Portrait of the week
Hopes rose for a permanent ceasefire in Lebanon. Outside Beirut Israeli forces continued to close in on the 7,000 Palesti- nian irregulars who are among the in- habitants of the western part of the city. President Reagan announced that unless the Israelis agreed to a withdrawal and a ceasefire he would have to consider the possibility of sanctions. Mr Begin replied that 'nobody is going to bring Israel to its knees'. In subsequent bombing attacks directed at civilian targets, casualties in Beirut were once again numbered in hun- dreds. There were reports that the Israeli air force was dropping 'vacuum bombs' — a new weapon designed to penetrate deep shelters — on tall apartment blocks which might or might not contain members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. There were signs of a growing left-wing opposi- tion in Israel to the war, and several dissi- dent broadcasters on the Israeli army radio station were sacked by Mr Sharon, the defence minister. At the same time an opi- nion poll disclosed that Mr Sharon was the most popular politician in the country. A plan clpvised by America and France to land a multinational force in Beirut, which would permit the evacuation of the Palesti- nian forces, was said to be under considera- tion by Mr Begin, but Mr Sharon stated that no deal to end the siege of Beirut was possible until the PLO had been destroyed. A second PLO force of 4,000 men was already said to be forming further south in the Lebanon. In the centre of Paris an unknown group of terrorists killed six peo- ple in a Jewish restaurant. The Israeli em- bassy blamed the PLO but the head of the PLO's Paris office condemned the attack. The French government feared that the outrage might wreck French plans to send a peace-keeping force to Beirut.
T n Britain unusually warm weather was 1 interrupted by thunderstorms and several people were struck by lightning. Among the victims was Mr Alan Watson of Keynsham who was conducting an argu- ment with his wife in the family kitchen. Mr Watson had just said, 'May God strike me down if I'm wrong', when there was a loud bang and a blinding flash and he was thrown across the room. The infant son of the. Prince and Princess of Wales was christened William Arthur Philip Louis in the music room at Buckingham Palace. A Wolverhampton man who delivered his girl friend of a healthy baby boy on the floor of their flat, having refused the attentions of an unsympathetic midwife, was fined £100. The boy was' later named Sunny Freedom. The strike by National Health Service employees in search of a larger pay increase was resumed. In many parts of the country hospital patients received only one hot meal a day, and more than half the hospitals in the country could only admit emergency cases. The number of emergency admis- sions increased as patients who had earlier been turned away returned in a worse state of health. A total of 60,000 operations were postponed and the NHS waiting list increas- ed by 65,000 cases. A 24-hour strike by Fleet Street electricians in sympathy with the NHS workers' claim prevented produc- tion of all national newspapers in London. The building societies reduced the home loan interest rate to 12 per cent.
FT" he Director of Public Prosecutions
joined his voice to those demanding a judicial inquiry into corruption in the Metropolitan Police force. A 'peace con- voy' of 50 vehicles carrying about 200 hip- pies across nine counties to attend the festival of Ceros, the God of Discord, which was held near Norwich, was followed by policemen from various forces. By the time the convoy had arrived 14 policemen had been injured and seven police vehicles damaged. The Home Secretary personally authorised the attendance of the twin brothers Reginald and Ronald Kray, who are serving jail sentences for various murders, at the funeral of their mother, Mrs Violet Kray, which was held in the East End of London. The vicar of St Peter's, Burnham, Bucks, told a 66-year-old widow, Mrs Sybil Bird, that if she wished to be buried with her husband in the double grave she had purchased in 1966 she must die before the end of September as the grave- yard is full. In Johannesburg the unexplain- ed death of a black prisoner who was found hanging in his cell at police headquarters was said to have puzzled the Minister of Police. In Zambia white missionaries reported Archbishop Emmanuel Lilingo of Lusaka to the Vatican for practising as a witch doctor. The archbishop was suspend- ed and held incommunicado while the
Vatican inquired into his health. PHM
`I'm doing all right — I put my money into phosphorous.'
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