2 MAY 1992, Page 4

PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK

Betty Boothroyd, reputedly an ex-Tiller Girl and former deputy-speaker in the House of Commons, broke six centuries of tradition by being elected its first woman speaker. Mr Chris Patten, the Conservative Party chairman, who lost his seat in Bath in the general election, agreed to become the 28th and possibly last Governor of Hong Kong. The Labour Party was thrown into confusion when it changed the rules for electing a new leader and deputy leader days before the deadline for nominations closed, which put Mr John Smith and Mr Bryan Gould in a straight duel to be fought at a special conference held in July. The Queen appointed Mr Edward Heath to the Order of the Garter. Lord Taylor of Gos- forth was sworn in as Lord Chief Justice of England on the eve of a debate among judges of the commercial court on whether to abandon wigs and robes. Lloyds Bank launched a £3.7 billion takeover bid for the Midland Bank, which could mean the clo- sure of up to 1,000 branches and the loss of about 2,000 jobs. The chairman of Barclays Bank, Sir John Quinton, resigned. A 14- year-old girl died after a solvent-inhaling session which left her 13-year-old friend in a hospital cardiac care unit. Students at Somerville College, Oxford voted to sue their governors for failing to consult them on their decision to admit men into the col- lege after 113 years. A Gainsborough por- trait of Madame Baccelli, stolen from a house in Co. Wicklow in 1986, was recov- ered by police in Euston, London. A for-

mer Vauxhall machine operator was award- ed nearly £60,000 for damage caused to her left thumb after developing repetitive strain injury. It was reported that the Duchess of York is considering terms for a reconcilia- tion with her husband, Prince Andrew. The Princess Royal was granted a 'quickie' divorce, ending her 18-year marriage to Captain Mark Phillips. It was announced that the production of Lymeswold cheese is to end. Nigel Short, the British chess grand- master, defeated Anatoly Karpov of Russia 6-4 to become the first Briton to reach the world chess championship candidates' final. Francis Bacon, the painter, died, aged 82.

HERR Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Ger- many's Foreign Minister and leader of the Free Democratic Union Party, resigned from Chancellor Kohl's coalition govern- ment on the first day of a national public service workers' strike. A first replacement, announced by the party, was later over- turned and Herr Klaus Kinkel was named as Genscher's successor. President Mojaddedi arrived in Kabul, from exile in Pakistan to be installed as the head of Afghanistan's new interim council, sig- nalling victory in the 14-year Muslim holy war against the Soviet-installed Kabul regime. Forces loyal to the new president captured the last bastion of the rival Muja- hadeen interior ministry. Nearly 200 people were killed and thousands left homeless in Guadalajara, Mexico's second city, when a series of gas explosions in the sewers tore apart a neighbourhood. The mayor of Guadalajara was arrested to face charges. Serbia tried to consolidate its control over war-torn Yugoslavia by proclaiming a new union with Montenegro. A Ukrainian min- ister revealed that the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear blast killed up to 8,000. The official toll is 32. Russia and 13 other former Soviet republics were accepted as members of the International Monetary Fund. Britain became the first industrialised nation to promise publicly to pump more money into a $1 billion fund set up to reduce toxic emissions in the third world. Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas established a com- manding lead in the Democratic presiden- tial primary in Pennsylvania. This takes Mr Clinton closer to winning his party's nomi- nation on the first ballot at the Democratic convention to be held in July. The black civil rights leader, the Revd Jesse Jackson, demanded that he should be the Democrats' vice-presidential choice. An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale hit Northern California causing numerous injuries. Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of the Italian dictator took her seat in the Rome parliament where she will represent the neo-Fascist Italian Social Movement. The Libyan regime appealed to the BBC to promise that they would 'never ever send Kate Adie [the British television reporter] to Libya whatever the reasons are' because of her 'irresponsible and incomprehensive behaviour, with whom we