PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Police in London seized a van containing a 300lb IRA bomb believed to be destined for an attack on the West End, but five people arrested in connection with the find were later released without charge. The Government and City were cheered by news that June had seen the biggest month- ly fall in retail prices for 25 years. However, this news followed hard on figures showing that unemployment had risen to a five-year high and also coincided with several gloomy surveys of Britain's economic prospects and a report from the Bank of England that one million households are burdened with a mortgage that is now greater than the value of their home. Lord Justice Bingham, author of the official but, as yet, unpub- lished report into the collapse last year of the Bank of Credit and Commerce Interna- tional, is to be the new Master of the Rolls on the retirement of Lord Donaldson. Two children died on board the Swansea to Cork ferry, Celtic Pride, apparently suffo- cated by sewage fumes that leaked into their cabin. A seven-month-old girl who was kidnapped in East London by a bogus child-minder was recovered in the Irish Republic two days later, safe and well. Nigel Mansell clinched the Formula One
motor-racing world championship when he came second in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Lady 'Bubbles' Rothermere, the famous socialite and estranged wife of the newspa- per proprietor, Viscount Rothermere, died aged 63 at her villa on the French Riviera. Mr Tommy Nutter, the Savile Row tailor, who in the 1960s helped to pioneer flared trousers and wide lapels, died of Aids in London, aged 49. Joe Quigley of Australia, the Heavyweight Highland Games champi- on, was banned from the sport for life after he failed a drugs test. Arsenal football club is to have a giant mural redesigned because none of the 8,000 fans it depicts is either black or a woman.
THE PRIME MINISTER, Mr John Major, broke off his Spanish holiday to chair a meeting of senior ministers that considered the situation in Bosnia and the plight of the Shias of Southern Iraq, who are under attack from Saddam Hussein. As a result of the meeting, Britain is to take part with the United States and France in an air exclu- sion zone over Southern Iraq, in which Iraqi aircraft will be liable to interception and destruction. The ministers also decided to offer the United Nations the use of up to
1,800 British troops to protect its humani- tarian aid convoys in Bosnia. In Bosnia itself heavy fighting continued despite the agreement to hold a peace conference in London next week, and UN relief flights to Sarajevo were again suspended after an RAF Hercules was menaced by anti-air- craft missiles while on a mission to the city. In Houston, Texas, President George Bush was formally nominated as the Republican Presidential candidate; earlier Mr James Baker had resigned as Secretary of State to take charge of the President's campaign in an attempt to reverse the Democrats' sub- stantial lead in the opinion polls. Canada, Mexico and the United States agreed to the creation of a North American Free Trade Area of 360 million consumers. The United States airforce started a massive airlift of food to Somalia, where 350,000 people have already starved to death. The reclusive film star and director, Woody Allen, admit- ted that he was having an affair with an adopted Korean-born daughter of Mia Far- row, his former partner, but angrily denied that he had abused their son, Satchel, or their adopted daughter, over whom he is embroiled in a custody battle with M iss
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