PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Labour's lead moved up *to 24.5 per cent over the Conservatives, and Mrs Thatcher's rating was the lowest recorded by Gallup for any Prime Minister since 1938. The Prime Minister said it was a matter of solemn duty to resist a threatened back-bench revolt against a bill to grant British citizenship to 50,000 key figures from Hong Kong, mainly business- men. Four members of the UDR were killed by an IRA landmine in Co. Down. A group of Strangeways prisoners in Man- chester continued to hold out against cap- ture, sparking copycat riots in Dartmoor, in which a prisoner died, and eight other prisons: Cardiff, Hull, Leeds, Pentonville and Brixton in London, Stoke Heath, Salop and Shepton Mallett. A prison offic- er who had been on duty when the riot started at Strangeways died of a heart attack. Seven horses died in a three-day meet at Aintree, two of them during the Grand National, which was won by Mr Frisk. The Ford Motor Company is switch- ing £225m of investment from South Wales to West Germany. Ron Brown, MP for Edinburgh Leith, recently found guilty of criminal damage at his ex-mistress's flat, was deselected by his local Labour party for the next general election. Dr Raymond Crockett, a Harley Street specialist, was ordered to be struck off the medical register for taking part in the sale of human kidneys. He said he believed that his actions had been right. Britain's golfer, Nick Faldo, retained his US Masters title against Raymond Floyd in a championship decided on extra holes. Ruswarp, a 14- year-old collie cross, was found on the Welsh hills, weak and starving having stayed by the body of his master, a fell-walker, for three months. He is to be recommended for a bravery reward from the RSPCA.
IN Beirut, the Fatah Revolutionary Coun- cil released a Frenchwoman, her Belgian boyfriend and their two-year-old daughter who was born in captivity. Another baby was said to have died while a hostage. The centre right Hungarian Democratic Forum won a landslide victory in the general election and said it wished to take the country into the European Community. In the Yugoslavian republic of Slovenia the opposition coalition was ahead of the ruling communists according to early re- turns. Around 200 people, including many children, died in a fire on a ferry, the Scandinavian Star, as it sailed between Norway and Denmark. Arson was sus- pected. Similar fears were expressed when a fire on an Irish ferry off the Welsh coast killed an Irish lorry driver. A third fire broke out in the engine room of a French ferry passing the Isle of Wight. King Baudouin of Belgium abdicated for 36 hours rather than sign a law legalising abortion. King Birendra of Nepal lifted a 30—year ban on political parties after 50 died when his troops opened fire on pro-democracy demonstrators in Kath- mandu. Greece's conservative New Demo- cracy party gained enough support to enable it to rule alone for the first time in nine years after a succession of socialist and weak coalition governments. The Sup- reme Court in Dublin refused a British extradition request and freed Owen Car- ron, a former Sinn Fein MP and suspected terrorist, on the grounds that the offence, if any, had political motivation. He was accused of having an assault rifle in the boot of his car. President de Klerk of South Africa and Nelson Mandela, deputy leader of the ANC, agreed on a date for formal talks about negotiations for a settlement on the country's future, and President Bush and President Gorbachev are to have a summit meeting at the end of May in Washington to discuss more arms reduc- tions. Australian immigration officials in- terviewed the Marquess of Bristol in Syd- ney about his criminal convictions for drug possession. Lord Bristol was reported to say that he found it extraordinary that Australia now felt so strongly about cri- minals. Imelda Marcos, on trial in Manhat- tan for racketeering and fraud, was said in her defence by her lawyer to have spent only 30 minutes to dress for heads of state but an hour for the little people of the Philippines whom her husband formerly ruled.
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