PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The Government threatened one day to remove trade unions' immunity from civil actions. The Labour Party advised unions to seek ballots of their members to avoid unnecessary strikes; its call came on the very day that the postmen's union announced two more strikes without ballot- ing its members. At the Trades Union Congress a call was made for a minimum wage of £4.26 an hour — higher than the Labour leadership thought prudent. The Government pledged itself to defend the right of parents to smack their children when a 12-year-old boy was given leave to bring a case before the European Commis- sion of Human Rights after being beaten by his father with a garden cane. The recon- vened multi-party talks on Northern Ire- land broke down within minutes when the Reverend Ian Paisley, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, asked for the Progressive Unionist Party and Ulster Democratic Party to be barred from discus- sions on the grounds of their having breached the Mitchell Principles of non- violence by refusing to condemn loyalist paramilitary death threats against two fel- low loyalists, Billy Wright and Alex Kerr. According to new Government figures, the population of the United Kingdom in 1991 was 1.4 million more than that in 1981, but only 452,000 births were contributed by
white people. A grand conference of Mus- lims in London was cancelled following worries about security. Plans went on show for a 92-storey, 1,265ft skyscraper called the London Millennium Tower, designed by Sir Norman Foster; its sponsors hope to build it on the site of the Baltic Exchange in the City of London. Deutsche Bank considered withdrawing its asset management concerns from the City of London and running them from Frankfurt after breaches of invest- ment rules were unearthed at Morgan Grenfell, which it controls. P&O announced a merger of its container busi- ness with Nedlloyd, a Dutch company; 1,400 jobs were expected to be lost world- wide. Unemployment fell by 15,600 to 2,110,400. Mr John Carlisle, the Conserva- tive Member for Luton North, said he would not stand again for Parliament; he is the 57th Conservative MP to announce his retirement from the Commons.
PRESIDENT Boris Yeltsin of Russia is to have an operation on his heart. More than 50,000 refugees made for Iran when the city of Sulaimaniya, a stronghold of the Patriot- ic Union of Kurdistan, fell to the forces of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which is backed by the Iraqi government. Turkey set about establishing a buffer zone reaching six miles into the Kurdish part of northern
Iraq. More than 150,000 refugees were to be allowed to cross hostile territory to vote in the Bosnian elections. Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, shook hands with Mr Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader. Mrs Susan McDougal was sentenced to 18 months in jail for con- tempt of court when she refused to testify before a Grand Jury investigating the part of President Bill Clinton in the affairs of the Whitewater property company. The Consti- tutional Court in South Africa ruled unlaw- ful some provisions in the new constitution governing regional autonomy, including those affecting the Zulus' heartland. Hurri- cane Fran hit North and South Carolina; half a million people were evacuated and two nuclear reactors shut down. Typhoon Sally hit southern China near Hong Kong and left 30,000 people homeless. Chinese police arrested 1.53 million prostitutes and their clients between 1991 and 1995, according to the Guangming Daily newspa- per. Saudi Arabia brought to 32 the number of people beheaded this year. Thousands of people in Tubmanburg in Liberia were found to be starving because of the effects of civil war. A boy in Naples died of botulism after eating tiramisu pudding made with mascarpone cheese. A burning ship carrying 70,000 sheep disappeared in
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