PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Hot Blair balloon
Mr Malcolm Rifkind, the Foreign Secretary, in a speech on the 50th anniver- sary of Churchill's at Zurich, said that the introduction of a single currency would split the European Union. Mr Douglas Hogg, the Agriculture Minister, made scant progress in trying to persuade his European opposite numbers that fewer British cows need be slaughtered to halt the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Mr Stephen Byers, a Labour spokesman on employment, denied that his party would make a break with trade unions if there were troublesome strikes when it came to power; reports to the contrary had followed a dinner shared by Mr Byers and political reporters from four newspapers at the New Seafood Restaurant in Blackpool during the Trade Unions Congress. Mr Kim Howells, a Labour spokesman on trade and industry, wrote that the term 'socialist' should be 'humanely phased out' as a description of his party. Mr Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, the political face of the Irish Republican Army, was given permission to launch his autobiography in a room in the Palace of Westminster at the invitation of Mr Jeremy Corbyn, a Labour MP. A man in Belfast was shot dead by Direct Action Against Drugs, a branch of the IRA. The
Revd Roderick Wright, aged 56, resigned as the Catholic Bishop of Argyll and the Isles after disappearing with a 40-year-old divorcee. Cardinal Basil Hume, the Arch- bishop of Westminster, said that society was obsessed by sex: 'People are being given false promises of what makes for human happiness.' Tesco's made a half- yearly pre-tax profit of £326 million, an increase of 10 per cent, confirming it as the biggest food retailer in Britain. A French- man, Arsene Wenger, was made manager of Arsenal. Police shot dead three cows that repeatedly strayed onto the Al at Balderton in Nottinghamshire.
MR WILLIAM Perry, the United States Defence Secretary, visited Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Turkey to rally sup- port for America in its argument with Iraq; he then flew to London to talk to British and French ministers. He was given enthu- siastic support only by Kuwait and Britain. Iraq said it was suspending attacks on US aeroplanes flying over its territory; the United States is sending 5,000 extra troops to Kuwait. Mr Alia Izetbegovic received enough votes in the Bosnian elections in theory to lead the three-man rotating pres- idency; the other members of the presiden- cy would be the main Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat candidates. The Islamic army called the Taliban captured Jalalabad in Afghanistan and once again threatened Kabul. President Farooq Leghari of Pak- istan denied that the army would have to step in to restore order to his country. Moroccans voted by 10 million to 50,000 to adopt a new constitution allowing for a directly elected chamber of parliament. The opposition Islamic Salvation Front was not invited to talks about multi-party elections next year in Algeria. US and Canadian troops were sent to guard the President of Haiti from members of his palace guard who are feared to be seeking his life. A Bill was introduced into the Canadian parliament allowing companies to countersue if they are damaged by the American Helms-Burton Act, which pro- hibits foreign dealings in Cuba that make use of former US property. Mr Umberto Bossi, the leader of the Northern League, declared in Venice that northern Italy was now the independent country of Padania. Princess Stephanie of Monaco is to divorce Daniel Ducruet to whom she has been married for 14 months. Spiro T. Agnew, Nixon's vice president and scourge of liber- als, died, aged 77. Finland's annual head- line inflation rate fell to 0.4 per cent. CSH
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