PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
No more Mr Nice Guys! British fish fight back! Mr John Major, the Prime Minister, spent 25 minutes on the telephone to Presi- dent Bill Clinton of the United States after a week in which their relationship had suf- fered from Mr Clinton's friendly treatment of Mr Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein. Mr Rupert Pennant-Rea resigned as deputy governor of the Bank of England because of some 'foolish mistakes' he made during an affair with someone called Miss Mary Ellen Synon. Mr Ed Wallis, the chief executive, of PowerGen told a Commons committee that he was paid £36,000 a year for four days' work as a non-executive director of three bodies, on top of his £300,000 salary. The Queen visited South Africa, where she made President Nelson Mandela an honorary member of the Order of Merit and invited him to visit Britain. The Child Support Agency had a history of `maladministration' which was 'an appalling story', according to Mr James Pawsey, the chairman of the Commons Select Commit- tee on the Ombudsman, which has pro- duced an unfavourable report on the agen- cy. Odette Hallowes, the resistance hero- ine, died, aged 82. Lord Lovat, the wartime commando, died, aged 83. Sir James Kil- fedder, the only Popular Unionist Member of Parliament, died in a train from Gatwick airport, aged 66. Ronnie Kray, the murder- er, died aged 61. A nine-year-old boy was crushed to death beneath his father's gar- den roller. Two bronze sculptures by Henry Moore standing in Mr Henry Keswick's estate near Dumfries were decapitated. About 58 per cent of the adult population was found to buy a lottery ticket each week; the launching of a new, instant scratchcard lottery was hampered by a computer break- ing down. England won the rugby Grand Slam. There were gales.
TURKEY SENT in 30,000 troops with tanks and aircraft to northern Iraq against Kurdish guerrillas. Fighting broke out between Bosnian government troops and Bosnian Serbs around Tusla. Ten died and more than 4,000 were injured in a poison gas attack on the Tokyo underground rail- way; the gas, thought to be Sarin, was let off in five separate locations. Japanese police said they had found suspicious con- tainers and 50 people comatose from mal- nutrition at a building occupied by a sect called Aum Shinrikyo, which believes the world will end in 1997. The United States dollar fell to a new low against the yen, at one stage dropping to 88.65. Two Ameri- cans who had strayed into Iraq from Kuwait were detained. In Rwanda, 22 prisoners died of suffocation in a grossly crowded police cell; more than 25,000 prisoners are being held on suspicion of crimes during last year's violence. In Burundi five people, including three Belgians, were shot dead. Two Jewish settlers were shot dead by Palestinians in Hebron. Rebels in Sierra Leone advanced on Freetown. President Clinton is to visit Moscow for VE Day. European Community finance ministers told Russia that if it wanted money from them it should behave better in Chechnya. A Russian returned to earth after spending 438 days in space. The Social Democrats took over from the Conservatives as the dominant party in the Finnish parliament. The state of Mississippi finally ratified the abolition of slavery.
CSH
Previous page
