PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
There was a small riot in London after 20,000 people held a march against the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill. Some waved banners reading, 'Kill the Bill', a slang term for the police; some smashed 50 shop windows in Oxford Street; some threw bricks and tear-gas canisters at police, who arrested 40. Mr Mark Thatcher denied having received £12 million after his mother, Lady Thatcher, concluded an arms deal with Saudi Arabia worth £20 billion when she was Prime Minister. The Conser- vative Party held its annual conference in Bournemouth, a seaside resort in Dorset- shire. Mr Michael Portillo, the Secretary of State for Employment, told it that the latest reduction in unemployment was a good thing. Mr Norman Lamont told a fringe meeting that Britain might have to with- draw completely from the European Com- munity; Mr Douglas Hurd, the Foreign Secretary, before he left for Kuwait, warned against 'siren voices' about Europe. Paramilitary leaders discussed with 'Loyal- ist' prisoners in the Maze prison a response to the Irish Republican Army 'ceasefire'. The price of goods bought by manufactur- ers rose by 5.7 per cent in the 12 months to September. The shipbuilders VSEL, who have built Trident submarines, agreed to a £478.5 million takeover bid from British Aerospace. Sir Noel Moynihan, a former chairman of Save the Children, died, aged 77. Mr John Blackburn, the Conservative member for Dudley West, died, aged 61. An example of the biggest rodent in the world, the capybara, escaped from an enclosure in Cambridgeshire. A Yorkshire couple are taking their neighbours to court for keeping noisy rabbits. The 800-year-old gold and ivory reliquary holding the remains of St Petroc was recovered after having being stolen from his church in Bod- min, Cornwall. Mr Richard Branson's com- pany launched Virgin Cola.
IRAQ MOVED 80,000 troops up to the Kuwaiti border. The United States sent 18,000 marines, with the intention of bring- ing its forces there to 36,000, and sent in reinforcements of 350 aircraft. Britain sent the frigate, HMS Cornwall, and France also sent a warship. Some said that President Saddam Hussein of Iraq was trying to put pressure on the United Nations to remove sanctions against his nation; if so, it was a funny way to go about it, and President Bill Clinton of the United States said, 'If you invade Kuwait again, you'll pay a horren- dous price.' In Haiti, General Raoul Cedras, its military leader, resigned and promised to leave the country, while a crowd chanted 'Aristide or death'; Presi- dent Jean-Bertrand Aristide was expected to return to Haiti to take up his position this weekend. More than 50 people were killed by gunshot and fire in two houses in Switzerland and one in Canada connected to the Solar Temple, a self-invented reli- gion; one of its leaders, Joseph di Mambro, was found dead in Switzerland, but the police were looking for another, Mr Luc Jouret. The Solar Templars were said to be involved in money-laundering and gun-run- ning. Two Arab gunmen were shot dead when they opened fire in west Jerusalem, killing two and injuring 14; the crime was claimed by the extremist Islamic group, Hamas, which then kidnapped an Israeli soldier. Mr Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said he would seek his release. Israel and Jordan continued peace talks; peace talks between Israel and Syria were deadlocked over the Golan Heights. The Zapatista National Liberation Army, based in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, broke off peace talks with the government. Bazaars in Pak- istan were closed during a strike against the government, which rounded up more than 1,000 opposition leaders. The rouble suf- fered its biggest fall in one day, to about 4,000 to the dollar. China sentenced a Shanghai dissident to three years in a re- education camp. There was no trial. CSH
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