PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
A retirement home for tanks near Moscow Young offenders at the new Moorland remand centre near Doncaster, south Yorkshire, rioted, smashing televisions and pool tables: prison officers and youths were finding it hard to adapt to humane conditions. A judicial inquiry into the handling of allegations of 'ritual abuse' in the Orkneys began: it was told how chil- dren described to police and social workers acts of sexual abuse they said happened in a quarry. A 'Declaration of Rights' was made, intended to help protect those dying of Aids from discrimination. Thugs stab- bed to death a brilliant doctor carrying out useful research into tintinnitus as he left the Notting Hill Carnival. British trade figures showed a fall back into deficit of £165 million in July. Jaguar announced 2,000 compulsory redundancies. Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast announced that it had won £200 million worth of contracts to build bulk carriers. The CBI thought it saw light at the end of the tunnel of recession. Polls showed motorists would back tolls in city centres to reduce traffic jams. Shell cut petrol prices by 6.4p per gallon: rivals accused it of opportunism. Graham Gooch scored 174 against Sri Lanka. A woman of 39 was bound over for two years after slapping her art tutor on the bottom and making persistent overtures to him. Dustmen in Selby, north Yorkshire, were banned from stripping to the waist after local women complained.
PRESIDENT Gorbachev, prompted by Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Federation, suspended the activities of the Russian Communist Party, told his entire government to resign, and said the Baltic republics could go free. He apologised to the people for procrastination, which had helped the plotters, and resigned as head of the Soviet Communist Party. He appointed a new set of liberal ministers. The business manager of the Communist Party threw himself out of a window. Yevgeni Shaposhnikov, the new defence minister, said he would replace 80 per cent of the military command and the army would not, under his command, be used against the people. Mr Yeltsin announced the take-over by the Russian government of all Soviet government, KGB and in- terior ministry communications, and the transfer of communist and KGB papers into safe keeping so that evidence of guilt could not be destroyed. Pravda was closed, pending re-launch. Seven republics, in- cluding the Baltic states, Moldavia, the Ukraine and Byelorussia, declared inde- pendence. President Yeltsin reserved the right of the Russian Federation to question its borders with any republics, other than the Baltic states, who wished to withdraw, causing fear of future conflicts. Other world leaders reacted incoherently as events moved ahead of their briefing pap-. ers. Fighting escalated in Croatia, and spread into Bosnia Hercegovina. At peace talks in Cambodia leaders of rival armies agreed to reduce their forces. President Rafsanjani attacked the United States of America, Europe and Japan for failing to release billions' worth of Iranian assets and complete contracts. There was fighting between Hasidic Jews and blacks in Brook- lyn, New York, and several passengers were killed in an underground train crash in the city. Ronnie Biggs, a great train robber now short of funds, advertised himself to travel agents as a Rio tourist attraction complete with samba dancers.
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