PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Suggestions to the IRA on what to do with decommissioned weapons Miss Harriet Hannan, Labour's shad- ow Health Secretary, said she was sending one of her sons to a selective grammar school in Kent. This put the cat among the pigeons, with Tory MPs pouncing on the inconsistency of her decision and Labour's policy of opposing selection in schooling, and left many Labour colleagues embar- rassed or critical. Mr Peter Hain, a Labour Whip, said in a letter to the Guardian that `a decent educational system with high standards for all . . . won't be achieved unless the professional classes, MPs includ- ed, send their children to local comprehen- sives'. Mr Gerald Steinberg resigned as chairman of Labour's backbench education committee. In an unconnected develop- ment, Mr Patrick Jephson, the private sec- retary to the Princess of Wales, also resigned, as did her chauffeur and another personal assistant. And, in an even less connected development, Miss Alexandra `Tiggy' Legge-Bourke, a personal assistant to the Prince of Wales, got her solicitors to write to the Princess's solicitors complaining of allegedly false allegations allegedly made by the Princess about her. Mr Paddy Ashdown, the leader of the Social Democrat Party, said he believed in 'partnership politics' — the partnership in prospect apparently being with the Labour Party. The commission on Northern Ireland headed by Senator George Mitchell recommended that the Irish Republican Army and other terrorist groups should be allowed to start decom- missioning weapons after all-party talks begin, not before as Britain has insisted; they must also commit themselves to `democratic and exclusively peaceful means'. The Government promised a White Paper on British relations with the European Community. The brothers Messrs Ian and Kevin Maxwell and Mr Larry Trachtenburg were acquitted of con- spiracy and fraud charges on the 131st day of a trial that cost £20 million or more. Granada won its £3.8 billion takeover bid against Forte.
A MASS grave was found at Brcko in north-eastern Bosnia by a Daily Telegraph foreign correspondent; the dead were non-Serbs. Mr John Shattuck, the United States Assistant Secretary of State, said, after touring sites of mass graves in eastern Bosnia: 'The evidence that has been compiled is very clear of mass execu- tions in the area.' The war crimes tribunal under Judge Richard Goldstone requested Ifor, the peace implementation force under North Atlantic Treaty Organisation con- trol, to help guard the graves, but Ifor troops had enough on their hands keeping apart the opposing factions who were still alive. Hillary, the wife of President Bill Clinton of the United States, was ordered to give evidence to a grand jury about a company called Whitewater which became involved in investment losses. Mr Yasser Arafat won about 88.1 per cent of the poll when more than a million Palestinians voted for a president for the first time. The new Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto, said he was against protection- ist economic policies. The Pan-Hellenist Socialist Party of Greece chose Mr Costas Simitis as its new Prime Minister. A former socialist interior minister of Spain, Jose Barrionuevo, was prosecuted on charges involving the killing of Basque separatists. Spain offered citizenship to foreigners who fought on the Republican side, which lost the Civil War of 1936-9. N.T. Rama Rao, the Indian film star and politician, died, aged 72. Gerry Mulligan, the baritone jazz saxophonist, died, aged 68. A state of emer- gency was declared in southern Argentina after forest fires had burned for a week. Six counties of Pennsylvania were declared a disaster area after floods. China is to charge tuition fees for all university stu- dents. Shanghai authorities claimed that they had practically succeeded in eradicat- ing the wooden chamberpot. There was a gold rush north of Hanoi. CSH
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