PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
`Careless talk increases circulation.'
Violent protests swept Northern Ire- land after the Orange Order's march from Drumcree was prohibited by the new Parades Commission from following its tra- ditional route back to Portadown through the mainly Catholic Garvaghy Road. The Army erected huge barricades, dug ditches and strung out barbed wire; Orangemen took up positions, determined to stay indef- initely. The commission then ruled that the Orange Order would be allowed to march next week along the equally Catholic Lower Ormeau Road in Belfast. Before the ban on the Garvaghy Road route, nine Catholic churches in Northern Ireland were destroyed by fire in a single night. The gov- ernment appointed a so-called Streets Czar to deal with rough-sleepers in London. A lobbyist and former research assistant to Mr Peter Mandelson, Mr Derek Draper, was suspended by his company, GPC Mar- ket Access, and sacked from his column in the Express (on the grounds that Mr Man- delson was said to have read his columns before publication) after the Observer said that information about government fiscal plans had been given by him to an Ameri- can investment bank in advance, Mr Roger Liddle, an adviser at No. 10 Downing Street, was said to have remarked that Mr Draper belonged to an inner 'circle'; Mr Liddle denied he had improperly offered to introduce businessmen to people in the government. A far-reaching defence review was leaked before being presented to Par- liament: it proposes cuts of £685 million a year by 2001, a new rapid reaction force called Joint Force 2000 and the sale of £2 billion of assets. The Commons set aside a day to debate a Bill to prohibit landmines before the first anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales on 31 August. The Patent Office ruled that the face of the late Princess could not be used as a trade .mark, but her estate is to appeal against the decision. The Royal Train was made avail- able for charter by suitable groups. Johnny Speight, the creator of Alf Garnett in Till Death Us Do Part, died, aged 78. Cornish clotted cream qualified for a European Union regulation prohibiting cream clotted anywhere else being sold as Cornish.
PRESIDENT Bill Clinton of the United States said that the reform of the Japanese economy was the key to recovery in Asia. Japan launched a space probe to Mars. Hong Hong opened a new airport at Chek Lap Kok on reclaimed land 20 miles to the west of the city centre. Chief Moshood Abi- ola, credited with having been the rightful winner of the 1993 Nigerian elections, died before the new regime could release him from prison; he was 60. The South African rand fell to a level of more than six to the United States dollar. The stock exchanges in Frankfurt and London announced a strate- gic alliance. The Pope issued an apostolic letter, Ad Tuendam Fidem, reaffirming the authority of the Church to define doctrine and morals. A heatwave hit southern Europe, with temperatures in Athens reach- ing 108F. Fires destroyed half a million acres of Florida and came to within 12 miles of Orlando; all 25,000 inhabitants of Flagler Beach were evacuated. President Boris Yeltsin of Russia and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan signed an agree- ment dividing the northern part of the Caspian seabed into two zones for the extraction of oil; President Mohammad Khatami of Iran signed a similar agreement with President Separmurat Niyazov of Turk- menistan, parcelling out another area of the seabed. Roy Rogers, who made dozens of cowboy films with his horse, Trigger, died, aged 86. Two Van Goghs (`The Gardener' and 'A Woman from Arles') and a Cezanne (`Jourdan's Cottage') stolen from the Muse- um of Modern Art in Rome on 20 May were recovered after police discovered a gang of Belgian ex-convicts. Nine million 10-cent Euro-coins minted in France are to be scrapped after it was realised they could eas- ily be mistaken for 50-cent coins. CSH
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