PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The Home Secretary, Kenneth Baker, made constitutional history by being found guilty of contempt of court while carrying out official duties, in that he failed to return to Britain a man from Zaire who had been deported while legal proceedings were pending. Opposition parties called for Mr Baker's resignation. He appealed to the House of Lords to reverse the ruling. A policeman was stabbed to death in east London and two more were seriously wounded in south London. Police re- opened the hunt for the murderers of PC Keith Blakelock. Police found a haul of IRA arms and explosives after a young off- duty policeman challenged a man on a street in north-east London. Four stores in central London were fire-bombed, while closed, by the IRA. Thousands of shops opened on Sunday, taking advantage of confusion between EEC and British rulings over Sunday trading laws. Ian Maxwell, Mirror Group Newspapers' chairman, and his brother, Kevin, resigned from the MGN board, amid disclosures that assets of its pension fund had been lent or transferred to private companies controlled by their father. Frank Beck, a child care officer who carried out sexual and physical abuse at three children's homes over 13 years, was sentenced to five life terms in prison. An analysis by the Family Policy Studies Cen-
tre found that prospects for children whose parents divorce and remarry are worse than for those brought up by single parents. Archie Hamilton, Armed Forces Minister, ordered the army, especially the Guards, to recruit more blacks and Asians. A new report blamed fire-retardant chemicals in old mattresses for cot deaths. The National Westminster Bank predicted that almost a quarter of full-time farmers would leave the land by the year 2000. The Church of Eng- land House of Bishops said homosexual clergymen are not free to form sexual rela- tionships with men. A woman bank manag- er chased two armed robbers from her home and floored one with a rugby tackle. The Duke of Northumberland unexpected- ly discovered that he owns a Raphael worth over £20 million.
THE POLITICAL future of President Gor- bachev and the survival of the Soviet Union stood at the brink of collapse, as the Ukraine voted for independence by 90 per cent, and the Soviet Union's central gov- ernment was found to be close to bankrupt- cy. Boris Yeltsin increased his power, recognising the Ukraine and agreeing to provide funds from the Soviet state bank if federal expenditure were cut. Serbian forces advanced on Osijek, the eastern provincial capital of Croatia, as the war in
Yugoslavia continued to inspire the biggest enforced movement of people in Europe since the second world war. The EEC lifted sanctions against Yugoslav republics which endorsed the latest 'peace plan' but kept them in place against Serbia. Its report said the Serbian army was behaving brutally and shooting civilians. Libya promised to inves- tigate the case of their two agents accused of the Lockerbie bombing, though Colonel Gaddafi said the evidence against them was laughable. American war planes based In Britain began to rehearse bombing attacks on his country. Joseph Cicippio Alan° Steen and Terry Anderson, the last Ameri- can hostages, were freed from captivity .la Beirut. John Sununu, White House Chief of Staff, resigned because he had ceased to be a positive contributor to the Bush administration. France flew troops to Benin to protect its citizens in neighbouring Togo, where a military coup was being attempted. China moved towards establishing formal relations with Israel. The Dalai Lama for- mally met the British Prime Minister. The trial began in the United States of William Kennedy Smith for rape. The World Health Organisation predicted that the number of Aids cases would reach around 18 million by the end of the century. An outbreak of `granny-dumping' took place in the United States,
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