PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK `Do you take this woman?'
At the end of intense speculation, the Prime Minister went to the Palace and was granted a dissolution of Parliament on 18 May. A general election will be held on 11 June. The decision was reached at Che- quers over the weekend while Mr Denis Thatcher practised golf shots on the lawn. It was his 72nd birthday. The London stockmarket rose to an. all-time high fol- lowing the announcement. Mr Denis Healey, in Moscow, said: 'The Russians are praying for a Labour victory.' Eight IRA terrorists were killed in an attack which they made on Loughgall police station. Mr Danny Morrison, Sinn Fein's `publicity chief, later described the men as `brave soldiers brutally murdered'. An innocent civilian also died in the attack. Two ringleaders of a gang of football thugs known as the Chelsea Headhunters were jailed for ten years after a judge told them that they were 'ruthless, violent and nasty'. The former chief of Lloyd's, Sir Peter Green, was censured, fined and heavily criticised after a lengthy investigation into his affairs in the insurance world. Ernest Saunders, formerly chairman of Guinness, appeared in court on charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice and des- troying and falsifying documents. The Lon- don Marathon was won for the second year running by a Japanese competitor. More than 400 of the 20,000 runners will be disqualified for cheating. Doris Stokes, the popular medium who was born a street away from the Prime Minister's birthplace in Grantham, passed over.
IN SOUTH Africa, President P. W. Botha's National Party made substantial gains in the general election, taking his number of seats in the House of Assembly to 123 out of 166. Dr Dennis Worrall, the former ambassador to London, narrowly failed to unseat Mr Chris Heunis, a govern- ment minister, whose majority was re- duced to only 39 votes. The Maltese general election resulted in defeat for the Labour Party after 16 years in power. In Lyons, the trial of the former Gestapo captain Klaus Barbie, accused of 'crimes against humanity', opened. Mr Gary Hart halted his campaign for the American presidency following allegations about his private life: he said, `Politics in this coun- try, take it from me, is on the verge of becoming another form of athletic com- petition or sporting match.' In the 'Iran- gate' hearings in Washington, the former US National Security Adviser, Mr Robert McFarlane, gave evidence. He implied that the President knew that $35 million had passed to the Contra forces in Nicaragua from the coffers of 'Country No 2', which he then inadvertently identified as Saudi Arabia. American observers believe that Mr McFarlane's evidence is likely to strengthen the belief that President Reagan was far more aware of the Contra programme than he has yet admitted. The world's longest surviving heart transplant patient, M. Emmanuel Vitria, died in Marseilles 18 years after his operation. Mr Irving Berlin celebrated his 99th birthday. Sadamichi Hirasawa finally beat the Japanese hangman when he died of pneumonia at the age of 95. He had been convicted on 12 counts of murder by poisoning in 1948 and has spent the in- tervening years on Death Row engaged in 18 attempts at a re-trial. MStJT
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