PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, came to an agreement with Mr John Bru- ton, the outgoing Taoiseach of Ireland, to start a series of talks with Sinn Fein on decommissioning terrorist weapons in par- allel with the multi-party talks from which it has been excluded. Police prevented Orange Order marchers from following contentious routes through the villages of Bellaghy, Co. Londonderry, and Mount- field, Co. Tyrone. Diana, Princess of Wales, said she was sorry she had taken her sons, aged 15 and 12, to see The Devil's Own, a 15-rated American film about the Irish Republican Army. Mr William Hague (whose leadership of the Conservative party had been won by a vote of MPs of 92 to 70 for Mr Kenneth Clarke) chose a shad- ow Cabinet. Mr Clarke refused to serve; Mr Peter Lilley became shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Michael Howard shad- ow Foreign Secretary, Dr Brian Mawhinney shadow Home Secretary, Mr Stephen Dor- rell got Education and Employment, Sir George Young Defence, Mr John Red- wood Trade and Industry, Mr David Heathcoat-Amory became shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Lord Parkin- son was brought in from the cold to be party Chairman. Mr Jonathan Aitken dis-
continued his libel action against the Guardian and others after the defendants produced evidence that he had made false statements in court; Mr Aitken and his wife separated, he tendered his resignation from the Privy Council, and he was left with a bill for about £2 million. A consortium includ- ing Granada and Carlton was granted a licence to run a digital television network. Charles Kray, aged 70, the elder brother of the twins Reggie and Ronnie, was convict- ed of trying to sell £39 million-worth of cocaine and sentenced to 12 years in jail.
A SUMMIT in Denver, Colorado, of the G7 group of industrialised countries and Russia asked China to hold democratic elections in Hong Kong 'as soon as possi- ble', and called for a ban on the cloning of human beings. Britain gave permission for 509 Chinese troops to enter Hong Kong three hours before the colony is taken over at midnight on 30 June. At Denver Mr Blair dressed up as a cowboy at a party given by President Bill Clinton, then went off to another summit at the United Nations about environmental issues; he suggested that Britain could help save the world from overheating and from rising seas by lowering the VAT on loft insulation and raising taxes on motorists. In Israel, Mrs Limor Livnat, the communications minister, resigned from the coalition head- ed by Mr Benjamin Netanyahu a few days after the resignation of Mr Dan Meridor, the finance minister. Fighting between rival armies continued in the Republic of Congo; the Red Cross removed 100 bodies from the streets of Brazzaville until gunfire stopped them. Patriarch Alexy II of the Russian Orthodox Church cancelled a meeting with Pope John Paul in Austria because of friction between the two bodies of believers. Two bombs went off in Barcelona cathedral after it was evacuated during Mass. Four Algerians were convict- ed in Germany of trying to smuggle explo- sives to Islamic militants in Algeria. The United States Justice Department said that there were more prisoners than ever in jail — more than a million, and increasing by 56,000 a year. An American animal charity flew 30 cats and dogs from deserted houses in the island of Montserrat, where a vol- cano is erupting, to Florida. Jacques Cousteau, the underwater explorer, died, aged 87. In the Andes 1,000 lorry drivers were trapped by snow for a week between Argentina and Chile. CSH
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