Major Sues

While his government debates possible new press restraints inspired by the frenzied coverage of royals, John Major is seeking redress the old-fashioned way. The British Prime Minister announced plans to initiate libel suits against two magazines for printing allegations that he had conducted an extramarital affair with a fashionable London caterer, Clare Latimer. The long-whispered rumor was printed last month in the satirical monthly Scallywag, and repeated, albeit skeptically, by the left-wing weekly New Statesman and Society. Latimer, 41, promised similar legal action.