Farmer's beef on meat prices: The week that was: April 18 to 24, 1998.

Some stores were reportedly reaping profits of more than 100 per cent on beef at a time when farmers were suffering from plunging incomes.

The allegations came after an investigation by the BBC, which followed a single bullock through the food chain. It was bought for £667 at market, and after transport and other costs were accounted for, it cost a total of £723.66 to put it on sale at a high street butcher’s shop.

Meanwhile, the same cuts of meat would have been sold by major supermarkets for between £1,350 and £1,660. One Yorkshire farmer said he was furious about the increasing power of the supermarkets, who he said were “abusing” their position to keep shareholders happy.

While the main Westminster parties fired the opening salvos in their local election campaigns, Ulster Unionist David Trimble vowed to secure a resounding ‘Yes’ vote for the Northern Ireland peace settlement.

Mr Trimble said a ‘No’ to the agreement in May’s referendum would be to hand victory to the IRA. But he insisted he was not contemplating defeat and was confident of persuading a clear majority of the Ulster Unionist Council to back the plan.

In an impassioned speech, he said that there was no alternative to the Good Friday Agreement and it was “...as good as it gets”. He added that such a chance of peace “...may not come around again for another generation.”

The Yorkshire Post reported on the peaceful end to the life of a despot who ranked alongside Hitler and Stalin as the 20th century’s most evil man. Many had expected the former Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, 73, to meet a bloody end – but he died in his own bed in his jungle home, apparently from a heart attack.

James Earl Ray, the convicted killer of the black American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, also died. Aged 70, he had been receiving treatment for terminal liver disease, but died still protesting his innocence.

Meanwhile, a chunk of ice bigger that’s the city of York had broken away from the Antarctic continent – reinforcing scientists’ warnings that global warming could cause devastating climate change.

Experts said the loss of a piece of the Larsen B ice shelf was the latest proof that “something dramatic” was happening in the southern polar region, which had grown 2.5C warmer since the 1940s.

The week’s most heartwarming story was that of the reunion of two brothers after 64 years apart. During that time not a day had passed without Frank Beale, who lived in Morley, Leeds, wondering about his younger brother Patrick.

The two had been separated in 1934, when Frank was 10 and Patrick three. They were taken into care after their mother Lucy Covell was murdered by her boyfriend. Frank was then looked after by an aunt and uncle – but they had no room for his brother.

So Patrick went to a children’s home and was later adopted by a family who emigrated to Australia. Mr Beale, a retired policemen, had not know where his brother was, nor even if he was still alive – until a phone call from Patrick who had tracked him down from faraway Perth.

After the shock had worn off and joy set in, Patrick had now travelled to see Frank for a short stay. It went well and a much longer visit was on the cards.

“A very long time has passed us by,” said Frank. “But now we will stay in constant touch... and I can’t wait to see him again.”