PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The PM speaks.
Ulster Unionists were dismayed at an announcement by the Irish government that it would release some Irish Republican Army prisoners by Christmas. Feilim O'Hadhmaill was jailed for 25 years at the Old Bailey for his part in a bombing cam- paign in Britain. Mr David Martin, the Conservative member for Portsmouth South, resigned as parliamentary private secretary to the Foreign Secretary, Mr Douglas Hurd, in protest at the Govern- ment's dropping of measures to privatise the Post Office. The Department of Trade and Industry is to get rid of 2,000 of its 11,000 workers; Norwich Union, the insur- ers, are to get rid of 2,000 of their 10,000. There was yet another book about the Princess of Wales, which claimed that, though she would not instigate divorce pro- ceedings, she wanted to remarry and have two more children, preferably girls. Mr David Mellor, the Conservative member for Putney, admitted an affair with Lady Cobham. Lord Wakeham is mooted to suc- ceed Lord McGregor of Durris as chairman of the Press Complaints Commission. Pupils caught selling drugs in schools need not necessarily be expelled, the Depart- ment of Education said. British Petroleum and Shell will spend £550 million develop- ing an oilfield, called Foinaven, west of Shetland, in order to start the tapping of reserves perhaps a third of the size of those in the North Sea; in the deep Atlantic waters, drilling will not be from fixed but from floating platforms. One of the crew of a Russian fish factory ship was killed in a wreck off Shetland. Brittany Ferries stopped running the last big ferry service of live animals to mainland Europe. Sir John Pope-Hennessy, the museum director, died, aged 80. Damon Hill, an English motor-car racer, won the Formula One Grand Prix in Japan.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, to which President Clinton belongs, lost control of both the Senate and the House of Repre- sentatives in mid-term elections for all 435 members of the House and 35 out of 100 Senators. In the Senate elections, Mr Edward Kennedy, a Democrat, retained his seat and Colonel Oliver North, a Republi- can, failed to gain one. Among the 35 gov- ernorial elections, the Democrats, Mr Mario Cuomo of New York and Mrs Ann Richards of Texas were defeated, the latter by the son of the former President, George Bush. Mr Ronald Reagan, aged 83, who was President of the United States from 1981 to 1989, announced that he was suffer- ing from Alzheimer's disease. There was renewed fighting in Bosnia, as government forces gained land around Bihac in the north-west and fought Serb forces around Sarajevo. Bosnian Serbs conscripted thou- sands of workers and students. Angolan government forces moved in on the Unita- held city of Huambo; this was said to threaten the signing of a peace treaty next week between the two sides. China called for an end of the transferring of state assets from state to private ownership. Four Britons of Chinese and Vietnamese origin were charged in Sierra Leone with plotting to overthrow the government. The Cave of the Patriarchs, where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are said to lie, was reopened to seg- regated Jewish and Muslim pilgrims nine months after an Israeli shot dead 29 Pales- tinians there. George Foreman won a world heavyweight boxing title at the age of 45 after knocking out Michael Moorer, aged 26; he had lost to Muhammad Ali 20 years ago. Dozens drowned in floods in northern Italy which also affected France, Spain and
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