Hasta la vista, baby Newt Gingrich, America's most unpopular politician, has finally got the message and stood down as Speaker of the House after the Republicans suffered an extraordinary defeat in the US elections for Congress. Not since 1934 has a ruling president's party made gains in mid-term elections to the House. Clinton was boosted by women, blacks and Latinos, who turned out as never before to bid Gingrich goodbye.

Merci, Winnie The Queen unveiled a statue of Winston Churchill in Paris on Armistice Day. The sculpture is in Avenue Winston Churchill near the Champs-Elysees and forms the counterpart to the memorial to France's first world war hero, Georges Clemenceau. The French hold the wartime prime minister in huge respect: when he died, his state funeral was televised live in France.

I'm still standing New Labour headquarters has come up with a devilish scheme to block the troublesome Ken Livingstone from running for mayor of London. But the old leftie is determined to fight his grey-suited enemies, if necessary by appealing directly to party members. "I do not crawl away and give up," Red Ken announced. "We are going to carry on fighting all the way down the line."

More dictator blues In a surprise move, the US Justice Department has announced that it, too, is considering calling for General Pinochet's extradition, whatever the Law Lords' ruling. Pinochet's much-feared secret service is accused of assassinating Salvador Allende's former foreign minister in Washington, DC.

Immaterial girl? The tennis player Steffi Graf has rocketed (or should that be racqueted?) past Martina Navratilova in the record books. In her career so far, she has won 105 titles and pocketed more than $20 million in prize money. "It all means nothing to me," the millionairess declared.

Mama, I love you Baroness Jay's launch of the government's initiative "Delivering for Women" went badly wrong. The press ignored Labour's various goodies for women (like a national childcare strategy and working family tax credit). Instead, it ridiculed yet another government minister's bid to be cool. Jay's suggestion that Geri Halliwell should be an official role model to British girlhood did not go down well with its target audience, who thought the idea patronising and naff. In fact, girls are far more likely to look up to their mothers - so let's hear it for mum-power.

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