PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The march of time British reservists with medical training were called up to serve in the Gulf. Tam Dalyell MP urged them to ignore call-up papers, and was accused by other MPs of treason. Lieutenant-General Sir Peter de la Billiere, commander of British forces in the Gulf, said they were ready to go to war at once, if necessary. Salman Rushdie announced his conversion to Islam and promised that his book, The Satanic Verses, would not be issued in paperback, stating that he did not agree with any of the statements in it which insulted the Prophet Mohammed. But Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran said the death sentence pronounced on the author could not be rescinded even if he became the most pious Muslim of his time. The IRA kept their promise of a three-day Christmas ceasefire. Royal Marines killed an unarmed man in South Armagh. Two girls aged six and eight and their brother aged seven drowned in the Kennet and Avon Canal, Berkshire. An eleven-day-old baby, Christy Strachan, died after an operation to transplant a heart. The Confederation of British Indus- try said pay rises were still too high and putting jobs at risk. P. D. James, the crime novelist, became a life peer in the New
Year honours and Peregrine Worsthorne a knight, at last. England lost the second Test to Australia. Desert Orchid, won the King George VI Chase at Kempton for the fourth time, at the age of 11.
PRESIDENT Gorbachev was granted the most far-reaching powers of any Soviet premier since the revolution, bringing the Prime Minister, cabinet and republic lead- ers under his direct control. He nominated Gennady Yanayev, a former trade union chief and old-style bureaucrat, as vice- president, and pushed his election through by threatening to resign. He announced that his prime minister, Nikolai Ryzkhov, had suffered a heart attack. After contact between the American embassy in Bagh- dad and the Iraqi foreign ministry on Christmas Day, there was speculation that James Baker, US Secretary of State, might meet Tariq Aziz, Iraqi foreign minister, next week, possibly in some European city. A Mr Jacques Poos, foreign minister of Luxemburg, was hoping to go to Baghdad with a new Euro-initiative to avert war. But Saddam Hussein announced that under no circumstances would he give Kuwait to foreign forces. Iran announced
manoeuvres from next week along its border with Iraq. Michael of Hohenzol- lern, former King of Rumania, was thrown out of his homeland hours after he re- turned for the first time for 43 years. Three Jewish terrorists were given early release from life sentences in prison in Israel for killing three Palestinian students seven years ago. In clashes on the border of Egypt and Israel four Palestinians were killed and 150 more were wounded. The Greek government announced pardons for the three ex-army officers who seized power in the 1967 military overthrow. President Menem of Argentina pardoned 12 junta chiefs responsible for the torture and deaths of thousands of the 'dis- appeared'. The United Nations appealed for food aid to avert famine in the Sudan and Ethiopia. Leaders of an attempted coup in Somalia claimed that President Siad Barre, having lost control of most of the capital, Mogadishu, could not escape. A former Japanese Cabinet minister. Toshiyuki Inamura, was charged with a £6.25 million fraud. Gary Kasparov re- tained his world chess title in Lyons, beating Anatoly Karpov.
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