PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
`We're going to have to give them to a laboratory. They cost a fortune in burgers and drink, and you can't train them to do anything.
In the Queen's birthday honours, knight- hoods went to Geoff Hurst, who had scored a hat trick during the 1966 World Cup final, to John Mortimer, David Hare and Ian Holm, from the theatre, but not to Richard Branson, which seemed to surprise Mr William Hague, the leader of the Opposi- tion, who had nominated him. Terry Pratchett, the successful fantasy writer, and Bruce Forsyth, the television game-show host, got OBEs; Peter Brook, the theatre director, became a Companion of Honour. Mr Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced the privatisation, which he preferred to call partnership with the private sector, of the Royal Mint, the Tote and air-traffic control. He also announced that budgets for government departments would be set for three years, instead of annually. Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, made a compact on consti- tutional reform with Mr Paddy Ashdown, the leader of the Social Democrats. Mr Blair also toured European capitals trying to gain support for his idea of a high-level group to debate the future of the communi- ty; European Union heads of government met in Cardiff around a table specially built for the day costing £50,000. Inflation rose to its highest for six years, at a headline rate of 4.2 per cent and an underlying figure of 3.2 per cent, as usual above the target set by the government of 2.5 per cent. Mem- bers of the National Union of Rail, Mar- itime and Transport Workers employed by London Underground went on strike for two days, disrupting travel in London for those who had not stayed at home to watch the World Cup. Catherine Cookson, the novelist, died, aged 91. Hammond Innes, the novelist, died, aged 84. Reginald Smyth, who under the pen name Reg Smythe drew the cartoon Andy Capp, died, aged 80. Sir David English, the former editor of the Daily Mail, died aged 68. A small tornado hit Lower Earley near Reading, Berkshire, destroying fences and blowing a small fir tree into a car. A lotion for psoriasis called Exorex went on sale in Britain developed from bananas which, it had been noticed, had been used by Zulus to treat skin complaints.
A NATO exercise code-named Determined Falcon was held over Macedonia and Albania, intended to persuade President Slobodan Milosevic to end military action against Albanians in the province of Koso- vo. From Britain six RAF Jaguar attack air- craft took part. Mr Milosevic then had a friendly meeting in Moscow with President Boris Yeltsin of Russia, and promised to stop 'repressive acts'. Thousands of refugees from Kosovo reached northern Albania where poor peasants had little to give them. - Ethiopian aircraft bombed a grain silo in Eritrea, but both countries undertook to refrain from aerial attack after telephone calls from President Bill Clinton of the United States. A cyclone devastated a coastal area of Gujerat, leaving hundreds dead and thousands of shacks in ruins; the survivors found little aid from the govern- ment. Mitsubishi is to pay $34 million com- pensation. to 350 women employees In America who complained of sexual harass- ment. Volkswagen, having bought Rolls- Royce, bid for Lamborghini. Compaq, the computer company, took over Digital, with the loss of 17,000 jobs. The 190 partners of Goldman Sachs voted to float the firm 00 the stock market; each will gain an estimat- ed £60 million. The Russian space station Mir began a slow descent in preparation for its destruction next year. A tram collided with a bus at a busy corner in Ekaterinburg, injuring 20. An Australian court found that a divorced mother's friends had between them, anorexia, agoraphobia, claustropho- bia, depression and an obsessive love °I cats, and so gave custody of her seven-year- old boy to his father, a homosexual. In China 11,265 miners died in accidents last year. CS0
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