PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Washington AC DC Some 20 of the 31 coal-mines earmarked for closure should be saved, according to an all-party Commons committee report leaked three days early. It recommended subsidisation of coal production for two years and a limit on new non-coal power stations. Mr Michael Heseltine, the Presi- dent of the Board of Trade, had earlier said that saving the mines would cost jobs else- where. The Prime Minister was plagued by ministers leaking their discontents, appar- ently in prospect of a forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle. Mr John MacGregor, the Trans- port Secretary, sketched out proposals for the partial privatisation of the railways. Mr Eddie George, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, was made its Governor, with Mr Rupert Pennant-Rea, till now the editor of the Economist, as his deputy. Interest rates were reduced to 6 per cent, the lowest for 15 years. Millions of pounds in the care of Lambeth council were said to have gone fraudulently missing. The Arch- bishop of York, Dr John Habgood, said that Prince Charles could one day be a per- fectly good head of the Church of England, but suggested that the Church itself might be disestablished. An army major forced to resign after his wife killed his mistress called on Prince Charles to follow suit for adultery with a brother officer. Allegations of a homosexual conspiracy among Scottish
judges were without foundation, according to an inquiry set up by the Lord Advocate. A mare in Hampshire was killed by an unknown assailant thought to be repsonsi- ble for the sexual mutilation of 30 others in the area. A 79-year-old widow was found to have piled in her home 6,941 items that she had stolen from shops, including 1,370 scarves, 418 hats, 278 items of bedding, 169 handbags, 47 suitcases, 32 sets of curtains, 20 carpets, 10 wigs and a fire-extinguisher. Pork chops with kidneys attached were out- lawed by the EEC.
THE United Nations Security Council called on Croatian forces to withdraw from Serb held areas in Croatia, known as the Krajina, which they had overrun in heavy fighting since the weekend. The UN also asked Serbs to surrender arms which they had taken from stores supposedly under UN control. France sent the aircraft carri- er, the Clemenceau, to the Adriatic after two French soldiers were killed in crossfire between Serbs and Croats. Lord Owen's peace talks were in tatters. The UN secre- tary General, Dr Boutros Boutros Ghali, was also busy telling the Security Council to take 'whatever means necessary' to make Israel take back in 400 Palestinians it had exiled to no man's land on the marches of Lebanon. The new American Secretary of
State, Mr Warren Christopher, said that the Security Council should be reformed and Japan and Germany taken on to it. A nominee of President Clinton's for Attor- ney General withdrew her candidature when it was revealed that she had employed illegal immigrants in her home. Mr Clinton went on to loosen abortion restriction, appoint his wife to an executive post and enrage military chiefs of staff by proposing that practising homosexuals should be admitted to the armed services. A US marine, the third, was shot dead in Mogadishu; 40 Somalis were killed in a US attack on a local warlord. President Daniel arap Moi suspended the Kenyan parlia- ment when disorder broke out following the first multi-party elections for 26 years. Mr Major joined in Indian celebrations for Republic Day. Javed Miandad was sacked as the captain of Pakistan's cricket team. A Pakistan Board spokesman said: 'The deci- sion was taken in the greater interests of the country and the nation.' Audrey Hep- burn died, aged 63. Paul Gascoigne was fined some £9,000 by his club Lazio for belching on television. A hiker in New Zealand claimed to have spotted the moa, a bird thought to have been extinct for 500 years. An expert on moas commented: 'It could be someone's old shirt hanging over a
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