PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Mr John Major, the Prime Minister paved the way for the weekend EEC summit by meeting M. Mitterrand, the French President, in Dunkirk. He obtained assurances that Britain would not be rushed into assenting to a federal Europe, a course favoured by the absurdly named M. Jacques Poos, the foreign minister of Luxembourg, which holds the presidency of the EEC at the moment. But Britain was isolated when Mr Norman Lamont, the Chancellor, refused to accept a political accord setting a minimum of 15 per cent for VAT in the European Community. Dust- men in Liverpool stopped their work to rule after ten weeks, but then argued about terms for clearing up the backlog of rub- bish. The Liverpool MP Mr Frank Field was reselected as a prospective Labour candidate when a previous far-left vote to turn him out was reversed. Millions of television viewers saw Mr Albert Dryden shoot dead a council official supervising the demolition of his bungalow in Co. Durham by a bulldozer. Mr Robert Evans, the chairman of British Gas, took a 66 per cent pay rise, taking his salary to £370,083, and Mr John Baker, the chief executive of National Power saw his pay rise by 58.8 per cent to £135,000. Mr Major commented in Parliament: 'I do not believe excessive salary increases are right.' Local radio channels backed by religious organisations, with advertisements asking for funds, are to be allowed by the Radio Authority. Westminster City Council began negotia- tions to buy back three cemeteries it sold for 15p. Mrs Thatcher's `neo-Georgian' Barratt home in Dulwich was put on the market at £675,000. Monica Seles, the number-one women's seed, pulled out of Wimbledon, the first day of which was lost to rain, as was most of the fourth and fifth day of the Lord's Test, which ended in a draw against the West Indies. Gerald Priestland the broadcaster died at the age of 64. Two hair-covered Mexican boys, known as the Werewolf Kids were banned from performing at the Blackpool Tower circus.
YUGOSLAV federal authorities ordered troops to seal the boarders of Slovenia when it, and the neighbouring republic of Croatia, declared their independence. The German parliament voted for Berlin to be restored as the capital of the united coun- try. India gained its tenth Prime Minister, Mr Pamulaparti Venkata Narasimha Rao. Elections in the Punjab were postponed indefinitely following sustained violence by nationalist terrorists. Setior Pablo Escobar, the reputed controller of the Medellin cocaine cartel gave himself up in Colombia after a government vote to disallow ex- tradition. He was taken to a specially built prison. A film was screened on television in Israel showing how Israeli agents infil- trated Palestinian groups in the occupied territories. It had been passed by military authorities. The newly elected President of the Russian Republic, Mr Boris Yeltsin, visited the United States, where he was told by President Bush that he wanted to continue to have close relations with the Soviet government of Mr Gorbachev. The United States and Britain discussed plans for the formation of a rapid deployment force to guarantee the safety of Kurds in northern Iraq. Martial law was lifted in Kuwait. The Nasa space agency claimed that a 4,800-mile-long cloud emanating from the volcano, Mount Pinatubo, in the Philippines could reverse the greenhouse effect. So far more than 300 people have died and 250,000 fled their homes during the eruption. A ceasefire was agreed in Cambodia. Experts were puzzled to find that the Tower of Pisa had straightened up by a tenth of an inch. CSH
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