PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Innocents abroad.
There were many terrorist attacks. In Istanbul, 21 worshippers were killed in a synagogue by two gunmen who also killed themselves. In Karachi, an American air- liner was seized by four terrorists. When the aircraft's generator stopped, they opened fire on the passengers, killing 18 of them in the 15 minutes it took Pakistani soldiers to regain control. Ten people were killed when Muslim terrorists threw a grenade into a Roman Catholic church in the Philippines where a wedding was being celebrated. One woman died in a bomb attack in Paris. In Chile, President Pinochet was ambushed, and while he survived, five of his bodyguards did not. Warrants were issued for the arrest of 26 supporters of Liverpool Football Club allegedly involved in the death of 39 people at the Heysel stadium last year, and wanted for trial in Belgium. In South Africa, violence continued in black townships. The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu, having been enthroned as Archbishop of Cape Town, showed the Archbishop of Canterbury the Crossroads squatter camp, which Dr Runcie said was `even more dramatically dreary than I had expected'. The price of gold reached $425, the highest for three years. Mr Jan Raath, the Times's correspondent in Harare, was expelled, despite being a Zimbabwean citizen. The Soviet Union announced that Mr Nick Daniloff, an American journalist held in Moscow, was to be formally charged with spying. President Reagan told the Soviet authorities that this was an `outrage', and might become a 'major obstacle in our relations'.
THE TUC conference ended after far fewer ructions than at last year's. The conference voted in favour of a minimum wage for eight million workers. Speaking elsewhere, Mr Nigel Lawson, the Chancel- lor of the Exchequer, yet again condemned excessive pay rises. British Coal announced that it would pay eight pounds a week more to its 126,000 employees, despite failing to gain Mr Arthur Scargill's or the NUM's approval. Workers who went on strike would not have their pay rises back-dated. Sir Robert Haslam, the new chairman of the Coal Board, said miners had told him: 'Ignore Mr Scargill. You are the gaffer.' Leaders of unions representing workers in nuclear power stations informed other trade union leaders that they would resist any attempt to run down the nuclear power industry, but the agenda for the Labour Party conference, published soon afterwards, contained many motions demanding this. Mrs Thatcher went to Washington, in County Durham, to open a Japanese car factory for which British taxpayers have helped to pay. General Motors announced the loss of 1,450 more jobs in its Bedford Truck factories at Dunstable and Luton. The Home Office announced fixed penalties which will apply to nearly 250 motoring offences in England and Wales. The Labour Party published a plan to take British Telecom and other recently 'priva- tised' industries into 'social ownership'. A boy drowned off Blackpool trying to save a terrier. In London, a man shot himself in the leg after being trapped by policemen on an underground train, and an inquest heard that an architect had killed himself
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