Portrait of the week
The Labour Party was reported to have been infiltrated by 1,000 'moles', or Trotskyite subversives, who were behind the recent attempt to take over union activities in the Cowley car plant. This news was said to have upset Labour party officials. Mean- while members of Labour's 'hard Left' formed an organisation called 'Labour Briefing' which was hoping to unite various revolutionary and Trotskyist groupings. The new caucus has in the past received the support of the GLC leader, Ken Liv- ingstone, and left-wing hopes were express- ed that it would swing the next general elec- tion in Labour's favour. The United States announced that it had compiled a list of 40,000 targets in the Soviet Union for possi- ble attack in the event of a nuclear war. This number had risen from 25,000 targets in 1974. President Reagan's doctor said that his Patient was getting rather deaf. A United States Congressman visiting Nor- thern Ireland said that he had found evidence of systematic discrimination against Roman Catholics in the Province. Firms found to practise discrimination in- cluded Shorts, the Belfast aircraft manufac- turers, who are currently trying to win a £20 million order from the United States, Shorts later stated that although they had few Catholics working for them this was due to lack of applicants. The Irish National Liberation Army, a terrorist organisation said to be even more brutal than the IRA, lost two hostages to the Irish police. The hostages were relatives of a former member of INLA and had been taken in an effort to dissuade the ex-terrorist from giving evidence against the organisation. Four more hostages remained in INLA's hands. A brutal homosexual attack on a six-year- old Brighton boy resulted in such an outcry that rewards of £30,000 were offered for in- formation leading to the conviction of three men sought by the police. A mysterious kidney disease that has caused three deaths in the last month was investigated by the government • scientific research establish- ment at Porton Down. Reports that the disease had been linked to ice cream sold from vans were denied.
In the central African republic of Chad French Foreign Legion armoured units joined paratroopers in preparing for com- bat with Libyan tanks which had invaded the northern part of the country. 4,000 French troops were said to be in the country and they suffered their first casualties. Western defence experts anticipated that the conflict could become a useful testing ground for a variety of new weapons. The French forces were under the command of a veteran of Indochina and Algeria. In- telligence sources said that the war between Iran and Iraq which has been waged since September 1980 had claimed the lives al, 125,000 Iranians and 50,000 Iraqis. Some estimates put the casualties very much higher at a total of 500,000 which was coin; parable in use of manpower to the tactics 01 the First World War. In Manila, . the Philippines opposition leader, Mr Benign.° Aquino, returned after three years of vole and was engulfed at the airport by a detach; ment of security guards. The crowd .01 guards parted leaving Mr Aquino dead With a bullet through the back of his head and° civilian lunatic capering around holding a, pistol. The lunatic' was then shot dead and said to have been the assassin. President Marcos later denied any responsibility O the mysterious shooting which he regretted' At Peterhouse, Cambridge, a saor fellow and mathematician was told that he must vacate his rooms by the end of the year after his routine reappointment had been blocked by Lord Dacre, the Master' This move resulted in a semi-public row,: with several other fellows of the college °I fering their departing colleague their sur port. The cause of the disagreement was thought to be a proposal currently before the Privy Council to admit women to the college for the first time.
The Department of Health started compile a report into the safety °1 nurses' uniforms, the majority of which were thought to be highly inflammable. sculpture exhibited outside the Royal ,1 Festival Hall and composed of 5,000 o'" rubber tyres was set on fire and it took O.° London fire brigade seven hours to bring , under control. Police suspected arson. The TUC issued a directive to ban pin ups from all factories and offices on the grounds that sexual harassment was a trade union mattert. and had to be taken seriously. A plague great white sharks continued off the easter° seaboard of the United States. A female sea captain became the fourth person to bar' poon one, hers weighing 3,000lbs. OA° Marquess of Blandford spent the weeken, in the cells at Chelsea police station charge" with stealing a car and assaulting ° policeman. He gave his occupation as 'First one to levitate it gets it.'
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