PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Alice in Lottery Land — the Caucus Race Mr John Major, the Prime Minister, invited President Carlos Menem of Argentina to visit Britain. They had held talks in New York about oil and fishing rights around the Falkland Islands, over which the two countries fought a war 13 years ago. Seven brands of contraceptive pills were said by the Government's Com- mittee on Safety of Medicines to carry risks of thrombosis; a helpline was set up for the thousands of women worried by the news. All this set Labour the task of hunting an issue with which to embarrass the Govern- ment. It was said that Dr Kenneth Calman, the Government's Chief Medical Officer, had not approved the publication of the information; he said he had. Dr Jack Cun- ningham was voted off the shadow Cabinet; Miss Clare Short was voted on. Mr Jack Straw, the shadow Home Secretary, went into hiding after he was trounced in the Commons by Mr Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, in a debate on his running of the prison service. The Audit Commis- sion said there were not enough police on the streets because of inefficient manage- ment. More than 80,000 sandwiches from a factory that makes them for Marks & Spencer were destroyed lest they contained salmonella germs. An inquiry found that children in a Northumberland children's home had been abused during a period of 20 years. More than 400 Gurkhas are to be given jobs in the infantry which is short of good recruits. Sir Kingsley Amis, the novel- ist, died, aged 73. Gavin Ewart, the poet, died, aged 79. It was windy in many parts.
PRESIDENT BILL Clinton of the United States and President Boris Yeltsin of Rus- sia were pictured laughing and back-slap- ping after talks about how to bring peace to Bosnia; but they did not resolve how Rus- sian troops could be deployed there, since they refuse to come under command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Mr Yeltsin had earlier said he was going to sack his Foreign Minister, Mr Andrei Kozyrev; then he said he wouldn't. Mr Willy Claes resigned as the secretary-gener- al of Nato when his Belgian parliamentary immunity was lifted so that he could face corruption charges. A European Commis- sion report said that a single currency would generate ten million jobs; a report from members of the European Parliament said that a single currency would destroy ten million jobs. The Canadian dollar fell sharply at the prospect of next week's refer- erendum in Quebec leading to its secession. Two large oil depots in Colombo were set on fire by Tamil Tiger guerrillas; this prompted violence between Singhalese ad Tamils. The ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi Party won the Zanzibar elections after police beat up opposition supporters. A bomb at a Saudi Arabian mosque killed six. Mexican police arrested Fernando Yanez Munoz, known as Comandante German, a leader of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, who seems to have been wandering around Mexico City with an AK-47 rifle. A total eclipse of the sun, visible from Iran to Indonesia, sent millions of Indians into their homes with the shutters up. There was a smallish earthquake in south-western Yunan in China. A Russian circus returned home after being stranded in the Philip- pines for seven months when it ran out of money.
CSH
Previous page
