Genocide as an office job

THE ORGANISERS of millennium celebrations in Bethlehem hit an obstacle in their plans to see in the start of Christianity's third millennium by releasing 2,000 doves into the air from the city's Manger Square at midnight on 31 December. The problem was that the doves refused to fly.

13 DAYS TO GO

GULF AIR and Southern Aviation (Zambia) may be blocked from operating flights into Britain over the new year unless they introduce measures to address the millennium bug.

A round-up of what's on around the world in December

From a speech given by the MP and former editor of `History Today' to the European Studies Conference in Portsmouth

THE BRITISH soprano Victoria Sladen, who sang with Sadler's Wells Opera (now English National Opera) and Covent Garden Opera (now the Royal Opera) in the 1940s and 1950s, excelled in roles such as Tosca, in which her outstanding good looks as well as her fine voice were displayed to best advantage.

Could it have happened here? Could your dad have shot women beside a pit in the Forest of Dean?

CLASSICAL ART AND THE CULTURES OF GREECE AND ROME BY JOHN ONIANS, YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS, pounds 35

THE ORIGINAL copy of Adolf Hitler's notorious Nuremberg Laws, the first formal step in the Nazis' programme to liquidate the Jews, will be put on public display this week after more than half a century locked in a library in southern California.

In the post-Christie era, British athletics has finally found a sprinter to take on the very best

CRAIG BROWN was content to accept second billing behind Kenny Dalglish in the Glasgow media circus yesterday, just as he will be satisfied with second place in Group Nine of the Euro 2000 qualifying campaign and the opportunity such status would give Scotland to reach next year's finals via a play-off.

Pelleas et Melisande Glyndebourne, Sussex Otello Barbican, London The Damnation of Faust Royal Festival Hall, London Pocket Opera of Nuremberg Covent Garden Festival, London

We've come a long way since Nuremburg. But a trial of Serbia's leader would give international law a test it still needs to pass