London: Enron controversy spreads to Britain

The spreading waves of the Enron scandal caused their first splash in the British political world Friday when a prominent Conservative politician who was paid $120,000 a year to serve on the company’s board gave up his official position here “as a matter of honor.”

Lord John Wakeham, 69, who served in the Cabinets of Conservative prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, said he will “stand aside temporarily” from the prestigious post he now holds as head of the Press Complaints Commission, a quasi-public board that rules on privacy and accuracy issues in the print and electronic media.

In a statement Friday, Wakeham said he would not sit on the commission at a time when his involvement with Enron Corp. has become a news item.

Geneva: Campaign tells males to shoulder more chores

Using slogans like “Taking out the trash brings in the respect,” the Swiss government has launched a campaign on posters, in brochures and on the Internet to promote the idea that men should shoulder a fairer balance of domestic chores.

The “Fairplay at Home” campaign, which began last month, is aimed at young couples and suggests that by sharing work at home, men and women can have more fulfilling careers and be involved in raising a family.

“By ‘Fairplay’ we want to put across the idea that child-rearing and home life should be about an equal division between two people,” Patricia Schulz, head of the Swiss Federal Equality Office, said Friday.

In the campaign’s first two days, the bulk of the feedback has been “really positive,” she said.

Swiss women only got the right to vote in 1971.

Netherlands: Tribunal agrees to hold one trial for Milosevic

Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic will face only one trial to answer for three separate indictments for war crimes in Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia, the U.N. tribunal said Friday in The Hague.

An appellate bench of the tribunal agreed to a prosecution request to hold a single trial for Milosevic, allowing key witnesses to appear only once rather than be recalled for several trials.

The court said the trial could begin as scheduled on Feb. 12, “unless the trial chamber decides otherwise.”

Prosecutors have said they will call as many as 30 political insiders to testify against him during the trial and link him to the atrocities during his 13 years in power.

London: Statue unveiled amid controversy

The Iron Lady is set in stone.

Lawmaker Tony Banks unveiled a two-ton, 8-foot-tall marble statue of Margaret Thatcher on Friday, giving Britain its first look at a work that has stirred up a partisan squabble reminiscent of her days as prime minister.

The piece, commissioned by the committee and funded by an anonymous donor, was sculpted for display in the prestigious Members’ Lobby at the House of Commons.

Parliamentary rules say it can’t be exhibited there until five years after Thatcher’s death. She is still going strong at 76, and lawmakers have been arguing about what to do with it in the meantime.

Lake Havasu City, Ariz., which already owns the old London Bridge, has offered to care for the piece until Britain is ready to show it.