PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
`Thank you, Mr Brooke, we'll let you know'.
Seven construction workers were blown up by the IRA as they journeyed home from work at an army barracks in Omagh, Northern Ireland. The IRA admitted mur- der, and threatened all similar civilian workers for security services. Peter Brooke, Northern Ireland Secretary, condemned the attack and then sang 'Oh My Darling Clementine' on a television show. Extra troops were sent in. Mr Brooke's offer of resignation was refused. The Treasury said the public sector had run up a £10.5 billion deficit in the first five months of the finan- cial year. Inflation had risen to 4.5 per cent in December, the Government's income for corporation tax and VAT had fallen below target, the volume of retail goods sold dropped by 1 per cent, and unemployment had reached over 2.5 million, its highest level for four years. The Employment Sec- retary said the last figure was encouraging. Nissan said it would need 600 more work- ers at its car assembly plant in Sunderland. Farmers' incomes were found to have fallen in 1991 to their lowest level, in real terms, since the second world war. The Police Federation asked for long, American-style batons to be issued after it was revealed that more than 700 police officers had been assaulted over Christmas and New Year. Labour and Conservative politicians con-
tinued to squabble over Labour's plans to charge more tax and the Conservative record of charging more tax. Water con- taining poisonous metals leaked from an old Cornish tin-mine into local creeks and rivers, damaging the water supply. It was announced that 1,100 jobs are to go at four Yorkshire coal-mines. A prehistoric ele- phant was found in Norfolk. Red Rum, 27, made a miraculous recovery from colic. The Whitbread Book of the Year award was won by John Richardson for A Life of Picasso. The 50th anniversary of Desert Island Discs was celebrated at the Reform Club. Lord Cheshire, VC, 74, spent half an hour on a ledge with his house ablaze behind him: he said it was 'one of life's lit- tle incidents'.
PRESIDENT Zviad Gamsakhurdia returned to Georgia and called Georgians to civil war against its ruling military coun- cil. After outbreaks of fighting, with light casualties, he was said to he asking for asy- lum in the West. President Yeltsin defend- ed the removal of subsidy from food prices, and promised action against monopolies and criminals attempting to profit from a free market. Mr Shamir, the Prime Minis- ter of Israel, prepared for elections after two right-wing parties resigned from his
coalition over his handling of Arab-Israeli peace negotiations. Mohammed Boudiaf returned to Algeria after 27 years of exile to become its new acting head of state and help establish a consultative assembly. Two border guards from the old East Germany were convicted for the manslaughter of the last victim of Erich Honecker's shoot-to-kill policy at the Berlin Wall. A soldier was shot dead and two policemen injured at a road- block by supporters of the fundamentalist Islamic party which had previously seemed likely to win power in Algeria. Serbia and Croatia began to negotiate over a new structure for the old state of Yugoslavia. Andreas Papandreou, former Socialist Prime Minister, was found not guilty of cor- ruption. Guerrilla leaders and President Cristiani signed a formal agreement to end El Salvador's 12-year civil war. A French airbus crashed in the Vosges mountains, killing 87 of 96 on board. Elizabeth Maxwell won an injunction in Paris banning the publication of photographs of her hus- band cut up on the autopsy slab. Mother Teresa left a Californian hospital after treatment for pneumonia and heart prob- lems. Hans van Wijk was let out of prison in Holland to marry a woman whose house he had previously rammed with a bulldozer because he saw her with another man. SB
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