PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Delinquent behaviour The IRA blew up a gasworks at War- rington. No one was killed, but a policeman was shot trying to arrest a man who escaped; two others were caught. In the Camden Town area of London, 18 were injured by an IRA bomb in a litter-bin. Two men were arrested in connection with the bombing at Harrods in January. ICI announced that it was to split into two, with a new company, named Zeneca, taking on its drugs and specialist businesses; 9,000 jobs would go. Mr John Birt, the director- general of the BBC, suddenly agreed to become a full-time employee of the corpo- ration after it was revealed that his salary was being paid to a company controlled by himself and his wife, who had been paid as a director. Miss Janet Street-Porter, the head of the BBC's youth and entertainment features, was said to be benefiting from a similar freelance arrangement. Miss Anne Robinson followed Mr Alastair Campbell in an exodus from the Daily Mirror to Mr Rupert Murdoch's Today. The late Robert Maxwell had forged profit records to inflate them by £37 million in 1991, investigators claimed. The Home Secretary, Mr Kenneth Clarke, announced the setting up of secure centres to hold persistent juvenile offend- ers. Cardinal Hume called on the eve of his 70th birthday for a royal commission on the way society is going; the Kray twins com- plained from behind bars about the way the Prime Minister had referred to young mug- gers as the Krays of the future. The Prince of Wales dispensed with the services of Major Ronald Ferguson as his polo manag- er. Nigel Short and Gary Kasparov refused to play their world championship match in Manchester as decided by Fide, the world chess federation. Bobby Moore, the foot- baller who led England to victory in 1966, died, aged 51. Joyce Carey, the actress who played the refreshment-room assistant in Brief Encounter, died, aged 94. Mr Neil Hamilton, a trade minister, had his nose broken when he went to the aid of the for- mer MP, Mr Harvey Proctor, who had a finger broken when two 'queer-bashers' attacked him at his shirt shop. Welsh coun- ties such as Pembrokeshire and Flint will return under Government local govern- ment proposals.
A BOMB blew a 200ft-wide crater under the World Trade Center in New York; five were killed and more than 1,000 injured. America began dropping food and medicine into eastern Bosnia. Bosnian sources said that the first deliveries had fallen into the hands of their Serb enemies; US photographs were said to show that at least some reached hungry Muslims. Mem- bers of the Branch Davidian religious sect succeeded in shooting dead four officers of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire Arms who had staked out their head- quarters in Waco, Texas; their leader, David Koresh, aged 33, who claims that he is Jesus, was wounded by return fire. Salva- tore Riina appeared in court accused of being the boss of bosses of the Sicilian Mafia responsible for 180 murders; he said it was a case of mistaken identity and that he was a simple labourer. The Gaza Strip was sealed off after an Arab stabbed two Israelis to death in Tel Aviv. Paul Gas- coigne, the footballer, was sent off in a game between his team, Lazio, and Genoa. Lillian Gish, the star of Broken Blossoms (1919) and The Whales of Autumn (1987), among other films, died, aged 96. Ruby Keeler, the film dancer who starred in 42nd Street (1933), died, aged 83. A new finance minister took over in Brazil, where it is said that inflation is so bad that they have run out of national heroes to put on new issues of banknotes and have had to resort to pic- turing various fish. Twelve Hungarians who invested in a scheme to raise earthworms killed themselves when the enterprise failed.
CSH
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