PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Mr John Major, the Prime Minister, continued talks with Mr Albert Reynolds, the Irish Prime Minister, though at a lower level than a 'summit'. The UFF shot dead two Catholic men and a boy in Belfast, bringing the year's total of killings by loyalist terrorists to 41. The Princess of Wales announced to the televi- sion camera her withdrawal from public life; her next public appointment was to launch an airbus run by Mr Richard Branson, who embraced her enthusiastical- ly. Sir Edward Heath, a former prime minister, visited Baghadad to ask for the release of three British prisoners. Lady Thatcher, a former prime minister, gave evidence to the Scott inquiry on the supply of arms to Iraq. The Lord Chancellor, unveiling a Green Paper, recommended that couples should be able to gain a 'no- fault' divorce after 12 months, in the mean- time attempting reconciliation. An all-party Commons committee found that absent fathers should be cushioned against sharp increases in maintenance payments imposed by the Child Support Agency. Lord Lane, the former Lord Chief Justice, recommended that courts should no longer be obliged to impose an automatic
life sentence on murderers. Granada offered £600 million in a hostile takeover bid for London Weekend Television. The Marquess of Bristol was jailed for ten months for the possession of heroin and cocaine. Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, aged 73, and Lucian Freud, aged 71, were appointed to the Order of Merit by the Queen. Lord Milford, the only communist member of the house of Lords, died, aged 91. Sol- diers on manoeuvres were told not to fire shells when it is raining, as sensitive Italian- made fuses exploded them early if they bumped into raindrops. Mr Blobby fol- lowed Meatloaf to the top of the pop- record charts.
THE UNITED STATES said it was consid- ering re-aiming intercontinental missiles at remote areas of ocean, lest an accidental nuclear release end in disaster. Talks on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade wallowed on after seven years of negotiations, with French objections overtaken by trouble over Japanese rice imports; the deadline for agreement is next Wednesday. Former communists won seats in local elections
in eastern Germany; the same thing happened in Italy. Markus Wolf, the for- mer East German spymaster, was sen- tenced to six years in prison, but released pending an appeal. Ukraine imposed huge increases in food prices as inflation rose to 70 per cent a month. In South Africa, the Freedom Alliance of Zulus and white right-wingers refused to accept the new constitution. President Banda of Malawi, who is probably in his nineties, announced that he was resuming control of the country, having recovered from a brain operation two months ago. President Felix Houphouet-Boigny of Ivory Coast, who was probably in his nineties and had ruled the country sine 1960, died; a power struggle ensued. Pablo Escobar, aged 44, the fugi- tive head of the Medellin drug cartel, was shot dead. Astronauts spent hours working on the damaged Hubble telescope in orbit round the Earth. A three-year-old child survived a fall from a 19th-floor flat in Hong Kong. Frank Zappa, the rock musi- cian, died, aged 52; perhaps best known for Hot Rats, among his 50 albums. Though often outrageous he denied having ever eaten excrement during a concert.
CSH
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