but a steady rise in the proportion of extra-marital births, from 10.7 per cent of all EC births in 1982 to 19.5 per cent in 1992.Portugal's marriage rate is the highest in the EC, with 7.1 marriages per 1,000 population, followed by Britain with 6.5 per 1,000 The lowest rate is 4.5 per 1,000 in Ireland.