PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Unemployment was found to have risen in July by the biggest amount on record. The Bank of England thought that the recession was bumping along the bot- tom. Inflation fell to 5.5 per cent. The Government continued to claim that the worst of the recession was over. Share prices rose. In a wave of renewed violence in Northern Ireland Thomas Donaghy, an IRA man, and Martin O'Prey, prominent in the Irish People's Liberation Organisa- tion, were murdered. Two men warned by the IRA to leave Newry for alleged 'anti- social acts' took refuge in its Roman Catholic cathedral. Paul Pearson, aged seven, was found murdered in a ravine in Cleveland. The official report into the sinking of the Marchioness pleasure boat, which killed 51, said there had been a malaise in the Department of Transport for 25 years, but declined to blame individuals. Relatives of the dead called the report a sham. The case of Derek Bentley, hanged 38 years ago, was re-opened. Sara Thorn- ton claimed she would starve herself to death unless her life sentence was com- muted. Mr John McCarthy left RAF Lyne- ham for a secret destination. The propor- tion of pupils taking A-level maths was
found to have fallen by 12.8 per cent over two years, and those taking A-level physics by 9.4 per cent. Bertrand Gachot, a French grand prix driver, was jailed for 18 months for spraying CS gas in a London taxi driver's face.
A COUP to remove Mr Mikhail Gor- bachev was sprung on Monday, when state-controlled television announced that he was too sick to continue, and had to remain in the Crimea, where he had been on holiday. Mr Gennady Yanayev declared himself new acting Soviet President. A state of emergency was declared. Mr Boris Yeltsin, President of the Russian Federa- tion, called on the Russian people to defend their parliament as the army mas- sed around Moscow. Three were killed in a clash with a troop-carrier as thousands gathered in the first night of the parlia- ment's encirclement. Only controlled Soviet media were allowed to continue to print and broadcast. Soviet troops appeared in force in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, taking over radio and televi- sion stations. President Bush declared the coup illegal and supported Mr Yeltsin. Nato ambassadors held an emergency meeting in Brussels. President Walesa in Poland and President Havel in Czechosla- vakia appealed for calm. On Wednesday troops were ordered to withdraw from Moscow and arrangements were made for Mr Gorbachev to fly back to the capital. Negotiations continued over hostages in Beirut. Israel demanded news of seven servicemen missing in action in Lebanon. The UN allowed Iraq to sell £1 billion worth of oil to pay for food and humanita- rian supplies and pay its bills to the Allies. Fighting and death continued in Croatia. Efforts to save four divers trapped in a decompression chamber in the South Chi- na Sea failed. A reprieve was granted to 14 revolutionaries involved in the 1983 coup in Grenada: death sentences were com- muted to life imprisonment. Fifty bodies of tortured children, probably forced to work as slaves panning for gold, were found in Peru. Iranian women were told they might be executed if they failed to veil themselves from head to foot. A gunman went berserk in Sydney, killing six. Donald Evans, an ex-marine from Texas, claimed to have killed more than 60 men, women and children and begged to be executed.
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