PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
John Major has had cosmetic treatment on his teeth. News item More than 200 people in Scotland went down with the 0157 strain of Escherichia call food poisoning thought to come from meat sold in a shop in Wishaw, near Motherwell; six (old people) died. Two students at the University of Wales, Cardiff, died of meningitis. Mr John Major, the Prime Minister, promised that the Gov- ernment would have no policy on adopting a single European currency before the out- come of the next election. He also made public in the Commons a document that he had sent to Mr John Hume of the Social Democratic and Labour Party outlining Government conditions for Sinn Fein to fulfil before it would be admitted to multi- party talks. Police found 2,5001bs of explo- sives and charges near an army base outside Armagh. Sir Nicholas Scott, who had fallen down in the street during the Conservative Party conference, was dropped as the can- didate for Kensington and Chelsea by 509 to 439 votes of the constituency association, even though he had said in a speech to them: 'Some people have referred to me as a Wet; but of course I am dry now.' Mr Terry Marsh, the boxer who was found not guilty of shooting the promoter Mr Frank Warren, was adopted as the candidate of the Liberal Democrats in Basildon. Abbey National increased its mortgage rate for mortgages below £60,000 by' a quarter of a percentage point to 7.29 per cent. Dr George Carey, the Archbishop of Canter- bury, visited the Pope in Rome and said Vespers with him in the church from which Pope Gregory sent St Augustine to convert England. Co-op is to label wine in contra- vention of European Union regulations with a recommendation not to drive, oper- ate machinery or play sport after drinking some. Two policemen who disarmed a deranged man waving a gun were criticised by superiors for not having shot him in accordance with standard procedure. Michael Bentine, the comedian, died, aged 74. John West, the brother of Frederick West the murderer, hanged himself, as his brother had done, before a verdict on charges against him of having raped his niece more than 300 times. Lady Warnock, who chaired a report on test-tube babies, announced that she had signed a form pre- pared by the voluntary euthanasia society, Exit, to ease her own death. An Under- ground train was derailed in a tunnel near Piccadilly Circus. East Midlands Electricity issued meter-readers with dog-biscuits after 40 complaints of being bitten.
RADISH-sprout producers in Japan are suing the government for suggesting their sprouts were responsible for an outbreak of 0157 strain Escherichia coli food-poisoning in August that affected 9,000 and killed seven. Thousands protested daily in Bel- grade against President Slobodan Milose- vic's annulment of local elections in which opposition candidates won. President Vaclav Havel shared a cigarette with the Czech health minister before undergoing a successful operation to have a cancer cut out of one lung. Amnesty accused the Palestinian Authority of torturing oppo- nents. Israel admitted to violent treatment of arrested suspects. French fishermen vied with British ones over fishing grounds off the Channel Islands, specifically the Sark Box and the Haricot Box. French lorry drivers called off their strike and blockades. The Channel Tunnel started carrying trains again, two weeks after a raging fire. A bomb on an RER train in Paris killed two; French people blamed Algerians. Algerians were said by their own government to have voted overwhelmingly against religious par- ties (including Islamic ones) being able in future to put up candidates. The United Arab Emirates offered a loan of £300 mil- lion to Pakistan. A bomb on a train in north India killed 12. India signed a deal to buy £1 billion-worth of jets from Russia. Rebels fought with Tajikistan government troops to gain the town of Garm, 125 miles east of the capital, Dushanbe. Tiny Tim, the falsetto singer of 'Tiptoe Through The Tulips', died aged 66.
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