PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Only connect.
The Government published Sir Frank Layfield's 3,000-page report of his inquiry into the plan to build a pressurised water reactor at Sizewell. He said the new power station 'would be a totally inappropriate intrusion into the Suffolk countryside', but should in the national interest be built, because it would be safe and economical. The Government failed to stop publication in the New Statesman of less comprehen- sive details of another plan, to build the £500-million 'Zircon' spy satellite, but pre- vented most MPs from seeing a banned BBC film about it. Mr Norman Tebbit started an action for libel against the Guardian because it had published a col- umn by Mr Hugo Young in which Mr Tebbit was alleged to have said: 'Nobody with a conscience votes Conservative.' The Sun paid damages to a charity chosen by the Duke of Edinburgh for publishing a private letter written by him. On the first anniversary of the removal of the Sun and other papers owned by Mr Rupert Mur- doch to Wapping, there was a riot outside the premises, in which 162 police officers and at least 40 other people were injured, and 67 arrests were made, including only 15 printers. In the trial of six people accused of murdering PC Blakelock during the Broadwater Farm riot in Tottenham, it was said they had intended to put his head on a pole and display it before the other police. The IRA murdered a UDR officer. It was announced that Lord Avebury, the Liberal peer, wishes after he has died to be cut up and fed to residents at Battersea Dogs' Home. He said this would be in keeping with his conversion to Buddhism.
CHANCELLOR Kohl's right-wing coali- tion was returned to power in the West German federal elections, but with a re- duced majority. In Moscow, Mr Gor- bachev called for secret ballots to select leading Communist Party officials. In Beirut, Mr Terry Waite disappeared. Dur- ing his stay in the city, at least nine more hostages have been taken. It is feared that he too may be captive. Mr George Shultz, the US Secretary of State, disclosed that he had last month to ask the President to stop a new attempt by the CIA to swap arms for hostages, although the President had already promised that no more arms would be sent to Iran. The President defended his Iranian policy, although 'it did not work'. In the Gulf war, the Iranians were reported to be advancing strongly. In Pennsylvania, the state treasurer, who had been accused of bribery, called a press conference, de- clared his innocence, drew a revolver from a manila envelop and shot himself. In London, as part of the Guinness scandal, Lord Spens resigned from the merchant bank Henry Ansbacher, and Mr Gerald Ronson, chairman of the Heron group, sent a letter of apology and a cheque for £5.8 million to Guinness, money he had received as part of a share deal when Guinness took over Distillers. In the Phi- lippines, police shot dead 18 demonstra- tors, encouraging further demonstrations, but a coup was defeated. In northern Uganda, 350 rebels, told by a local pries- tess that her magic would protect them, were killed in battle. In the Baltic, about 1,200 Latvians were rescued when ice floes off which they were fishing broke away from the shore, but others drowned. AJSG
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