PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The Portillo massacre Public-spending cuts would be sought first of all in the departments of health, educa- tion and social security, Mr Michael Por- tillo, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told the Commons. The pound fell to an all-time low. There was a 'coincidence of ideas' between the ideas of President Clin- ton and those expressed in the policy speech at the weekend by Mr John Smith, the Labour leader, according to a spokesman at the latter's office. The speech concentrated on the need to make opportu- nites for the individual. Leicestershire social services and the police were severely criticised in a report on the years of physi- cal and sexual abuse of children in the county which resulted in the jailing of Frank Beck for five life terms. The Attor- ney General is considering whether to ask for an Appeal Court review of the sentenc- ing of a 15-year-old boy who raped a class- mate; he had been put on probation and ordered to pay his victim £500 for 'a good holiday'. The Law Lords ruled that a victim of the Hillsborough football-ground crush who has never regained consciousness could be denied medication and artificial feeding until he be dead. The Queen is to go ahead with legal action against the Sun for alleged breach of copyright in publish- ing early her Christmas message. Lord King left as chairman of British Airway's, six months earlier than expected; Mr David Burnside, aged 41, also left as an executive director. The National Westminster Bank plans to get rid of 4,000 employees this year in addition to the 5,000 it shed last year. French champagne producers angrily deter- mined to take to the European Court a rul- ing by the English High Court that a com- pany in Leatherhead, Surrey, selling bottles of 'Elderberry Champagne', should not be stopped. Some gouache splotches by four- year-old Carly Johnson were selected for hanging in the annual exhibition of the Manchester City Art Gallery after her mother submitted the picture as a joke; it was bought from the gallery for £295. Mr Nicholas Soames, the food minister, assured the nation that apple juice would not give it cancer. Lord Bernstein, who founded the Granada group, died, aged 94.
LORD Owen and Mr Cyrus Vance put their peace plan for Yugoslavia to the Security Council of the UN, asking for up to 25,000 troops to impose it. President Clinton's administration proposed to appoint an envoy of its own to negotiate a settlement in the former Yugoslavia. A French-sponsored peace conference on Togo broke down over the French proposal
that the Togolese army should be confined to barracks. President Mitterrand of France visited Hanoi, making encouraging noises about trade. The Pope visited Uganda and Sudan. The United States insisted that President Mobutu of Zaire should resign in favour of the Prime Minister, Mr Etienne Tshisekedi; Mr Mobutu responded by dis- missing Mr Tshisekedi. Judge Kimba Wood became President Clinton's second woman candidate for the post of Attorney General to fail as a consequence of employing a ser- vant who was an illegal immigrant. The Brazilian finance minister flew to Washing- ton to ask the International Monetary Fund to give him billions of dollars to service debts. Hundreds of rockets hit Kabul at random as fundamentalist guerrillas contin- ued a three-week offensive. Arthur Ashe, the sole black Wimbledon champion W date, died of Aids contracted through a blood transfusion, aged 49. Joseph Mankiewicz, the scriptwriter and director of such films as All About Eve (1950), died, aged 83. A burglar who broke into a Pen," sioner's flat in Moscow left an apology and 5,000 roubles on finding how poor it was. A girl student from Salt Lake City, Utah, took out her own tonsils over several days using nail scissors, because she didn't have the money to pay for hospital bills. CSH
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