PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Mr Peter Mandelson, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, in a briefing to fellow ministers at Chequers, warned that there would be more job losses as the effects of international financial difficulties were felt in Britain; he then went to Black- pool to speak to the Trades Union Congress. By then Mr John Prescott, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, had told the Congress that there would not be a reces- sion 'within hours', and that the govern- ment was not going to change its economic policy. The underlying inflation rate fell by a tenth of a percentage point to 2.5 per cent — the second time it has hit the govern- ment target since the election; headline inflation fell to 3.3 per cent. Mr John Edmonds, the president of the TUC, said: `A company director who takes a pay rise of £50,000 when the rest of the workforce is getting a few hundred is not part of some general trend — he is a greedy bastard.' Mr Chris Woodhead, the chief inspector of schools, had his salary raised by 40 per cent to £120,000; state employed teachers expect rises of 3 per cent. Sir Edward Heath, a for- mer prime minister, said that if he were starting out now he would not join the Con- servative party; Mr William Hague, the leader of the Conservative party, said that Sir Edward was a 'sad figure locked in the past'. Army patrols in Belfast were discon-
tinued, although 16,000 soldiers remained in barracks in Northern Ireland. A Foreign Office committee called Panel 2000 recom- mended that the BBC World Service carry more modern jingles and pop music and that more presenters should have regional accents. The Queen went to visit the Sultan of Brunei. Sister Frances Meigh, a 67-year- old Roman Catholic hermit from Whitby, was ordained a priest by a schismatic bish- op from Co. Louth.
PRESIDENT Bill Clinton of the United States could be impeached on 11 grounds, according to a 445-page report by Mr Ken- neth Starr, the independent counsel. 'The President has pursued a strategy of deceiv- ing the American people and Congress since January 1998,' the report said. Mr Clinton had lied to a grand jury by denying he had had sexual relations with Miss Monica Lewinsky, a White House worker; the report detailed ten sexual encounters, mostly in a windowless corridor next to the Oval Office, one involving an unlit cigar. Extracts from the report were carried at vast length, even in the British press. On the morning of pub- lication, Mr Clinton told a prayer breakfast that he had 'sinned': 'If my repentance is genuine and sustained, and if I can maintain both a broken spirit and a strong heart,' he said hopefully, 'then good can come for our country as well as for me and my family.' President Boris Yeltsin of Russia shrank from putting forward Viktor Chernomyrdin a third time for rejection by the Communist- dominated Duma as his nominee for the prime ministership, and proposed instead Yevgeny Primakov, who was approved by 317 votes to 63. Russia defaulted on $40 bil- lion of debt interest payment to Western nations due on 20 August. Brazilian stocks stabilised after its central bank put its pri- mary lending rate up to 49.97 per cent. In Albania, crowds protesting about the mur- der of an opposition leader, Azem Hajdari, set on fire the office of the Prime Minister, Mr Fatos Nano; three demonstrators were killed. Some 70,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards remained on the border with Afghanistan, and 130,000 more were expect- ed, after Taleban militiamen killed nine Ira- nian diplomats among the 6,000 other Shia Muslims slaughtered in the conquered city of Mazir-i-Sharif. George Wallace, a former governor of Alabama, segregationist and four times Democrat presidential candidate, confined to a wheelchair after being shot in 1972, died, aged 79. Yang Shangkun, a vet- eran of the Long March and ceremonial president of China 1988-92, died, aged 91. After three quarters of Bangladesh was cov- ered by water and 34 million people forced from their houses, floods began to subside; famine was expected.
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