People: Henry can't face his 5 o'clock shadow
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Your support makes all the difference.MAYBE he thought it was a frame-up. Henry Cisneros, the US Housing and Urban Development Secretary, unhappy with the official photograph taken of him, had it removed from all departmental offices. Mr Cisneros, 45, said he 'looked like I had just woken up five minutes earlier and had a five o'clock shadow'.
'This is absolutely not a vanity thing,' said the former mayor of San Antonio, Texas. 'I have no intention of having my mug in all field offices . . . It looks self-serving.' He said he would pay for the 544 photographs, which had cost dollars 2,200 ( pounds 1,450).
DIAMONDS are Imelda Marcos's best friend. And she'd like to keep it that way. The former first lady said she would take the Philippines government to court if it sold off her jewels and other family possessions.
'Unbelievable. This is an unbelievable situation . . . I am getting one injustice after another,' said Mrs Marcos, who is accused of helping her late husband steal billions of dollars while he was president. Tax officials said last week they would auction dollars 20m worth of diamonds, emeralds and gold rings owned by Mrs Marcos to help pay dollars 1.5bn in unpaid taxes.
THE Soviet-era parliament may be giving President Boris Yeltsin a roasting, but he hasn't neglected his spuds. His potatoes are already showing the first green shoots of spring, Mr Yeltsin said as he hailed what he called Russia's successful move away from economic crisis.
'I and my family have planted potatoes 35 years running and we planted some this year too . . . the first green shoots are already visible.' The President and his spokesman discussed vegetable-plot politics at a televised news conference marking three years of Russian sovereignty and two years of Mr Yeltsin's presidency.
POTATOES must loom large in her diet too, but all that could change soon. The billionairess Leona Helmsley, in jail for tax fraud ('only the little people pay taxes'), has had her prison sentence reduced to two-and-a-half years from four.
The reduction - which the judge said was due to her age, 72, and the ill-health of her husband - could lead to her release early next year if she gets time off for good behaviour.
A JAPANESE commoner's leap in social status may pose a threat to her father's career. When Hisashi Owada's daughter, Masako, chose to marry Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan, it was taken for granted that she would give up her career in the foreign service. The question is what to do about her dad.
Mr Owada is the nation's top career diplomat. In Japan's government, protecting the imperial image is taken as an important duty. With his tenure in the top post for career diplomats winding down, rumours that Mr Owada could be up for a politically charged post - ambassador to the United States or Britain - are raising eyebrows.
(Photograph omitted)
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