PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Mr Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein, the political face of the Irish Republican Army, was named minister for education in the new Northern Ireland executive headed by Mr David Trimble, the leader of the Ulster Unionist party, as First Minister. Mr Trimble had persuaded the Ulster Unionist Council to vote by 480 to 349 in favour of Unionists sitting on an executive with mem- bers of Sinn Fein even while the IRA had not decommissioned its arms. But he said he would resign as First Minister if the IRA did not get rid of weapons by February. Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, gave his backing to Mr Gordon Brown, the Chancel- lor of the Exchequer, in his threat to veto a European Union 'withholding tax' on sav- ings held in places such as the City of Lon- don by foreigners. It emerged that Miss Sarah Blair, the sister of the Prime Minis- ter, had been mugged near her flat in Islington on 11 November. Mr Michael Portillo, returned to Parliament by Kens- ington and Chelsea, countered speculation that he might challenge Mr William Hague for leadership of the Conservative party by saying: 'If William is there as leader, I am his loyal supporter.' Sir Cliff Richard's strange record of the Lord's Prayer sung to the tune of 'Auld Lang Syne' reached num- ber one despite Radio Two and other sta- tions keeping it off their playlists. A naked
man with a sword cut off half a man's hand and injured 10 others at a Catholic church in Croydon. Beef on the bone will be lawful to sell from 17 December. United News and Carlton are to merge, with control of six ITV franchises. The National Westmin- ster Bank proposed to increase to 15,000 the number of staff it would get rid of, in an attempt to deal with takeover bids by the Royal Bank of Scotland (supported by its largest shareholder, the Banco Santander Central Hispano) and by the Bank of Scot- land. Britain's most northerly post office, at Haroldswick, on Unst in the Shetland Islands, closed. The government dropped plans for Railtrack to help run the London Underground, a scheme that had been opposed by Mr Ken Livingstone, who wants to stand as Labour candidate for Mayor of London. Mr Livingstone, who has drawn eighth position for private mem- bers' bills, said he would bring in legisla- tion against hunting. Seven hounds of the New Forest Hunt were electrocuted and run down by a train.
THE Basque separatist terrorists, Euzkadi to Askatasuna, ended their 14-month cease- fire. Russia bombarded what remained of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, which was left without electricity, gas or water; 225,000 refugees had reached neighbouring Ingushetia. President Boris Yeltsin of Rus- sia went back to hospital, this time with pneumonia. Russia claimed to have caught an American diplomat, Cheri Leberknight, 'red-handed' in spying for the Central Intel- ligence Agency. A bomb at the seaside in Cape Town injured 48; some blamed Peo- ple Against Gangsterism and Drugs, a Muslim vigilante group. New Zealand put in power the Labour party, led by Ms Helen Clark, in coalition with the left-wing Alliance party, defeating the conservative National party that had been in govern- ment for nine years; higher income tax was promised. Dr Mahathir Mohamad's National Front coalition was returned to power in Malaysian elections. A ferry caught fire and sank in a storm off China leaving 280 dead and 22 survivors. A cata- maran ferry hit rocks off Norway sending its 89 passengers into the sea, of whom 19 drowned. Rioting between Yorubas and Hausas in Lagos left 50 dead. Mrs Herta Doubler-Gmelin, the justice minister of Ger- many, put pressure on barnesandnoble.com to stop supplying Mein Kampf to Ger- many; Amazon.com already denies copies to customers in Germany. President Clinton of the United States said that he was going to buy his Christmas presents on the Internet.
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