22 AUGUST 1987, Page 4

PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK

Mr Douglas Hurd, the Home Secret- ary, announced a special police investiga- tion of fresh evidence on the conviction of four people for the 1974 Woolwich and Guildford pub bombings. Mr James Shar- pies, the deputy chief constable for Avon and Somerset is to examine information including evidence confirming the alibis of two of the convicted. Police discovered a large cache of explosives, grenades and rifles, thought to be destined for an Arab terrorist campaign, in a flat in Hull. The arms were found during the hunt for a gunman who attempted to assassinate Mr Ali Naji al-Adhami, the political cartoon- ist, in London last month. Lord Bridge described the Law Lords' blanket ban on Peter Wright's Spycatcher as 'a significant step down the very dangerous road to censorship'. British Airways decided to update its short-haul fleet with a £500 million order for 11 American-built Boeing 767s, in preference to the European Air- bus. Barclays Bank agreed to sponsor the Football League with £5 million over the next three years. The managing director of the Knightsbridge Deposit Centre was arrested by police investigating the £40 million robbery at the centre last month. Share prices fell by a further £12 billion. The BBC rejected four episodes of the Miami Vice series because they were too violent. The Amadeus Quartet is to be disbanded after 40 years of concerts follow- ing the death of the violist Peter Schidlof. Nine-year-old John Adams became the youngest person to pass Maths 'A' level.

MR CHARLES Glass, a regular contribu- tor to the Spectator, flew back to London after escaping from his kidnappers in Beirut. Mr Glass, who had been a prisoner for 62 days, locked in his captors before taking a taxi to the Summerland Hotel, from where he was driven to Damascus by the Syrian Army. Rudolf Hess, the last surviving Nazi leader, died aged 93 in the British Military Hospital, West Berlin, after 46 years' imprisonment, the last 26 in solitary confinement. A British captain, Mr Gerry Blackburn, and his crew were killed when the supply ship Anita was blown to pieces by a mine in the Gulf of Oman. Iranian Revolutionary Guards in fast patrol boats fired rocket-propelled grenades at a Liberian-flagged tanker in the Gulf of Oman. Four British minehun- ters left Rosyth for the Gulf, and American minesweeping helicopters arrived oft Bahrain on the assault ship Guadalcanal- The Soviet ambassador in London, Mr Leonard Zamyatin, handed over a letter on the Gulf from Mr Gorbachev to Mrs Thatcher. President Jayewardene of Sri Lanka survived an assassination attemPt. President Reagan told the American peo- ple that he accepted overall responsibility for the Irangate affair, but denied ever knowing of the diversion of Iranian arms profits to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. At least 154 people died when a Northwest Orient MD-80 crashed onto a main road on take off from Detroit airport. Thousands of South Korean workers clashed with riot police in the industrial city of Ulsan. In Saudi Arabia, 28 Britons were held in Jedda after police raided a party where alcohol was being consumed. The tenth anniversary of Elvis Presley's death was celebrated with torchlight processions to the singer's Memphis mansion. Mr Daniel Canelairo is suing a Los Angeles bank after a booby-trapped bundle of money he had stolen exploded in his pocket. His lawyer said Mr Canelairo felt strongly that 'a bank should not be putting these bombs in their