PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
`I know I can! I know I can! . .
Acar bomb devastated the Israeli embassy in Kensington; another damaged a Jewish organisation's building in Finchley. No one was killed though several were injured. Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, decided not to embrace the Anglo-Irish declaration, seven months after it was published. Sir Patrick Mayhew, the Secretary of State for North- ern Ireland, said that Britain and Ireland would cont- inue to seek peace, by some undisclosed means. The legality of Britain's exclusion of Mr Gerry Adams from the British mainland was referred by the High Court to the European Court of Justice. Mr Tony Blair, the new leader of the Labour Party, said that if he ever came to power he would like to have the priority of sending children to school from the age of three; he also said he regretted not having taken a science subject at A level in addition to English, History and French. Michael Atherton, the England captain, was fined £2,000 for misleading the match referee and for having dust from the ground in his pocket; this followed television film of his fiddling with the ball after putting his hand into his pocket during the first Test against South Africa which England convincingly lost. There was a big fire in the Texaco oil refinery at Milford Haven after an explo- sion which injured 26 and may have been caused by lightning. The National Audit Office criticised the Ministry of Defence by exceeding its budget by £800 million (72 per cent) in building facilities to service Tri- dent. Two detectives were cleared of fabri- cating evidence against Winston Silcott, once convicted but now found innocent of the murder of PC Keith Blakelock in 1985. Police with shields drove off demonstrators trying to storm Downing Street during a march by thousands against the Criminal Justice Bill. Railway signalmen went on strike for three days in the week after six weeks of one-day strikes. Oscar Wilde is to be commemorated in Poets' Corner. Denis Lemon, co-founder of Gay News, died of Aids, aged 48. A pensioner from Codnor, Derbyshire, was held in a police cell after refusing to return a football kicked into her garden.
MANY thousands of refugees from Rwan- da died of cholera in refugee camps in Zaire. The United States dropped some food on them one day, most of which went to the wrong place, then stopped; clean water continued to be the great need. Presi- dent Clinton of the United States faced inquiries by committees of both Houses of Congress into his involvement with the Whitewater property speculation in Arkansas. Dr Boutros Boutros Ghali, the secretary-general of the United Nations suggested that it would be a bad thing for UN troops to remain in Bosnia whatever the warring factions did. Mr Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister of Israel, and King Hus- sein of Jordan shook hands in Washington and signed a piece of paper saying that their countries were no longer at war and would seek trading relations. Nigerian oil workers, who have been on strike for a month, had talks with the government as they sought the release of Chief Moshood Abiola who is generally credited with hav- ing won the last election and is charged with treason. There was a coup in The Gambia; its President, Sir Dawda Jawara, sought refuge in Senegal. Hundreds died of cholera in north India. A prison full of Algerians in Germany erupted into riot. Exxon, the oil company, is to pay $20 mil- lion to eskimoes in Alaska where one of its tankers had leaked millions of gallons of oil. An asteroid was named after Frank Zappa, the rock star who died last year, aged 52. A new species of tree-kangaroo was discovered in New Guinea; it is four- feet long, dark and whistles. A weekly mar- ket selling mice to restaurants has been set up in Taiping in China. CSH
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