Neighbours of Sir Bernard Ingham (66) yesterday stepped up their war of words with Baroness Thatcher's former press secretary, claiming they were the victims of his "overbearing attitude". Builder Barry Cripps and his wife Linda issued a statement after Sir Bernard was arrested outside his home on Sunday night following a rumpus over a right of way.
The row, which did not escalate into a fight, is believed to have occurred when Sir Bernard saw a car belonging to the Crippses parked near the garage at the back of his detached bungalow in Purley, Surrey.
They claimed yesterday Ingham had kicked and dented the door of their Mercedes during the confrontation. Ingham said after the incident: "All that happened was that I have an extremely troublesome neighbour. He drove over my land to try to get his car into a rear garage.
"When I remonstrated with him, he blocked my way into my garage and then alleged that I damaged his door - although I could see no damage."
Robert Burns wrote the words to the New Year anthem Auld Lang Syne - but the music was the work of an English composer, according to recently uncovered evidence. It seems the music was written by 18th-century composer William Shield.
Shield, who was born in Swalwell, south of the Tyne, in 1748, wrote an operatic piece called Rosina, the story of a country girl. The original score for the opera turned up in Gateshead Public Library in the form of a single brown volume and was passed on to the Gateshead director of school music, John Treherne. He and an orchestra played the music - and found the melody of Auld Lang Syne towards the end of the overture.
Chris Stewart of the BBC Look North programme, who made the discovery, learned that in a letter written in 1788, Burns said he had taken his lead for Auld Lang Syne from a "man's singing".
Czech President Vaclav Havel, who has a long history of health problems, is suffering from a respiratory ailment after a viral infection, his spokesman said yesterday. Once a heavy smoker, the 62-year-old former dissident playwright underwent an operation in December 1996 for lung cancer and has repeatedly suffered from bronchitis.
He also had part of his intestine removed in an operation in Austria in April. He had a heart attack in August.