PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Act of God Arush-hour rail crash near Clapham Junction, south London, left 33 people dead and 113 injured. It was attributed to a faulty signal circuit. Common Market ministers decided to spend £87.5 million on improving approach roads to the Channel Tunnel and on railway work ready for the high-speed Paris-London train. Two peo- ple were stabbed to death on public trans- port in London. The UK Egg Producers Association said that sales had slumped by 60 per cent and that 10,000 egg production workers will be sacked within weeks of the national scare about salmonella in eggs, provoked by the junior health minister, Mrs Edwina Currie. The Government announced a £1/2 million advertising cam- paign to make up for Mrs Currie's re- marks. Anglo-Irish relations deteriorated when the Irish government declined to extradite the suspected terrorist Mr Patrick Ryan on the grounds that he would not receive a fair trial in Britain. The Inland Revenue's annual report disclosed that the crackdown on tax evasion in 1987-88 brought in an extra £2 billion, worth a penny off income tax. Four men associated with the collapsed Barlow Clowes invest- ment group, including Mr Peter Clowes, were remanded on bail after they were charged with theft and other offences. Seven teachers are to be compulsorily transferred from an Islington primary school, which was condemned for failing to provide its pupils with the standard of education they need. The law lords allowed the police practice of back- calculating blood and breath tests for alcohol in a driver's body. An Ariane rocket carrying the Astra satellite soared into space; as a result Britain will get at least nine new television stations early next year. David Jenkins, a silver medallist at the 1972 Munich Olympics, was jailed for seven years for supplying athletes with counterfeit anabolic steroids. Elton John, the pop star, is to receive £1 million in libel damages from the Sun newspaper. Mr Peter Langan, the restaurateur, uncon- scious since a fire at his home in Essex seven weeks ago, died, aged 47.
OFFICIAL estimates said that 55,000 peo- ple were killed in a severe earthquake in Soviet Armenia. President Gorbachev cut short his visit to New York and postponed his London one to return to Moscow, before flying to Armenia to take charge of the relief operation. Addressing the Un- ited Nations in New York, President Gor- bachev announced a unilateral reduction of tanks and troops which would cut conven- tional forces in the Warsaw Pact countries by 500,000 by 1991. The Soviet authorities gave a dramatic twist to Armenia's saga of death and destruction by arresting half the Karabakh Committee, the authentic voice of Armenian nationalism. Mr Yasser Ara- fat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, called on Israel to visit the United Nations and take part in a Middle East peace conference. Israeli comman- dos, using heavy air and naval support, fought a fierce seven-hour battle with Palestinian and Lebanese guerrillas deep behind Syrian army lines in the hills. Bangladesh, still recovering from a cyclone that killed at least 3,000 people ten days ago, alerted rescue services to a new storm heading for the coast. President Reagan conceded that the United States would have to talk to Iran before American hostages could be released in the Lebanon. Nelson Mandela, the 70-year-old leader of the African National Congress, was moved by the South African authorities from a clinic in Cape Town to a garden jail in the Cape winelands. South Africa agreed to end its 73-year rule in Namibia. Three Van Gogh paintings were stolen from the Kroeller-Mueller Museum in the Nether- lands.
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