PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The replacement for poll tax was announced by Mr Michael Heseltine, En- vironment Secretary, as a local tax based on the number of people occupying a house and its value. The Labour Party called the move 'the most startling U-turn in modern political history'. Mr Nigel Lawson, a former Chancellor of the Exche- quer, called the proposed consultation process over the tax 'a recipe for maximis- ing dissent', and said that local taxation should be abolished altogether. Conserva- tive supporters at the Central Council's annual conference gave the new tax a cool reception. There was confusion in the Cabinet about whether the principle of everyone paying something was to be retained. Senior Conservatives met to dis- cuss their manifesto. Further education colleges are to be removed from local authority control, and there is to be a review of the workings of local authorities. Ulster's political parties and the Irish government accepted a new formula for talks about the future of Northern Ireland. The Court of Appeal gave three Irishmen leave to appeal against their convictions for involvement in a mainland bombing cam- paign in 1973. British Airways announced it was giving away 50,000 airline tickets in an attempt to create confidence in travel. A Jehovah's Witness died after refusing a blood transfusion needed after she gave birth to twins. Bank base rates dropped by half a per cent, and the foreign trade loss was less than expected. The Court of Appeal quashed a conviction for robbery on the grounds that the evidence may have been invented by West Midlands Serious Crimes Squad. Mrs Susan Whybrow was found guilty, with her lover Dennis Saun- ders, of attempting to murder her barrister husband by throwing him into a pond at their Suffolk farmhouse. A new report.said that 'passive smoking' caused the death of more than 300 people every year. A New Zealand teacher, Heather Tonkin, asserted that Captain Mark Phillips was the father of her five-year-old daughter, con- ceived in a single night they spent together. Captain Phillips said he would contest any paternity suit.
KURDISH rebels appeared to have taken large areas of northern Iraq and to be preparing to advance on Baghdad. Presi- dent Saddam Hussein appointed a new prime minister in an attempt to appease Shi'ite Muslims in southern Iraq, where his forces were beginning to regain control. Britain and the United States were said to be disagreeing over the amount Iraq owed in war reparations. Iraq objected to United Nations proposals that the trade embargo should continue and weapons of mass destruction destroyed. The Israeli army ordered the deportation of four Palesti- nians, alleging they were PLO leaders in the Gaza strip. Boris Yeltsin, leader of the Russian Federation, attacked President Gorbachev and the Communist establish- ment in a speech in Leningrad. South African police shot dead ten ANC suppor- ters and a nine-year-old girl, and a crowd hacked a white policeman to death during an ANC rally in Daveyton township, east of Johannesburg. Fighting between Ethio- pian government troops and rebels closed a relief route into famine areas of Ethiopia. Foreign nationals have begun to leave the country on embassy advice. Famine in Sudan was said to threaten five million lives. The government of Thailand announced a crackdown on the country's sex service industry. The People's Daily, mouthpiece of China's Communist Party, carried a coded call concealed within a poem for Premier Li Peng to resign. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, excommuni- cated by the Vatican, died at 85. Manuel Noriega, the deposed dictator of Panama, said he had become a born-again Christian.
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