PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK Spent matches M r John Major struggled
on as Prime Minister despite a Commons defeat for the Government by 319 votes to 311. The vote was over a proposed increase in Value Added Tax on fuel to 17 per cent. Seven Conservatives, or those from whom the whip has been withdrawn, voted against the Government, and eight abstained. Mr Eddie George, the Governor of the Bank of England, hinted in a speech in Frank- furt that he would press the Chancellor to put up interest rates; a couple of days later the Chancellor raised interest rates by half a percentage point to 6.25 per cent. Mer- cury, the biggest rivals to British Telecom, is cutting 2,500 jobs, nearly a quarter of its workforce, and scrapping its public tele- phones. The Queen gave permission for oil exploration to go ahead outside the walls of Windsor Castle; this upset the Mayor of Windsor. Mr Jack Straw, the Labour Party home affairs spokesman, suggested that the number of members of the royal family involved in public engage- ments should be reduced; this was said to be controversial, though it coincided with opinions already expressed by the Prince of Wales. Government talks with Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Repub- lican Army, were delayed by a few days so that Mr Gerard Adams, who was having his own talks at the White House in Wash- ington, could be there. An 82-year-old man was ordered to pay £4,000 compensa- tion to a burglar he injured with shotgun pellets while he was trying to break into a shed on his allotment where he was sleep- ing. Sir Geoffrey Elton, the historian, died, aged 73. Up to 20,000 alders are dying from the effects of water-borne fungus.
RUSSIA ADMITTED that it had bombed airfields near Grozny, the capital of Chech- nya, which has declared its independence. Five Russian MPs offered themselves as hostages in exchange for Russian soldiers captured in fighting in Chechnya. President Boris Yeltsin moved troops to the border in an effort to persuade the secessionist gov- ernment to come to terms with opposing forces. He also said that he was firmly opposed to the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to eastern Europe. Mr Yeltsin was speaking in Budapest at the Conference on Security and Co-operation, where Delegates from 50 countries talked about Bosnia, where,„ fighting continued. The Bosnian Serbs stw pressed the Muslim enclave of Biha,e' though a United Nations convoy was ah'e to bring food supplies to 1,000 Bangladesh! troops there who belong to its forces' Another relief convoy to Gorazde was held up for a week. More than 300 UN peace' keepers were being held by the Bosalall Serbs. Mr Boutros Boutros Ghali, the see: retary-general of the UN, suggested tha:' the 'safe areas' in Bosnia should be dem° tarised, but he did not say how. He als° said that the UN could not send ex114 troops to Angola while the ceasefire the remained uncertain. Ireland enjoyed anoth: er constitutional crisis when Mr Pl,et Spring, the Tanaiste and leader of Labour Party, withdrew from talks abotit forming a coalition. The Forza Italia Flair.tY' led by Mr Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime m111' ister of Italy, lost support in local elections' The Antarctic seas became a sanctuarY,fc)r whales, apart from 'scientific' whaliago' which is what the Japanese indulge supply restaurants. Inflation in China r°05[ to 27 per cent. There were three earthquakes in California. CSI-1
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