Here is the news - of 1994: The USA

PRESIDENT Bill Clinton will be hoping for a less nerve- racking second year in office. He will be disappointed.

January: not a good start as the press refuses to let up on those sex allegations. His ratings slump again. Scandal overshadows his overseas trip to Brussels and Moscow.

February: congress finally approves the Crime Bill, putting more cops on the streets. But a congressional probe starts into his financial dealings when Governor of Arkansas.

March: exhausted by weeks of scandal damage control, White House Chief of Staff 'Mack' McClarty steps down.

April: the North Korea crisis becomes critical. Defence Secretary Bobby Inman urges the President in a secret memo to be ready for war on the peninsula. Memo leaked by New York Times.

May: 'sexgate' deepens after Mr Clinton's accusers, two Arkansas state troopers, publish book, Sleepless in Little Rock. An immediate best-seller, it eclipses a national tour with Al Gore on crime reduction. David Gergen leaves White House, joins CBS as political editor.

June: the President claims executive privilege and refuses to testify to House Banking Committee in Arkansas money probe. Second World War veterans protest at his presence at D-Day celebrations in Dunkirk,calling him a draft-dodger.

July: Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen steps down after G7 meeting, citing ill-health.

August: holidays wrecked: new stories suggest more infidelities, this time in Washington in the weeks after the inauguration. Mr Clinton denies the claims in national TV address. Few believe him.

September: Ross Perot begins national crusade to defeat the health plan.

October: health plan passes House and Senate by one-vote margins. Final version incomprehensible to most, but popularity ratings begin to recover.

November: banking committee accuses the President of bending the rules as Governor of Arkansas to help friend's savings and loans bank, but clears him of criminal wrongdoing.

December: the economy picks up, along with his approval rating. People magazine votes him 'Sexiest Man of the Year'. Hillary cancels White House's subscription.