PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
`This is the dirtiest election campaign I can remember.'
Asenior British diplomat in Iran, Mr Edward Chaplin, was beaten up and abducted while driving with his family in a car. Under the Vienna Convention he enjoys full diplomatic immunity. He was later released from official custody but apparently faces serious charges. This fol- lowed the arrest of the Iranian vice-consul in Manchester, who had been charged with shop-lifting. The High Court ruled that the Independent did not have a case to answer for printing parts of the Peter Wright unpublished memoirs. Mr John Mac- readie, a supporter of the Militant Tenden- cy, has been voted into the second highest place of the Civil and Public Services Association, the biggest Whitehall union. In the second week of the general election campaign the SDP/Liberal Alliance con- tinued to trail in the polls. The much- expected upturn in their fortunes did not materialise at the stage in the campaign at which Alliance leaders originally predicted it would. Dr Owen is now of the opinion that a dramatic increase in support for Alliance candidates will occur even as late as the last 36 hours before polling day. Labour's early improvement in the polls seemed to have reached its high point, leaving the Conservatives with a clear lead. The general tenor of the campaign con- firmed that modern elections in Britain are now clearly dominated by television cover- age. Screaming Lord Sutch failed to qualify as a candidate in Finchley at this election on a technicality. However, the Prime Minister still faces a challenge there from Lord Buckethead, 'a cold-blooded alien from the planet Woops'.
RASHID Karami, ten times Prime Minis- ter of Lebanon, was killed when a bomb exploded in a helicopter in which he was travelling. A week of mourning was de- clared by President Gemayel. The Amer- ican President hinted in a speech that the United States would seek allied help to ensure free navigation of shipping through the Gulf. He will discuss common security interests at the economic summit in Venice next week. West Germany's government finally agreed to give qualified agreement to the Soviet Union's 'double-zero' propos- al on Euro-missiles. The Prime Minister of Australia, Bob Hawke, called a general election for 11 July. Lindy Chamberlain, who served three years in prison for allegedly murdering her daughter Azaria at Ayers Rock in the Australian outback but claimed that she had been eaten by a dingo, has been granted a pardon because of new evidence. The Sri Lankan govern- ment's advance into the northern parts of the island held by the Tamil 'Tigers' has led to reports of great numbers of deaths and starvation. A proposal by India to send a convoy of ships on humanitarian grounds angered the government in Colombo. A 19-year-old West German, Mathias Rust, flew his plane through Soviet defences and landed in Moscow's Red Square. Mr Gor- bachev, as a consequence, sacked his defence minister, Marshal Sokalov, and the commander of the air defences, Air Chief Marshal Alexandr Koldunov. A man in Hong Kong was admitted to hospital after being struck on the head by a tortoise which had fallen from a high-rise building. Reference Point, the favourite, ridden by Steve Cauthen, won the Derby.
MStJT
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