7 NOVEMBER 1992, Page 4

PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK

he Government pressed ahead with a 'paving Bill' for the reintroduction of a Bill to ratify the Maastricht Treaty in the face of determined opposition from Tory rebels. A bomb in a mini-cab exploded in White- hall a few yards from the iron gates of Downing Street; no one was hurt. The cab- driver had been frightened into driving there by armed IRA men. Couples contem- plating divorce should go before a mediator to decide the allocation of money and chil- dren, or they should be refused legal aid, according to proposals for law reform put before the Lord Chancellor. Tomkins, the conglomerate run by Mr Greg Hutchings, made a £925 million offer for Ranks Hovis McDougall, for which Hanson had already made a bid. Mr Neil Kinnock nervously stood in for Mr Jimmy Young during a week of broadcasting on Radio 2. Mrs Kin- nock sought nomination as a Labour candi- date for a seat in the European Parliament. Lester Piggott suffered a broken collar bone and broken ribs five days before his 57th birthday when his mount fell on him during the Breeders' Cup meeting in Miami. He commented from his hospital bed: 'I will ride again. I've got nothing else

to do.' He had been due later in the day to ride Rodrigo de Triano in the $3 million Classic; the horse finished last. The British boxer Lennox Lewis came a step nearer to gaining Evander Hollyfield's world heavy- weight title when he beat Donovan 'Razor' Ruddock. The Isle of Man abolished capi- tal punishment. Next year's opening of the new British Library has been postponed indefinitely. Sir Kenneth MacMillan, chief choreographer to the Royal Ballet, died at the Royal Opera House, aged 62.

MR BILL CLINTON beat Mr George Bush and Mr Ross Perot to become the 52nd President of the United States. He gained a moderate preponderance of the popular vote but an overwhelming majority in the electoral college. Croatia turned back from its borders largely Muslim refugees from Bosnia. Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany threatened to declare a state of emergency to circumvent constitu- tional curbs on the influx of refugees into his country. Up to 20,000 Turkish troops engaged forces of the Kurdish Workers' Party in northern Iraq. Mr Muhammad Sahnoun, the head of the UN mission in

Somalia, tearfully resigned after criticising UN bureaucracy, which he said was harn.- pering his peace and relief efforts. Mr Boris Yeltsin sent 3,000 Russian troops to impose direct rule from Russia on North Ossetia and Ingushetia where dozens of people were killed in violence over the weekend. One of two Russian submarines, costing £370 million, was on its way to Iran, which is the first Gulf nation to buy ex-Soviet naval stock of this kind. An Iranian founda- tion promised to increase the £1.3 million bounty on the head of Mr Salman Rushdie in reaction to his public appearance in Germany. Perhaps 1,000 people died ul heavy fighting in Luanda, the capital of Angola, as the forces of Mr Jonas Savimbi s Unita continued to challenge the election of Mr Eduardo Dos Santos's MPLA partY. Parisians laboured under a ban on smoking in public places, including cafés. India plans to phase out its steam engines by 1995. Hal Roach, the film director who matched Laurel with Hardy, died, aged 100. The orange and black New Guinea songbird, the pitohui, was found t°

contain a powerful nerve toxin. CSFI