Portrait of the week
President Gemayel, having returned from a meeting with President Assad in Damascus, cancelled the agreement, reach- ed last May, for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon. The various Moslem and Druze factions were instructed to stop fighting the Lebanese army, and it was hoped that 'national reconciliation' talks would be resumed. One French soldier was killed in Beirut and, following the visit of M. Cheysson, the French foreign minister, the withdrawal of the 1,500 members of the French 'peacekeeping' force may not be long delayed. King Hussein of Jordan reached agrement with Mr Yasser Arafat, chairman of the PLO, for the adoption of a `moderate' approach to Israel — perhaps in concert with Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia — over the future of the occupied territories. Iraq was accused by Iran of us- ing chemical weapons in the Gulf war; the burns received by Iranian soldiers who were sent to Vienna and Stockholm for treat- ment appeared to confirm this, and Iran blamed Britain for having supplied mustard gas to Iraq. In Moscow, Mr K, U. Chernenko, the 72-year-old Party Secretary, spoke of the need for a 'drastic change' in East-West relations. He ap- peared to have trouble delivering his speech, and the next day was observed walking unsteadily to cast his vote in elec- tions to the Supreme Soviet. The Russian defence minister, Marshal Ustinov, went to India to discuss with Mrs Gandhi 'the re- arming of Pakistan by the United States'. Mr Pierre Trudeau, prime minister of Canada, decided to resign after 15 years as leader of the Liberal Party, and Mr Hart again defeated Mr Mondale in Democratic elections in Maine and Vermont.
Astrike by miners in Yorkshire and Scotland was threatened after the Coal Board announced plans to close two collieries and make another 20,000 miners redundant. The overtime ban, now in its 18th week, caused 30,000 miners to lose a day's pay, and Mr Arthur Scargill, presi- dent of the NUM, accused the Coal Board chairman, Mr Ian MacGregor, of using 'bullying and belligerent' tactics. Both Mr Edward du Cann and Lord Blake publicly advised the Prime Minister not to take so much of the burden of government upon herself, and to appoint a deputy, though no one appeared to have any clear idea who this should be. (Mrs Thatcher said she was quite happy with Lord Whitelaw.) The Government's general loss of direction and its 'banana-skin' tendency was criticis- ed by many Conservative MPs and reflected in an opinion poll showing the Labour Party as more popular than the Govern- ment for the first time in two years. Mr Wedgwood Benn took his seat in the House of Commons, having been returned as member for Chesterfield by a majority 6,264 over the SDP/Liberal Alliance, the smallest Labour majority in the constituen- cy for 50 years. Short Brothers of Belfast secured a contract worth £115 million to supply Sherpa aircraft to the US air force, and NATO conducted air defence exercises over the North Sea. A deputy governor at the Maze prison in Belfast was shot dead hY the IRA. After English soccer 'fans' h?ri behaved in their usual violent way at an !II" ternational match in Paris, the French 1-1°E police took unnecessary precautions agar inst the possibility of a repeat performance b,Y the more civilised supporters of England by 32 pointspfooionttbsatlo 8
football team, which lost to France
TTito Gobbi died at the age of 71, Sir Hugh Fraser, MP, at 66, John Stewart Collis at 84. Mr Derek Jameson, formed): editor of several popular national, newspapers, was offered a job by the 13134' after losing a libel action against the°r poration. Mr Peter Hogg, an airline Pli°t* was charged with murdering his wife whose body was found in Wast Water, Cumber- land, eight years after it had been dual.d b there. Sir Peter Hayman, a former gige Commissioner in Canada, was remand, h on bail on a charge of gross indecencywitd _ a lorry driver in Reading last month; I)r. Roger Thomas, Labour MP for C.ara mathen, decided to resign his seat followthrvc a conviction for importuning in a Pub ir lavatory; Mr Gerald Bermingham, Lab°11,0 MP for St Helens South, decided n°t resign because of the disclosure of his .3„., fairs with two women, and the vIc"A chairman of his local party was chargt with criminal libel. Two hundred and eIghlYe six thousand chickens were killed beca l of fowl pest in Shropshire and Yorksh.lrus and the London Zoo agreed to send vac° rt animals, including camels, to the desec `Stop giving me that old-fashioned look
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