PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Light at the end of the tunnel Mr John McCarthy was freed after five years of captivity as a hostage in Lebanon. He confirmed that Terry Waite is still alive. Mr Kenneth Baker returned a day early from his holiday in the Loire to controversy over his handling of events before the IRA escape from Brixton pris- on. The Prime Minister said Mr Baker had his full support. It was announced that the conviction of Judith Ward for the IRA bombing of an Army coach in 1974 is to be reviewed. British Telecom announced that it was making a profit of £105 a second. Polls showed that three-quarters of the nation now know someone who is unem- ployed or are out of a job themselves. There was a run on the funds of the Southdown Building Society, after rumours that it was in difficulty. Angela Flaherty, aged seven, was found murdered in undergrowth near her home in Hudders- field. Police shot dead a man in Telford, Shropshire, who appeared to be threaten- ing to shoot but in fact had only an unloaded air pistol. Children who were maltreated in 'pin-down' regimes in council homes in Staffordshire were offered com- pensation of up to f_500 for each day they were detained. Hundreds of files on chil- dren in the Orkneys were found to have been stolen, though those on children involved in the 'ritual abuse' controversy were not included. New laws against dangerous dogs came into effect, and the only Japanese tosa in Britain prepared to leave the country. Ian Botham returned to Test cricket for the first time in two years at the Oval but fell over the stumps during his first innings. England drew the series against the West Indies, their best result for 17 years. The Prince of Wales resigned as president of the patrons of the National Museums of Scotland over the selection of architects for a new museum in Edinburgh. The Press Complaints Committee upheld an objection by the Duke of York to the People newspaper, which published a pic- ture of Princess Eugenie naked.
MR EDWARD TRACY, an American author, was freed from captivity in Beirut. M. Jerome Leyraud, a French charity worker, was kidnapped in Beirut by a group which threatened to kill him if more hostages were released, but he was rapidly set free. A letter from Islamic Jihad was given to Senor Javier Perez de Cuellar, the UN Secretary General, by John McCarthy, detailing terms on which further Western hostages might be freed, including the release of convicted terrorists and murder- ers held in Europe. Shahpour Bakhtiar, former Prime Minister of Iran under its Shah, was murdered at his home near Paris. Fighting continued in Yugoslavia between Croats and Serbs despite yet more promises of ceasefire. Turkish forces raided and bombed Kurds in Iraq. Iraq showed its 172-foot long supergun to a UN arms control team. Italy declared a state of emergency after tens of thousands of Alba- nians sought refuge on its shores. White extremists battled with police and killed three blacks in Ventersdorp, in South Africa, in what was described as the start of the Boer uprising. Thousands of deposi- tors rushed to withdraw their money from Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong after rumours that it was near collapse. Around 40 Tamil rebels were claimed dead by government troops near an army camp in Elephant Pass. The new Ethiopian government appointed its first cabinet. Radioactive frogs were found in Tennes- see, migrants from ponds used to store nuclear waste in the 1940s. American Indians met in Alaska and decided that they would not celebrate the 500th anniversary of the landing of Christopher Columbus. SB
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