The Governor of the Bank of England and the Chancellor meet again in 9 days’ time to discuss the economy amid further signs that export growth, which has driven recovery so far, is slowing while stocks of unsold goods at home are rising.Many of the larger DIY groups are pinning their hopes on special offers to boost sales over the three-day break. NIGEL COPE and TOM STEVENSON

Do-it-yourself retailers are bracing themselves for a disappointing close to the bank holiday weekend, traditionally the last big selling day before the end of summer. In the wake of further signs of weakness in the housing market and flagging sales of new cars to private buyers, the jitters from the DIY sheds are the latest confirmation of sagging consumer confidence.
Economists believe mounting evidence of a slowdown could end the stand- off between Eddie George and Kenneth Clarke over the need to raise interest rates. He said that the kidnappers were believed to be the Jaime Bateman Cayon group, one of several rebel bands that have been fighting the government for the past 30 years.Sgt Cowley was abducted at a highway roadblock 100 miles west of Bogota, near the village of El Toche, two weeks ago but his capture was kept quiet by Foreign Office officials while negotiations were carried out with the kidnappers.A Foreign Office spokesman said the sergeant, who was posted to Colombia two years ago, had been unfortunate.The kidnappers have made contact with the British embassy in Bogota but it is not known if any ransom demands have been made.A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defence said Sgt Cowley had been working as a clerk at the embassy..

London – A British soldier kidnapped in Colombia by left-wing guerrillas was in the “wrong place at the wrong time”, the Foreign Office said yesterday. Timothy Cowley, 32, a staff sergeant with the Adjutant-General’s Corps working for the British embassy, is thought to have been on a bird-watching trip when he was seized by the guerrillas at a road-block in south-western Colombia.
The head of the Colombian armed forces, General Camilo Zuniga, said Sgt Cowley had failed to take any security precautions. Under the 1993 Israel-PLO accord, the authority must restrict its activities to areas under Palestinian rule.. The accord gives the Palestinians responsibility for agriculture, insurance, labour, municipal affairs, postal services, petrol and gas, statistics, and trade and industry.Meanwhile, the Israeli Police Minister ordered the closure of three ”illegal” Palestinian offices in east Jerusalem which carry out broadcasting, statistics and health work for the Palestinian Authority. Abdel-Majid Dudin and Rajid al-Khatib were sentenced to 12 and seven years in prison, respectively.
In Cairo, Israel and the PLO signed an agreement transferring eight civilian powers to the Palestinians, the first part of an accord for extending self-rule in the West Bank. Palestinian officials said the militants had been tried and sentenced in a Palestinian military court in Jericho on Friday, and would not be surrendered. But the Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, and Justice Minister, David Libai, acknowledged that the Palestinians had no legal obligation to extradite them.

And after all they’ve done to me, I’ve become one,” he adds.. Jerusalem (Reuter) – The Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, ordered the continued closure of Palestinian-ruled Jericho yesterday to pressure the PLO to hand over two Hamas militants suspected of planning a bus bombing that killed four people last Monday, security sources said. It was too much of a risk for my children, so I’ve sent them off to Damascus. But I’m staying on.”The government treats me as a mortal enemy. She said: ‘Please don’t manipulate the courts against him, let him have a fair trial at least.’ But Benazir doesn’t listen.”Karachi is being torn apart by ethnic violence, and many murders have happened even in Murtaza’s fashionable neighbourhood: “The government won’t let me protect my wife and children … No proof of Murtaza’s direct involvement in these crimes has surfaced, but the existence of Al-Zulfiqar was used by the army to harass Benazir and her PPP followers, who fought the dictatorship through peaceful protest.Rival politicians dismiss Murtaza’s brand of Socialism as passe in Pakistan, where Islam pervades all political thought.Ms Bhutto has refused to speak to Murtaza for two years Their mother, Nusrat, has tried in vain to reconcile them “My mother tried with Benazir. Murtaza was studying at Oxford at the time, and responded by setting up the Al-Zulfiqar Organisation to avenge his father’s death.Bombs were planted, henchmen of the military dictator, General Zia ul- Haq, were murdered and a Pakistan International Airlines flight in 1981 was hijacked to Kabul.

Their father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was Pakistan’s leader before he was overthrown by the generals in 1978 and hanged. It’s not about personal enmity.”In a Muslim, male-dominated society, it is usually the son who is the heir. There are days when the witnesses don’t appear and neither do the lawyers,” he says before the telephone line goes dead again.The feud with his older sister, he says, is only about politics “There’s no dispute over property or the family silver. With a push from his heavyweight political mother, Nusrat, he was elected to the Sindh provincial assembly in October 1993, but he is distracted from his political duties by having to appear in court.”The government is tampering with my cases.