Retailers have reported trade worse than they expected in the previous month in four of the past five months.Furniture, carpet, hardware and DIY shops all reported sales to be falling increasingly far behind last year's levels. Beyond it, a staircase led down to the Priest's Hole installed during Henry VIII's reign. lacquered with sleep') is restrained in the sex scenes, where the matter-of-factness serves rather to heighten the eroticism (There's one lapse: orgasm described as a 'point of light'. As Danish voters must be asked to vote on something different when their next referendum is called, a supplemented treaty would give Copenhagen the basis for calling a new vote.Mr Schluter insisted, however, that he would raise the need for supplements for the benefit of the whole of the EC. The house band was headed by the guitarist G E Smith, a veteran of several Dylan tours; guitarist Steve Cropper; bassist Duck Dunn; keyboard player Booker T, and drummer Jim Keltner.Earlier on Friday, O'Connor told radio listeners that the Roman Catholic Church had invented anti-Semitism and was therefore responsible for Adolf Hitler.

The route guaranteed the least possible contact with the public - lines of demonstrators' coaches to one side, the Metropolitan police to the other. There's a link with Chris Whitley's evocative Big Sky Country from last year, but Rainer's nervy, David Byrne-esque vocals and raw slide-guitar style aren't draped in an ambient production, remaining instead as stark and bare as classic delta blues. Among other things, this means the Pentagon will have to comply with existing legislation, which Mr Bush was hoping to amend had he been re-elected, ordering US forces in Europe to be reduced to 100,000 in 1996 from 185,000 at present.But even the short-term savings, to be spread roughly equally between the navy, army and air force, could cause some difficulties as Pentagon planners scramble to meet next Monday's deadline for a first set of proposals, barely a week before Mr Clinton's State of the Union message presenting the outline of his economic programme. THE RATE of company failures has fallen to its lowest since the start of the recession, according to figures published yesterday. A motorist was crushed to death under a train because he failed to telephone a railway signalman before attempting to drive over an unmanned crossing near Ipswich, Suffolk, on Saturday night.

The market has indeed turned, but those companies that put up the wrong sort of properties at the wrong time have missed out on the improvement and will continue to do so.Like many of its peers, MEPC now has shares worth more than the underlying value of its assets, even looking a year out and assuming tightening yields. THE GATT talks went out with a bang and a whimper of relief when, at 7.35 last night, the Gatt Director-General, Peter Sutherland, brought down his gavel on seven years of the most complex trade negotiations to date. My friend had a Dirty Harry cocktail - a gold Tequila, Cointreau and Midori margarita - and suddenly became very voluble, once he was picked-up off the floor. But her arrest this week was the last straw.GETTING out of jury duty isn't always easy, but Judge John Langston of the Pulaski County Circuit Court in Arkansas thought living out of the state was an airtight excuse, and thus excused Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The mothers had been released on police bail after questioning.. Admittedly, this is about the only consolation for President Clinton, frustrated on his health care proposals and pursued by financial and sexual allegations. Large institutional shareholders are in a position to create a fuss. Germans talk of a 'unique (British) readiness to put almost everything on the table - with the French, it's more complicated'.There is talk of 'culture shock' at the start But there is reconciliation, too. They had some difficulties in shooting the film: when they staged explosions, all the North Korean extras would dive for cover.