PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Ater six years the Government lifted the ban on broadcasting the voices of Sinn Fein's leaders. Sinn Fein's leader, Mr Gerry Adams, initially responded by saying noth- ing, but later in the week he emerged to call Mr Major a `toinfool'. The Prime Min- ister, John Major, announced that the peace process was likely to end with a refer- endum for the people of Northern Ireland to decide the future of the province. The case against a man accused of murdering a young mother on Wimbledon Common two years ago collapsed when the judge ruled that evidence presented by the prosecution was inadmissible. It emerged that an under- cover policewoman had befriended the accused, Colin Stagg, and had written masochistic murderous fantasies to him in a vain attempt to provoke a confession. The Liberal Democrats began their conference in Brighton by boasting that they would increase taxes if the electorate should ever return them to power. Delegates also voted to legalise cannabis. Meanwhile a yacht thought to be carrying two tons-worth of the drug sank off the coast of North York- shire before police could seize it. The two sides in the signalman's strike, Railtrack and the RMT union, finally decided to start talking to each other again. Nursing Unions demanded an 8.3 per cent pay rise, 6 per cent above the rate of inflation. The Euro- pean Court of Human Rights ruled that former Guinness Chairman Ernest Saun- ders had his human rights infringed while he was being investigated for insider deal- ing seven years ago. However it wisely decided that Mohamed Fayed had no case against the Department of Trade. It was announced that the universities, recently the subject of a vast expansion scheme, have been left with 7,000 empty places for the forthcoming academic year. Authorities in Bournemouth announced they are to designate a beach for non-smokers only. The economist and philosopher, Karl Pop- per, died in Croydon, aged 92.
PRESIDENT CLINTON kept threatening to invade the Caribbean nation of Haiti with the aim of removing the military junta from power and restoring the leadership of the elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aris- tide. Former American president Jimmy Carter was sent to Haiti to negotiate. A few hours before the threatened invasion the junta cheated the hangman by resigning and American troops landed without chal- lenge. Outbreaks of fighting disturbed the ceasefire in Sarajevo. John Major became the first British Prime Minister to visit South Africa since 1960. The people of Hong Kong went to the polls for the first time to elect 346 members of their District Boards, which administrate such things as bus timetables and rubbish collections. China has promised to end these elections when it regains control of the colony in 1997. A Chinese soldier went on the ram- page with an assault rifle in Peking, killing eight people including an Iranian diplomat. The German Social Democratic Party announced that it would use 'Land Of Hope And Glory' in its election broadcasts. Second world war veterans travelled to the Netherlands to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Arnhem. The most senior surviving officer, General Sir John Hackett, was unfortunately injured in a car accident close to where he had been injured exactly 50 years before. The German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, refused to pardon 30,000 sol- diers who were executed for deserting the German army during the second world war. The City of Moscow announced that its health and safety inspectors now have the power to paint a large white cross on the doors of restaurants which fail to come up to standard. The American `superbowl' baseball finals were cancelled because the players were on strike. The former tennis player Vitus Gerulaitis died aged 40. Almost all news reporters decided he had succumbed to his drug problem until a faulty gas heater was found to be to blame.
RJC
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