Portrait of the week
Two days before the start of the Euro- pean Disarmament and Security Con- ference in Stockholm, President Reagan proposed 'greater cooperation and understanding' with the Soviet Union. The White House gave the Russians advance notice of the content of the President's speech, so that the Tass news agency was able to dismiss it as propaganda before it was made, and later to announce the deployment of new missiles in East Ger- many. Mr George Shultz, Secretary of State, met the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary in London — when some differences over Lebanon were expressed before going to Sweden to meet the Russian foreign minister, Mr Gromyko. The US and Russia blamed each other for the failure to reach agreement on the reduction of inter- mediate nuclear weapons, and West Ger- many and the US appeared seriously at odds at a conference in Brussels to discuss the future of NATO. Sir Geoffrey Howe annoyed the Israeli government by sug- gesting that talks be held between Israel and the PLO about the occupation of the West Bank. Major Sa'ad Haddad, commander of the Christian militia in south Lebanon, died of cancer at 48, described by Israel's prime minister as 'a great friend'. In Beirut, the president of the American University, Dr Malcolm Kerr, was shot dead, and the Saudi Arabian consul was kidnapped. US warships, including the battleship New Jersey, fired on Druze positions outside Beirut, and Mr Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader, paid a visit to Moscow. North Korea proposed talks with South Korea and the US on the future of the peninsula, and Argentina accepted Chile's sovereignty over the Beagle Chan- nel, south of the Tierra del Fuego, after a dispute lasting eight years. In Spain, Ad- miral Angel Liberal Lucini was made chief of defence staff — and three new appoint- ments were made to head the army, navy and air force — giving the Socialist govern- ment more direct control of the armed services. In San Antonio, Texas, General Robert Ownby was found hanged at Fort Sam Houston.
The French government apologised after two British lorry drivers, carrying lamb through Normandy, had been 'detained' for a short time by French farmers. In Hong Kong, more than 130 were arrested for disturbances said to have been caused by a taxi drivers' strike. Apparently embar- rassed by the demonstrations, China made a point of confirming that the social and economic system of the colony would re- main unchanged after 1997. The Social Democratic Party gave its support to Polaris and Cruise missiles, in opposition to the policy of the Liberal Party. Mr Wedgwood Benn was selected to represent the Labour Party in the by-election at Chesterfield, Derbyshire, in March; Mr Kinnock said that 'the whole party will naturally be working to secure the election of the Labour candidate'. When Parlia- ment reassembled, 13 Conservative MPs (including Mr Edward Heath)voted against the Government on the second reading of the Bill to limit rate increases. Cardinal O'Fee, the Catholic Primate of Ireland, was criticised by the Dublin government for say- ing that it was not necessarily wrong to belong to Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA.
Strong winds and blizzards in northern Britain accounted for the deaths of several people, including three climbers In the Lake District and five Belgian trawlermen off the Yorkshire coast. The General Medical Council judged two doc- tors guilty of serious professional miscon- duct: Dr John Hughes was suspended for nine months for having had an affair with a patient who allowed him to photograph her naked during a safari in Kenya; and Dr Lalitkurmar Nirmal was reprimanded for having failed to treat two two-year-old Pa" tients for illnesses which caused their deaths. Roy 'The Weasel' James, one of the Great Train Robbers, was acquitted of defrauding HM Customs and Excise of £2.4 million: he and four others had been accus- ed of melting gold coins in order to clairn VAT. At Sandringham, Dr Billy Graham preached in St Mary Magdalen church while spending the weekend with the Royal Family, and Prince Edward was said to be recovering from glandular fever. Mr and Mrs Gary Brocklehurst were asked to resign from the leadership of a Salvation ArmY scout troop because they had lived together before their marriage; and the women s committee of Islington council proposed a new criminal offence, and a sentence of five years' imprisonment, for any man who 'coerces a woman, physically, psychologically or emotionally, into sexual
Followed by icy showers, thunder and deep depression, no doubt.'
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