PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
S it Kenneth Newman announced that the Metropolitan Police will be equipped with, and trained in the use of, armoured vehicles, plastic bullets, CS gas and longer truncheons as a result of the 'unpre- cedented level of savagery' shown in the riots last summer. PC Brian Chester was acquitted of the manslaughter of John Shorthouse, a five-year-old boy whom he shot dead while searching for his father in Birmingham last year. PC Chester has returned to beat duty pending a disciplin- ary inquiry. The Peacock Report on the future of public service broadcasting re- jected advertising. A majority recom- mended the indexation of television li- cences, and the sale of Radios One and Two. One dissenter, Mr Alistair Hether- ington, a former editor of the Guardian, explained that 'You cannot sell Jimmy Young even if you wanted to'. The Bishop of Durham defended to the General Synod of the Church of England his views on miracles, arguing that a 'divine laser beam' which vouchsafed miracles only to a pri- vileged group and did nothing about Au- schwitz could only emanate from an unlov- ing God: since God is love, miracles must previously have been misunderstood. The Synod voted overwhelmingly in favour of economic sanctions against South Africa; a proposal to allow women ordained abroad to officiate at services in Britain failed to command the necessary majority; propos- als to ordain women in this country were therefore dropped.
SIR Geoffrey Howe set off on his mission to avert sanctions against South Africa. Neither President Botha nor the ANC would receive him. The official death toll since the imposition of the state of emergency in South Africa rose to 108 after nine blacks were killed in a township ambush; a car bomb in a white area injured at least 20 people. Two Australian heroin smugglers were hanged in Malaya. One had been born in Stoke on Trent, and Mrs Thatcher asked in vain for clemency on his behalf. Terry Dicks MP, previously thwarted in his ambition to have rapists castrated in this country, sent a letter of congratulation to the Malaysian govern- ment. A pro-Marcos coup in the Philip- pines, mounted from a luxury hotel, fizzled out. Chilean troops killed three civilians to discourage an otherwise successful protest strike against the Pinochet regime. Two French secret service men who sank the Rainbow Warrior last year were released for $7 million into French custody on a Pacific island. Boris Becker won the Wimbledon men's championships for the second year running; he was still eligible for the junior tournament. Martina Navra- tilova won the ladies' title. ACB
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