PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
. for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part . .
Afreight train caught fire in the Chan- nel Tunnel about 12 miles from France, causing damage but no deaths. Shares in Eurotunnel fell. Labour unexpectedly undertook to hold a referendum before committing Britain to joining a single Euro- pean currency. This seemed to make Labour and Conservative policies on Europe much the same. Headline inflation rose to 2.9 per cent; Mr John Major, the Prime Minister, expressed frustration in the House of Commons when Mr Tony Blair, the Leader of the Opposition, refused to accept that the figure was unusually high because a year ago it was unusually low. The Treasury gathered more taxes than expected in October, giving the Chancellor a chance to make a small cut in taxes in his Budget next week if he wants. Mr William Waldegrave, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, claimed that Labour spending pledges would cost the nation an extra £30 billion. A man was paid £30,000 out of court by the Borough of Richmond upon Thames after he claimed that a school there was to blame for his having been bul- lied as a boy. British arms manufacturers won a £500 million contract to sell aircraft and armoured vehicles to Qatar. British air- craft builders failed to secure a contract to supply a new generation of fighter aircraft jointly to the United States and Britain. The Stone of Scone was returned to Scot- land 700 years after it was removed by Edward I. It snowed in many parts. Camelot the Lottery organiser's half-yearly profits fell from £36 million to £32 million. The Duchess of York made a series of ever more embarrassing interviews culminating in a television conversation with Ruby Wax during which she claimed she had been changed into another person by taking slimming drugs, the toxic effects of which she had now cleared with a drink made from raw asparagus, spinach, watercress and celery. A special service for homosexu- als was held in Southwark Cathedral. Women are to be allowed to box in ama- teur matches.
MANY thousands of Hutu people left refugee camps in eastern Zaire and walked home to Rwanda; it seemed that they had been allowed to make a move by Hutu mili- tias controlling them. At the same time Tutsi rebel forces claimed victory over members of the Interahamwe Hutu militia, a proportion of whom, along with unknown numbers of Hutu civilians, then disap- peared into the forests deeper within Zaire. An international force under United Nations auspices, including British troops, reviewed what to do. The United States reiterated its opposition to the reappoint- ment of Mr Boutros Boutros-Ghali as sec- retary-general of the UN. A Russian space- ship bound for Mars with millions of pounds worth of international equipment aboard spun out of course and crashed into the Pacific. In Dagestan a bomb under a nine-storey block of flats housing the fami- lies of Russian soldiers killed more than 50. President Fidel Castro met the Pope at the Vatican and invited him to visit Cuba. Pres- ident Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus is to seek wider powers in a referendum next week. The New Aspiration Party won the Thai elections, but not by an overall majori- ty. Sao Paulo elected a black mayor for the first time. Egypt has sold most of Al- Ahram, its only brewing company, to an international consortium. Students rioted in Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana. Alger Hiss, who was probably a spy for Russia, died, aged 92. Hindus in Bangalore continued to protest against the Miss World contest and one man burnt himself to death, but a court ruled that the pageant could go ahead if a civil servant monitored it to ensure that no contestants 'indulged in obscenity and nudity', and that no alcohol was on sale.
CSH
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