PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
An IRA bomb at Royal Army Educa- tional Corps offices in south London in- jured seven civilians. Michael Heseltine, commonly regarded as wishing to lead the Conservative Party, called for the poll tax to be banded, so the rich pay more. Norman Lamont, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, warned that money to subsidise poll tax would have to be met by cuts elsewhere. Margaret Thatcher told Con- servatives in Scotland that her policies needed to be taken further and that a woman's work was never done. Enoch Powell called for Conservative votes at the next election. Inflation was announced to be running at 9.4 per cent, the highest for eight years. The inquiry began into the crash of a Boeing aircraft on the M1 last year. More than 30 young Chinese suppor- ters of democracy went into hiding to avoid deportation to their country. A Siamese cat living in Bristol was found to have a feline version of mad cow disease; and five local education authorities took beef off their schools' menus. Robert Maxwell's new newspaper, the European, was laun- ched. The European Football Authority agreed to delay its decision whether to admit English clubs to compete in Europe until after everyone had seen how their fans behaved during the World Cup. Inci- dents of fake social workers attempting to examine children reached more than 40, and police launched a cross-country cam- paign to find them. Oil from Iran, which had poured into the English Channel from a damaged tanker, came ashore on the South Devon coast. A deadly puff-adder was thought to be hiding in a Colchester drain after emerging from a supermarket package.
ALBANIA announced political and eco- nomic reforms, including the issue of pass- ports. Latvia and Estonia sent a joint telegram to President Gorbachev asking for talks. He responded by declaring they had violated the Soviet constitution. De- monstrations in Paris — attended by Presi- dent Mitterrand — and southern France expressed support for Jews, after a Jewish cemetery was desecrated and a man's corpse impaled on a parasol shaft. The appeal began in Tel Aviv of the man alleged to be 'Ivan the Terrible', sentenced to death for war crimes. More than 500 were reported to have died in a cyclone which hit the east coast of India and made a million homeless. Edwina Currie arrived in Rumania as part of a British group monitoring elections there. A British lorry driver, Paul Ashwell, charged with trans- porting part of Iraq's alleged super-gun was released on bail in Greece. Pre- emptive strikes against terrorists were re- commended by a US Commission investi- gating the Lockerbie air disaster. Protes- ters demonstrated with petrol bombs in the Philippines against American military faci- lities there. Around 10,000 students fought riot police in central Seoul in an anti- government demonstration. Peking freed 211 people jailed for taking part in pro- democracy demonstrations last year; 431 are still in prison. Nicaraguan government workers struck for a 200 per cent wage rise; some carried pistols. A Japanese buyer paid £50 million for a Van Gogh painting at an auction in New York. The development of a mouthpiece which cures snoring was announced in Colorado. SB
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