PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The IRA spells it out The Irish Republican Army set off a bomb outside South Quay light railway sta- tion on the Isle of Dogs in London; two people were killed and 43 were taken to hospital, two critically injured. The crime took place one hour after the IRA announced the end of a 17-month cease- fire. Mr Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, the political face of the IRA, said that he did not know the bomb was to go off, even though he had telephoned the White House shortly beforehand, saying he had 'very disturbing news'. There were claims that the bombing was planned even before the publication of the Mitchell report, upon which Mr John Major, the Prime Minister, based his proposals for elections intended to choose representa- tives for all-party talks. Mr John Bruton, the Taoiseach of Ireland, said that to insist on the elections would be 'pouring petrol on the flames', but he later spoke in more measured terms. Mr Major told Parliament that the elections would be 'one alternative way forward'; he also said that there would be no negotiations with Sinn Fein unless 'there is an unequivocal return to the cease- fire'. Mr Dick Spring, the Tanaiste of Ire- land, proposed 'proximity talks', in which different sides would be physically close but would not have to see each other. Mr John Hume of the Social Democratic and Labour Party proposed a simultaneous ref- erendum in Ireland and Northern Ireland. All this overshadowed speculation about the 2,000-page report of the Scott inquiry into arms sales to Iraq, which the Opposi- tion was given six hours to read before its publication on 15 February. King's College Hospital is planning to supply a surrogate mother to substitute for a woman who has lost her womb; the procedure, costing £15,000, will be paid for by the National Health Service. Archbishop Derek Worlock of Liverpool died, aged 76. The Daily Express was included in a £3 billion merger involving a television company called MA!; MAI announced plans for a theme park in Hillingdon, Middlesex. Hun- dreds of piglets were rustled in the Mid- lands.
BOSNIAN SERBS, in particular their army commanders, broke off contacts with forces from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisa- tion which are in Bosnia to implement the peace accord signed in Dayton, Ohio. They were reacting to the arrest by Bosnian gov- ernment forces of ten Serbs suspected of war crimes. Co-operation was restored when two of the suspects were flown to The Hague to be examined by the International
Criminal Tribunal on former Yugoslavia; rules on who might be arrested in future were specified by Mr Richard Holbrooke, the United States special envoy. Islamic extremists were blamed for car bombs that killed 17 and injured more than 90 in Algiers and for a bomb that exploded at a Bahrain hotel. Tension continued between Turkey and Greece over islands claimed by both countries off the Turkish coast. South Korea is to hold manoeuvres round islands also claimed by Japan. Twenty people were trapped in a tunnel by a rock fall in north- ern Japan. Japan launched a rocket as part of a programme to develop its own space shuttle. Syria and Iraq were in talks with Turkey about usage of the waters of the Euphrates; Turkey is up-river from them. Elections will be held as soon as possible in Israel. More than 1,000 people were report- ed to have died of meningitis in Nigeria. Unemployment in Germany rose to a new high of more than four million. Conscien- tious objections in Germany have risen to 160,658 a year, depleting its conscript army. Canada's Chief of Defence Staff said its ill- equipped army is unfit to fight a 'serious war'. Garry ICasparov lost the first game. in a series against a new computer, resigning at the 37th move, but won the second.
CSH
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