PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
`I'm very worried about the Waleses' Mr Major reaffirmed his determina- tion to see the Maastricht Treaty ratified, and vehemently rejected calls from his pre- decessor, Lady Thatcher of Kesteven, for a referendum on the pact which she branded `a treaty too far', saying she would vote against it in the House of Lords. Mr Lam- ont, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, bowed to majority opinion in the EEC and accepted European legislation stipulating a minimum VAT rate of 15 per cent, the first time Britain has accepted that the Commu- nity could determine levels of taxation. The Royal Navy intervened to end violent clash- es between British and French trawlermen over access to fishing grounds off the Isles of Scilly. In London, Ulster Unionists, including the Revd Ian Paisley, held talks with ministers of the Irish Republic for the first time in 70 years. The Ulster Defence Regiment, for many years the cause of con- troversy in the Province, merged with the Royal Irish Rangers to form the Royal Irish Regiment. Robert Horton, the chairman and chief executive of British Petroleum since 1990, resigned, leading to worries that the company would be forced to cut its divi- dend for the first time since the Great War. Radio Three unveiled radical charges designed to attract younger listeners and compete with a new national commercial classical station to be launched in the
autumn. The architect, Sir James Stirling, whose designs were sometimes considered controversial, died aged 66, and the artist John Piper died at the age of 88. The grim reaper also claimed the Marquess of Bath, who in the 1960s pioneered the opening to the public of stately homes, and Professor Elie Kedourie, the political philosopher. At Wimbledon, Jeremy Bates came to within match point of being the first British player for 19 years to reach the men's quarter finals, but then lost to the Frenchman, Guy Forget. The racing driver, Ayrton Senna, was reported for speeding at over 120 mph on the M25.
AFTER A dramatic visit to Sarajevo by President Mitterrand of France, UN forces succeeded in briefly opening the airport, but the arrival of relief flights had to be sus- pended after a few hours when fighting between Bosnians and Serbs broke out again in the surrounding suburbs. There were hopes that the arrival of a 1,000- strong UN brigade of Canadian soldiers would enable it to be reopened later in the week, and the US offered air cover from its Mediterranean fleet to ensure that the international relief operation for the belea- guered city could resume. In Belgrade there were large demonstrations against the regime of Serbian leader, Slobodan Milose- vic. Britain assumed the Presidency of the EEC following the Lisbon summit at which M. Jacques Delors was unanimously reap- pointed for a further two-year term as Pres- ident of the European Commission. After his reappointment M. Delors clashed with the British Prime Minister over the Com- mission's plans for an extension of the EEC budget to underwrite the Maastricht Treaty. Germany announced that it would pull out of the European Fighter project in its present form, the development of which has already cost over £5 billion and on which 40,000 British jobs depend. Mr Mohammed Boudiaf, the army-backed President of Algeria, was assassinated, giv- ing rise to fears of renewed Islamic funda- mentalist unrest in the country. The body of Mr Sidney Reso, the senior executive of the international oil giant Exxon who was allegedly kidnapped over two months ago, was found by the FBI in a New Jersey marsh. The Pope approved a revised cate- chism for Catholics which includes 'new' forms of sinning such as bribery, tax dodg- ing, betting, genetic manipulation and con- tamination of the environment. A 35-year- old man who received the world's first transplant of a baboon's heart at the Uni- versity of Pittsburgh was reported to be in a critical condition.
KLE
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