Portrait of the week
Talio alestinians started killing each other I. in Lebanon: the rebellion, by some units of the Palestine Liberation Organisa- tion, against its chairman of 14 years, Yasser Arafat; led to heavy fighting near Baalbek and several deaths. Mr Arafat kept out of the way, travelling instead to Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Romania and India. For the time being, he was able still to count on the support of Russia, though not of Syria and Libya. In Paris, the government threatened punishment for insubordination against more than 1,000 policemen who marched to the Justice Ministry after two of their number had been shot dead. The Director-General of Police and the Director of Security were sacked, and the Paris prefet resigned; a police union leader said that morale was low because capital punish- ment had been abolished. Rumours that President Banda of Malawi had decided, at 78, to take a year off from running his country persuaded a number of politicians and army officers to leave for Zambia and Zimbabwe. Dr Banda's place is likely to be taken by the governor of the Central Bank, John Tembo, whose niece, 'Mama' Kad- zamira, is Dr Banda's 'hostess'. Mass kill- ings were reported from Uganda, and in Sudan President Nemery granted autonomy to three regions of the south in an attempt to avert civil war.
Tn the last days before the general elec- tion, various polls pointed to an overall majority for the Conservatives of between 130 and 260 seats. But Labour leaders con- tinued to insist that Thursday's poll would show a very different result. Mr Healey blundered on, accusing Mrs Thatcher of 'glorying in the slaughter' (later amended to 'conflict') of the Falklands war and some of her colleagues of being 'Provos'. Mr Kin- nock, Shadow Education Secretary, also took the view that Labour's prospects would be assisted by alienating the families of those who died in the Falklands. The unemployment figures for May, which showed a drop of over 120,000, were described as a 'statistical trick', and the Coal Board was said to have put forward plans for pit closures which would make 70,000 miners redundant over the next five years. Shirley Maclaine did her best to help the Labour Party by disclosing that she had once had enjoyable experiences with a Labour MP (referred to as Gerry) in Stockholm, Hawaii and Hong Kong, but no one came forward to take the credit. Later Miss Maclaine talked of her 'inbody' and `outerbody' experiences, saying that the politician was, like her, 'many people'. Harry Kirkpatrick, a member of the Irish Liberation Army who had planned to ex- plode a bomb at the Prince of Wales's wed- ding, was sentenced to life imprisonment in Belfast after admitting to 78 charges, in-
cluding five of murder. The Financial Times was not published for a week, because of a dispute involving 18 members of the National Graphical Association.
Averell Harriman, US ambassador i to Moscow during the second world war, reported that Mr Andropov had said, at their meeting in Moscow last week, that Russia and America should re-establish the relationship which they enjoyed as wartime allies. Mr Harriman also reported the Soviet leader in good health, but a few days laterhe was said to be suffering from Parkinson's disease. Nicaragua announced the expulsion of three American diplomats for plotting 'criminal actions', and America responded by closing down the six Nicaraguan consulates in the US. The Pen- tagon said that 100 military instructors were about to go to Honduras to tram Salvadorean troops, but that no more would be sent to El Salvador. One of the Watergate conspirators, Jeb Magruder, Church. a priest of the First Presbyterian eh Diane Bilanelli, formerly a London shoP assistant and now called Sheika Dena al- Fassi, was given a divorce settlement of about £53 million by a Los Angeles court. The Attorney-General took action to restrain Michelle Riles from publishing an account of her employment as a maid at Buckingham Palace, which position she left last week. There was no lack of interest, however, from literary agents in the Sou U t h S, Germany, Japan, Australia and Africa. Zsa Zsa Gabor was dismissed from a theatre in Philadelphia for having alleged- ly insisted that a group of disabled persons in wheelchairs should be removed from the front to the back of the house during her, performance. A new law in Greece imposed a £350 fine for anyone allowing his dog .% cat to swim in the Mediterranean; 200 wiA goats were shot on ,San Clemente Wan' off California, to allow the island to be us- ed ed fOr military training; and in Britain surfeit of eggs led the British Egg Industry chickens should be ed recommend that two Million spC ie spC hole 'The handicap rules have taken the point out of the fable.'
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