PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Divorced royals' reunion dinner Buckingham Palace confirmed that the Duke and Duchess of York are to separate after only five years of marriage. The Queen's press secretary, Charles Anson, apologised to Her Majesty and the Duchess for an off the record talk criticising the Duchess which led to press reports headed 'The knives are out for Fergie'. Margaret Thatcher was called in from the cold by Conservative campaign managers worried by the defensive tone of their campaign so far to make a keynote speech denouncing socialism. A voter then struck her with a bunch of daffodils. John Major attempted to sound more decisive. Neil Kinnock attempted, with some success, to shift the campaign agenda on to the NHS. He was attacked for a Labour election broadcast on health, which Tory spokesmen described as 'reminiscent of pre-war Nazi Germany'. Paddy Ashdown criticised both parties from the moral high ground. Unemployment was found to have increased for the 22nd time in succession in February. The inflation rate remained unchanged at 4.1 per cent. Robert Evans, chairman of British Gas, was found to have had a 17.6 per cent pay increase in 1991 to £435,222 a year despite a drop in profits. Lawyers' fees incurred by Kevin and Ian Maxwell, estimated at £900,000, for enquiries into their father's missing millions were found to have been paid by their mother. The NFU called for grants for farmers looking after the coun- tryside. The RSPCA reported a record in the number of cases of cruelty to animals it dealt with last year. The Commission for Racial Equality was accused of racism towards its own staff. The satirical maga- zine, Punch, announced it is to close next month after 151 years. Professor Friedrich von Hayek, a British citizen since 1938 and author of The Road to Serfdom died in Ger- many aged 92. England lost by 22 runs to Pakistan in the cricket World Cup final. Ian Botham and Graham Gooch walked out of a pre-match dinner in Melbourne when a female impersonator insulted the Queen. A new study claimed that men who eat less fatty food and reduce their risk of heart attacks only increase their risk of death through depression.
IN SOUTH AFRICA Nelson Mandela, president of the ANC, called for a govern- ment of national unity to be formed within months, and President de Klerk revealed proposals for an interim multi-racial gov- ernment. The unity of the Commonwealth of Independent States looked increasingly fictional after a summit meeting failed to reach agreement on the crucial division of the former Soviet arms, forces and fleet, of which the Ukraine wants a substantial
share. The people of Tatarstan voted for independence from the Russian Federa- tion. A radio-active leak at a nuclear reac- tor near St Petersburg was classified as a 'serious incident', rasing fears of a second Chernobyl. In east Germany 600,000 applied to see their secret Stasi files. Chile asked Erich Honecker, the former commu- nist leader of East Germany, to leave its Moscow embassy. Iraq claimed it would destroy its remaining Scud missiles and make full disclosures of its other weapon factories. Colonel Gaddafi of Libya offered to hand over the two suspects in the Lockerbie bombing case to the Arab League. In Albania the opposition Demo- cratic Party won control, ending almost 50 years of communist rule. In France the rul- ing Socialist Party had a crushing defeat in regional elections, gaining less than 20 per cent of the vote: the National Front took 12 per cent. Over 80 died as Turkish troops clashed with Kurdish separatists in south- east Turkey. Rangoon troops were on the verge of taking the headquarters of Karen rebels in Manerplaw, eastern Burma. Around 60 died and 6,000 were made homeless as tribal violence swept over west- ern Kenya. Eight were killed in artillery shelling in Bosnia-Hercegovina. At least 26 died when a passenger jet crashed as it left
New York in a blizzard. SB
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