PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Inner-city cosmetics
British security forces shot dead three IRA terrorists in Gibraltar. Sir Geoffrey Howe said that a 'dreadful terrorist act had been prevented', while some Irish politi- cans referred to the incident as 'summary executions'. The Social and Liberal Demo- cratic Party was launched after almost 50 per cent of the joint membership had failed to vote in the ballots. Dr Owen and his supporters launched the 're-established' SDP with a membership of 25-30,000. The Prime Minister announced a ten-year programme for the 'renewal of the inner cities'. She said the Government's overall budget for the project was £3 billion; spokesman for the opposition parties hotly contested the composition of this figure. Details of a large 'ring' of stockbrokers and market makers said to have been trading on inside information have been handed to the DTI for investigation. The Bank of England abandoned its attempt to hold sterling below their unofficial ceiling against the German mark and the pound rose above the three-deutschmark level. The NUM voted to end its five-month overtime ban in a rebuff to its President, Mr Arthur Scargill. The South of Scotland Electricity Board announced that it was buying one million tonnes of cheap coal from Australia, China and America. The Panamanian consulate in London, just off Fleet Street, was stormed and taken over by supporters of General Manual Noriega. Conservative Party officials ordered an inquiry into the conduct of the ballot for the leadership of the Young Conservatives. British armed forces in the South Atlantic began a 24-day exercise, 'Fire Focus', to test their ability to reinforce the Falklands garrison. The Independent Braodcasting Authority threatened to close TV-am over the 15 per cent `non-EEC' — i.e. Saudi Arabian — stake in the company. A double-decker bus fell into a 26 ft deep hole which suddenly appeared next to the Catholic cathedral in Norwich. The third and final Test against New Zealand was abandoned as a draw: none of the three Tests produced a result.
NATO leaders met at a two-day summit in Brussels. The final communique made it clear — on British insistence — that West Germany's nuclear vommitment would be maintained; the West Germans, however, evidently still believed that they had room to manoeuvre on the question of nuclear weapons based in their country. Final agreement was said to have been reached in Geneva on the timing of Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan although. Pakistan continued to hold out on the arrangements for a transition of authority to guarantee order in Kabul. Following Tibetan New Year celebrations in Lhasa nine people are said to have been killed in clashes between Tibetans and the Chinese. Serious unrest continued in the West Bank as the US Secretary of State, George Shultz, completed his second tour of Mid- dle Eastern capitals. He has asked for replies to his peace plan by 16 March. In Lebanon Mr Peter Coleridge, a co- ordinator for the charity Oxfam, and a Syrian colleague wee kidnapped. A White House spokesman indicated that 'target dates' in late May have been identified for President Reagan's proposed visit to Mos- cow and another possible superpower sum- mit. Soviet authorities said that 31 people had died in the riots in the Azerbaijani city of Sumagait. Henryk Szeryng,
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