PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The University of Life Mr Roger Cooper, a British writer and formerly a regular contributor to The Spectator, was released from Iran after more than five years in jail. Two teenage girls serving in a mobile grocery shop in a nationalist housing estate in Belfast were murdered by a Protestant gunman. Dr Ian Paisley condemned the attack. Three Irish people were acquitted of killing tourists in Holland, but one was convicted of terrorist murder. The US government named 33 British-based companies it claimed were used by Saddam Hussein to import arms into Iraq and to conceal his fortune. An inquest jury in Sheffield returned verdicts of accidental death on the soccer fans who died in the Hillsborough Stadium disaster. The CBI forecast that the end of the recession was in sight. Pay increases in the first quarter of 1991 were reported to have kept pace with inflation, against Govern- ment advice. The average Briton was found to spend 17 hours a week watching television. The NUT voted to boycott the testing of seven-year-old pupils, but mod- erate delegates voted down other demands for strikes. The Government told councils to give planning permission to wind farms and other renewable forms of energy. Mr John Major said that he knew a lot of people with academic qualifications and
most of them were wholly useless. Mark Gaynor, jailed last week for murdering a policeman, failed to hang himself in his cell. A 22-year-old woman, thought to be a UDR private, was charged with murdering an army captain's wife by stabbing her in a forest park in Northern Ireland. Harold Stephens, a Somerset man aged 81, was found to have invented a plastic violin. Oxford won the boat race for the 15th time in 16 years. Graham Greene died at 86.
TROOPS loyal to Saddam Hussein appeared to have taken control of most of Iraq, including cities in the north and south previously held by rebels. Kurdish guerril- las vowed to fight on, as hundreds of thousands of civilians took to the moun- tains, fleeing towards Turkey and Iran. Two black Muslims in the US navy denied charges of attempting to provoke mutiny on their ship in support of Iraq. Tens of thousands demonstrated in Moscow in support of Boris Yeltsin, despite the rep- ressive presence of soldiers and police in unprecedented numbers since perestroika began. Mr Yeltsin, President of the Rus- sian Federation, called for talks between all political forces to save the country. Some food prices doubled in the Soviet Union. Georgia voted by a vast majority for independence from Moscow. The Com- munist Party was elected into office in Albania, though Ramiz Alia, the former President, lost his seat. Afghan guerrillas won a victory over government forces in the Khost garrison near Pakistan. New Zealand's government reduced unemploy- ment and sickness benefits by a quarter to force people back to work. The Yugoslav federation moved further towards break- up when Serb leaders in Croatia announced unification with Serbia. China protested to Britain about a meeting be- tween British politicians and the Dalai Lama. The Crown Prince of Kuwait told his people that he would not tolerate unofficial beatings and killings of Palesti- nians suspected of collaborating with Iraq. Brian Mulroney, Prime Minister of Cana- da, rejected Quebec's proposal for a re- ferendum on the province's independence. Four Austrian nurses were given long sentences for murdering and attempting to murder elderly patients in hospital. Nelson Mandela, the deputy president of the ANC, held more talks with Chief Buthelezi, the leader of the Inkatha Free- dom Party, in the hope that fewer of their supporters would kill one another. The 49th Government of Italy since the war resigned to make way for a coalition. SB
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