PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Much to the surprise of those who have campaigned for years on behalf of the so-called 'Guildford Four', the Director of Public Prosecutions said that it would be `wrong for the Crown to seek to sustain the convictions' of the people imprisoned 15 years ago for bombing a public house in Guildford; their release is expected to follow a hearing in open court. As the Conservative Party conference ended, dis- comfort over a poor showing in the opinion polls and the elevation of the inflation rate to 7.6 per cent appeared to subside. After a ballot of members the Social and Liberal Democrats changed their 'working-name' from Democrats to Liberal Democrats. Mr Michael Foot, a former leader of the Labour Party, announced that he would be stepping down from Parliament at the next general election. The Health Secretary, Mr Kenneth Clarke, gave details of the new contract for family doctors which he in- tends to impose on them from next April; the contract means that doctors must be available to their patients for at least 26 hours a week and- obliges them to make annual home visits to all people over 75. Anglo-Irish relations were put under con- siderable strain when legal authorities in Dublin said that they would not bring charges against Patrick Ryan, the sus- pended former priest. Archaeologists said that they had found part of the remains of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre four feet beneath a former brewery car park in Southwark. Religious services were held to mark the 1,000th day of captivity of the Archbishop of Canterbury's special envoy Mr Terry Waite. Mr Nick Faldo won the Suntory matchplay golf championship at Wentworth and promptly gave away his £100,000 prize to children's charities.
AN EARTHQUAKE measuring around 6.9 on the Richter scale struck San Francis- co and the bay area of Northern California, causing extensive damage and killing an estimated 250 people. A sharp drop in prices on the New York stock exchange the second worst in its history — sent stock markets all over the world into a state of frenzy. Up to 100,000 East Germans mar- ched in protest through the streets of Leipzig, now established as the centre for protest against the government of Herr Erich Honecker. Mr Walter Sisulu and other top black nationalist leaders — most of whom have served sentences of more than 25 years — were released from prison in South Africa. The Commonwealth heads of government meeting began in Kuala Lumpur; it seemed that some of the heat of the question over sanctions against South Africa had evaporated since the last meeting. In what is believed to have been the first Christian service to have taken place in the Kremlin since 1918, Orthodox priests were permitted to cele- brate the 400th anniversary of their patriar- chate in the Uspensky Cathedral. As part of the campaign to save the Africa°, elephant, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species agreed to. a two-year ban on the trade of ivory; five. southern African states said, however, that they would exempt themselves from the Russian decision. An appeal court in Sweden. unanimously overturned the conviction 0. Mr Carl Pettersson, previously found g.inl" ty of the murder of the former minister Mr Olof Palme. The Soviet politi- cian Boris Yeltsin appeared, dripping-wet' at a Moscow police station saying had been thrown into a river with a sack had his head by unidentified people; a little later he denied the whole storY- General Galtieri, the former Argenilinall, dictator, was released from prison. Cane' Wilde, the film actor, died, aged 74. that hke
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