PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Britain froze. London had its coldest day since records began in 1940, the Isles of Scilly their worst snowfalls since 1910. In the face of opposition pressure, the Gov- ernment authorised the payment of £5 to 1.5 million people entitled to a cold weath- er heating allowance. Six hundred passen- gers were stranded overnight in unheated trains in Kent, and in Bodmin Crown Court officials asked the local job centre for volunteers after snow-bound jurors had failed to arrive. A military transporter allegedly carrying nuclear weapons skid- ded on ice and overturned in a field in Wiltshire, but there was no leakage of radioactive material. Part of the mechan- ism of Big Ben froze, and in Blyth six men were arrested on suspicion of burgling a supermarket after police had followed their tracks in the snow. The Shadow Cabinet convened in a mansion near Bishops Stortford, afterwards announcing that a future Labour Government would spend £6 billion in order to cut unemploy- ment by one million. Mr Kinnock indicated that the money would be aimed particular- ly at the 'continent of unemployment' in the north. A decision by the Ministry of Defence to put an area of the Kenyan coast, where Aids is rife, out of bounds to British soldiers training in the country angered and upset the Kenyan govern- ment. After press speculation, Prince Ed- ward announced that he was leaving the Royal Marines, though not for physical reasons. The chairman of Guinness, Mr Ernest Saunders, stood down until the results of the investigation into the com- pany's affairs are known. Mr Olivier Roux, Guinness's finance director, resigned.
IRAN began a new offensive in the Gulf war, launching an amphibious attack on the Iraqi port of Basra. Iraq bombed Iranian cities. The New York Times ac- cused the Reagan administration of sup- plying disinformation to both sides in the conflict. White House officials succeeded in leaking the Senate report which clears President Reagan of any knowledge of the Contra link in the Iranian arms scandal, but another White House memorandum made public showed that the President had approved of the arms deal in order to secure the release of hostages held in Lebanon. A report from the Senate select committee on intelligence suggested that the original idea to divert money from the arms sale to the Contras came from Mr Shimon Peres, the former Israeli Prime Minister. As Congress began to debate the granting of aid to the Contras, the American-backed rebels started a nell military campaign in northern Nicaragua and three American warships began MO oeuvres off Central America. Terry Wolfe returned to Beirut in a further attempt t° secure the release of European hostages' but another hostage, a Frenchman, Wes kidnapped, just after taking a photogroP" of Mr Waite. Railwaymen and other stoic' ers in France began to drift back to woric. The French government said it would not increase its military role in Chad, despite the escalation of the civil war there. PI hundred black students in China marched in protest against racial prejudice. In South Africa, half the black miners employed in a mine owned by Gencor resigned. On the Costa Brava Salvador Dali had his hair cut for the first time for four years. RIM
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