Portrait of the Week – 22 January 2005

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  Portrait of the Week – 22 January 2005

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Alexander Larman

What happened to the Rishi Sunak I knew at school?

Iraq is to close its borders and place restrictions on vehicle movement on 30 January, the day of its planned elections. Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, of the Syrian Catholic Church (which is in communion with Rome), was kidnapped in Mosul, but released within 24 hours. Charles Graner, a military policeman, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty by a military court in Texas of aggravated assault, indecent acts and other crimes at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. Horrible photographs of Iraqi prisoners being mistreated were published during the trial of three British soldiers at a court martial in Germany. Mr Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister of Israel, suspended contact with Mr Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, after an attack on a Gaza border crossing killed six Israeli civilians; Mr Sharon threatened to raid Gaza to stop rockets being fired from there. Sir Mark Thatcher, Bt, was ordered by a South African court to pay a three million rand (£265,000) fine after pleading guilty to ‘unwittingly’ financing an attempted coup against the government of Equatorial Guinea; he left South Africa for London. Mr Seymour Hersh, a journalist writing for the New Yorker, claimed that President Bush of the United States had signed executive orders authorising secret commando operations against terrorists in ten Middle Eastern and South Asian countries, including Iran, where nuclear sites have been identified. President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia accused Venezuela of ‘harbouring terrorists’ and violating Colombian sovereignty by protecting leaders of the Frente Armada Revolucionaria de Colombia. The new European Airbus A380, which will take 555 passengers, was unveiled in Toulouse. Victoria de los Angeles, the soprano, died, aged 81. Mrs Adriana Iliescu, aged 66, gave birth to a baby girl in Bucharest.

CSH