PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
STOP THIS HOSSOi2-I.
ISSJED ON g f-1 ALF OF THE TORY PARTY The Chief Inspector of Schools reported that 15,000 teachers were incompetent and should be sacked if they did not improve. He also found half of primary schools and 40 per cent of secondary schools to be below acceptable standards. Mrs Gillian Shephard, the Secretary of State for Educa- tion, said that league tables of primary schools would now be compiled from tests taken at 11. Mr Eddie George, the Gover- nor of the Bank of England, said it would be wrong to attempt economic and mone- tary union in the European Community if the financial criteria were not met. British Gas is to be split in two — a profitable international company and the home trad- ing remainder, which already faces £1.5 bil- lion losses on agreements to buy gas. The chief executive of British Gas, Mr Cedric Brown, is to retire on a pension of £247,000 a year. The privatisation of the London, Tilbury and Southend railway was suddenly postponed while an investigation began into distribution of ticket revenues which has left London Underground perhaps £50,000 short; the Great Western and South West Rail began operating under private ownership. The Office of Fair Trad- ing undertook to investigate the sale of rights to show good football matches on television; the House of Lords also debated it. There was snow in many parts. Flemings Investment Bank is setting up a fund for rich Muslims to invest in without infringing Islamic laws against usury, pornography and drinking alcohol. A newly discovered comet should be visible to the naked eye next month. Police in Manchester aban- doned helmets in favour of flat hats.
CHANCELLOR KOHL of Germany said that European monetary union was the only way to stop war breaking out within the con- tinent. He also made the strange remark that the slowest ship should not hold up the convoy; this was held to be a criticism of Britain. The Bosnian government arrested a Serb general and seven others suspected of war crimes; it called in the War Crimes Tri- bunal for the former Yugoslavia. Bosnian, Serb and Croat civilians had spent the week evacuating areas as a consequence of the international peace plan for the territory. Mr Bill Clinton, the President of the United States, was subpoenaed to give evidence in a criminal trial relating to the Whitewater property affair. Russian coalminers went back to work after two days on strike in the hope that they would receive months of unpaid wages. Troops in Guinea mutinied over low pay and bad conditions. Nigerian and Cameroonian troops clashed on the border. The new Prime Minister of Niger, where there was a coup last week, announced the formation of a largely civil- ian government. President Alvaro Arzu of Guatemala escaped assassination when a motorist accelerated towards the horse he was riding. The Pope visited Guatemala at the beginning of a tour of Latin America. China held military manoeuvres opposite Taiwan, which is to hold its first democratic presidential elections next month. More than 100 were killed in the Chinese province of Hunan when dynamite stored beneath a block of flats exploded. More than 200 were killed by an earthquake in Yunnan province. The Australian and the West Indian cricket teams refused to go to Sri Lanka for the World Cup for fear of the civil war there. The government of Tamil Nadu paid for a mass wedding of 5,000 cou- ples. Spain and Morocco are to start build- ing a 17-mile rail tunnel next year linking Europe and Africa. Archaeologists said they had found evidence for siting the birthplace of Buddha at Lumbini in Nepal. Gene Kelly, the dancer, died, aged 83. Tempera- tures in Minnesota fell to minus 510C. CSH
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