PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Nirvana Unemployment figures for August fell by over 40,000 to 2,865,802, the lowest level since July 1982. Other figures showed that productivity in manufacturing industry has improved by 7.2 per cent in the past year, bringing manufacturing output back to the level that it was in 1979. The balance of payments for the first half of 1987 was in surplus by £500 million — largely due to growths in invisible earnings and tourism. In Harrogate, the Liberal Assembly voted by 998 to 21 in favour of incorporating the Liberal Party with the SDP. Mr Norman Tebbit has distanced the Conservative Party from Sir Alfred Sherman's invitation to Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the French National Front, to address a fringe meeting at the Tories' Blackpool conference next month. The Home Secretary, Mr Douglas Hurd, announced tighter controls on the type of guns used in the Hungerford massacre. The Prime Minister began her tour of the inner cities by visiting Cleve- land, an area which in the last eight years has lost around 48,000 jobs. Mr James Anderton, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, said that he thought that the possibility of castrating men convicted of serious sex crimes should be investigated in cases where experts said that there was no other way of curing the offender. Mr Rupert Murdoch announced that he had bought 14.9 per cent of Pearson, the group which owns the Financial Times, in a 'dawn raid'. Viscount Linley became the only member of the royal family in direct line to the throne to have a criminal record after being convicted of a driving offence. Lord Soames, son-in-law of Sir Winston Chur- chill, a former government minister, ambassador to Paris, first British European Commissioner, last Governor of Southern Rhodesia died at the age of 66. An American magazine says that the Queen worth, they calculate, £4.5 billion — is the fifth richest person in the world and by far the richest woman.
THE United States and the Soviet Union have agreed to conclude a treaty to elimin- ate two classes of nuclear missiles in Europe. The new agreement will abolish missiles with ranges between 300 and 3,000 miles, including land-based cruise missiles in Britain and Europe and Pershing 2s in West Germany. Chancellor Kohl declared that West Germany would scrap its Per- shing 1-A missiles as agreed. While wel-
coming the agreement, Mrs Thatcher sounded a note of caution for Western Europe and Sir Geoffrey Howe stressed that Britain would go ahead with its plans to replace the Polaris missile with the Trident system in the 1990s. The Gentle Breeze, a tanker sailing in the Gulf under the British flag, was attacked by an Iranian missile. One member of the crew was reported killed. The attack occurred seven years to the day after the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war. An American helicopter attacked an Iranian ship thought to be laying mines off Bahrain, the first open clash between the two powers since the present Gulf crisis began. President Reagan told the UN General Assembly that unless Iran accepted the UN ceasefire resolution, she would face an arms embar- go. In the Philippines a left-wing leader, Leandro Alejandro was killed by gunmen. The Pope's visit to the USA came to an end with a call for obedience to the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. In Rajasthan an 18-year-old widow committed suttee, a practice that has virtually disappeared in India. Tens of thousands of people have flocked to the
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