The Week In 60 Seconds
The disproportionate media attention afforded to Ken Bigley and his family reached its zenith as reports filtered in that he had been killed.
This all occurred as the public continued to ignore the estimated 4,000 child deaths in Iraq since the start of the war whilst various American websites hosted footage of Bigley's execution.
When 14-year-old schoolgirl Danielle Beccan was shot dead in Nottingham, her mother ran out of the house as her daughter lay dying in the road and later said: "I feel very angry. My child is lying in a refrigerator. She should not be there."
Britain's pension problems were big news in Tuesday's papers with an estimated 12 million workers facing a major pensions shortfall.
Forty-eight inmates escaped from a Brazilian prison in Rio de Janeiro using only towels and various other items of linen, while in the US Superman actor Christopher Reeve succumbed to a heart failure but left $50 million to paralysis research and received tributes from across the world.
The sporting week centred around England's success in subduing the Welsh dragon with David Beckham's spectacular goal overshadowing yet another mediocre performance from an England captain hardly deserving of the title. Beckham told the Daily Telegraph that he deliberately got himself booked to miss the trip to Azerbaijan. He explained: "I am sure some people think that I have not got the brains to be that clever." Enough said.
14th Oct 2004