DISGRACED former Tory minister Neil Hamilton yesterday astonished Conservative Party activists when he responded to calls for him to quit by saying he was no longer a member of the party.
Hamilton, who was found to have taken bribes by the Parliamentary Commissioner, Sir Gordon Downey, claimed that as an MP he was not entitled to be a member of his local constituency association, and he had not applied to join after losing his seat.
The Commons Standards and Privileges Committee, which will now prepare a final report on the cash-for-questions scandal, is to consider a recommendation that Hamilton is declared unfit to hold public office.
MPs are also likely to examine whether to summon Ian Greer, the lobbyist at the centre of the scandal, and Sir Michael Grylls, the former Conservative MP for Surrey North West, to answer charges of being in contempt of Parliament for "deliberately misleading "a Commons committee on secret commission payments.
Lady Caroline Conran said yesterday she would be keeping a "dignified silence" yesterday after her former husband, Sir Terence Conran, criticised her for doing little more than "cooking a few meals" in order to get her Pounds 10.5 million sterling divorce settlement.
Sir Terence said Lady Caroline was greedy and had not helped to build his design and restaurant empire. "The figure is unbelievable," he said. "Just because she cooked a few meals now and again and wrote a few books. I taught her how to cook."
On Wednesday the Family Division of the High Court in London awarded Lady Caroline Pounds 6.2 million in cash, homes in Belgravia and Dorset worth Pounds 1.9 million, jewellery, and furniture and cars worth Pounds 400,000, on top of her own wealth of Pounds 2 million.
Bernard Tapie, former tycoon and president of football club Olympique Marseille, was sentenced yesterday for embezzling more than 100 million francs (Pounds 13 million sterling) from club funds.
The court handed Tapie, already in jail on another conviction, a three- year prison sentence, 18 months of which were suspended, on charges of fraud, deception, misappropriation of corporate funds and complicity. He immediately announced he would appeal the ruling.
Britain's new Labour government held its first talks with writer Salman Rushdie, promising renewed efforts to end the eight-year-old Iranian fatwa.
Rushdie is a keen Labour supporter and had often criticised the Conservatives for not doing enough to pressure Tehran into lifting the fatwa.
Cindy Crawford, who studied chemical engineering before opting for the catwalk, is now studying the secrets of haute cuisine.
She yesterday finished a four-day cooking course at the Moulin de Mougins, outside Cannes, on the Riviera.
Its chef Roger Verge, is known for his zucchini and black truffles, stuffed artichokes and mushroom-crusted lamb.
Mike Tyson's assault on the ear of Evander Holyfield has earned him an unprecedented move in the Hollywood Wax Museum.
Tyson's statue was moved from the Sports Hall of Fame to the Chamber of Horrors and is now exhibited next to Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter, from the movie, Silence of the Lambs.
The mystery buyer of Princess Diana's so-called "adultery dress" was revealed yesterday as a Scottish woman for whom it is two sizes too small. Briege Mackenzie (44), who bought it with her husband, has no plans to wear the dress, for which the couple paid Pounds 39,000.