PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
`I think we've been rumbled.'
AHome Office official and the gov- ernor of Brixton prison were moved from their jobs because of the successful escape of two IRA prisoners despite clear warn- ings. Mr Kenneth Baker, Home Secretary, said he had only thought about resigning. The Midland Bank announced half year losses of £71 million. Barclays said its losses from lending to small businesses were £1 million a day. Average pay settle- ments for ordinary workers were sharply down, and bankruptcies doubled to 10,218 in the first half of the year. Waiting times for hospital out-patients were found to have worsened since last year; 113 hospit- als and health units asked to be released for health authority control. Complaints against British Rail broke records. Forty per cent of the population said it had never heard of the Citizen's Charter, intended to improve communications and standards. There was controversy over what quantity of chemicals and minerals, especially de- pleted uranium, had been exported to Iraq by Britain immediately before the invasion of Kuwait and how useful they could have been in the manufacture of weapons. British shipowners claimed an illegal cartel had cut them out of Gulf war contracts. It was found that captured British pilots had been tortured by Iraqis in the Gulf war. A couple who had adopted a Rumanian baby gave her into council care, saying they could not cope with her demands for constant attention. A lesbian who falsely accused a man of rape because she did not want her female partner to know the truth was sent to prison for six months. A Derbyshire groundsman was fined £200 for causing damage to a customer's property in a public house by eating his trilby.
CIVIL WAR seemed inevitable in Yugos- lavia: at least 85 more members of the Croatian security forces died in battles along the Serbian border. Though a cease- fire was announced on Wednesday, it was soon broken. Israel agreed to attend a Middle East peace conference if a dispute over the representation of Palestinians could be solved. Greece, Turkey, and the leaders of Greek and Turkish Cypriots agreed to talk about Cyprus's future in Washington next month. The ANC threatened mass action unless President de Klerk's administration resigned. It was revealed in the United States that the CIA disclosed serious fraud withing the Bank of Credit and Commerce International five years ago. An accountants' report in Great Britain showed that members of the Abu Dhabi government had been involved in a cover-up. The Philippines government filed 11 tax fraud charges against Imelda Marcos in preparation for her promised return to the country. All 561 passengers and crew were saved from a Greek liner which sank off the South African coast, even though the Greek captain and senior officers abandoned ship early, leaving comedians and magicians to operate the radio and co-ordinate the rescue services. Sri Lankan troops ended the siege of Elephant Pass. The Bangladesh parliament voted for an end to direct presidential rule. Germany toughened its eastern borders against immigrants. A white woman in New York accepted £250,000 damages for giving birth to a black baby after author- ities used the wrong sperm for artificial insemination, meant to be from her dying husband. An American woman was re- vealed to be pregnant with her daughter's twins, implanted in her womb. Amazon Indians attacked with bows and arrows a boatload of anthropologists intent on
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