PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
`OK, Mohammed Abbas, come on out — we know you're in there.'
Four Palestinian pirates who had cap- tured the Italian liner the Achille Lauro, and had killed an old American passenger who was already confined to a wheelchair, surrendered to the Egyptian authorities. The Egyptians appeared to intend to let them go, and a plane took off from Cairo for Tunis, but was intercepted by six American planes and forced to land in Sicily. President Reagan announced in triumph that terrorists everywhere had received the message: 'You can run but you can't hide.' Mohammed Abbas, who had been on the plane from Cairo and is regarded by the Americans as the master- mind behind the operation, did not seem to have received the message: the Italians allowed him to fly to Yugoslavia. Sir Geoffrey Howe called off a meeting with two senior PLO members, one of them the Anglican Assistant Bishop of Jerusalem, who had been invited to visit Sir Geoffrey by Mrs Thatcher when she was in Jordan, and had already arrived in London. The trouble was that they refused publicly to renounce violence and recognise Israel's right to exist. King Hussein, in London after a holiday in Scotland, said it was not Britain's fault that the talks had not taken place. The Archbishop of Canterbury's
personal representative, Mr Terry Waite, said the Assistant Bishop of Jerusalem was opposed to all forms of violence. Dominic McGlinchey, the first terrorist to be extra- dited from the Irish Republic to Northern Ireland, was extradited in the opposite direction to face fresh charges in the South, having been cleared on appeal in the North. Lord Diplock, the longest serving Lord of Appeal, and famous for devising courts without juries to try terrorist off- ences in Northern Ireland, died. Twelve Sikhs and Kashmiris were detained before Rajiv Gandhi arrived on a visit to England. Five members of the Indian Army died trying to climb Mount Everest. Ronald Skjoldhammer, a South African business- man, was convicted at the Old Bailey of fraudulently obtaining £1,400,000 for `Angolan diamonds' which turned out to be glass marbles. Commonwealth leaders went to the Bahamas, to sit round a table made by local convicts and talk about sanctions against South Africa.
THREE blacks, aged 14, 15 and 26, and a white aged 13, were charged with the murder of PC Keith Blakelock during the previous week's riot in Tottenham. A 24-hour strike was held by 1,000 manual
workers employed by Haringey council, in protest against comments made by the council's black leader, Mr Bernie Grant. Mr Grant adopted a more conciliatory tone. Mr David Waddington, a Home Office minister, said that companies seek- ing government contracts might soon have to say how many blacks and Asians they employ, but the Hon. Alan Clark, an employment minister, denounced the scheme as hypocritical, degrading to blacks and likely to increase unemployment. The Conservative Conference ended. Mr Teb- bit appealed to the Government's critics within the party to show more loyalty, but Mr Walker, in a speech regarded by many Tories as disloyal, said that ordinary peo- ple 'now find the Government remote, perhaps uncaring, about what concerns them'. He did not stay in Blackpool for Mrs Thatcher's speech, in which she ma- firmed her opposition to inflation. The rate of inflation fell below six per cent for the first time since February. United NewspaP' ers, owners of Punch and Exchange & Mart, bought Fleet Holdings, owners of the Daily Express. During morning fog on the Ml, 120 vehicles crashed. 'This is the start of the winter motorway madness,' observed a
Northamptonshire policeman. AJSG
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