The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 1

TCJTT 11 lnuS WBM 1988 copy is available from any AA centre. Or telephone i (021)5507648 Published in London and Manchester Saturday 23 January 1988 PL TRAVEL, 8-11 ARTS, PAGES 12-13 SPORT, PAGES 15-18 PAGE GRASSROOTS, PAGE 20 li 1 ULIhite-out iV in rfftfti Neil vorsc Terry Coleman Down Under A. cap it isy -IPKKSfuUaBtShf, 1 I mm i Abortion bill victors consider 'stop the clock' option to ease opponents' anxieties over risk of more handicapped babies News in brief Alton in mood to compromise The compromise, as outlined by Alton supporters last night, would still mean that mothers who delay asking for abortions, who do not know they are pregnant, or are delayed by NHS hold-ups, would be denied abortions. Nearly 3,000 of the post-18-week abortions in 1986 were to women under the age of 20, and another 253 were to pre-meno-pausal women aged 40 and over, Mr Newton told MPs. That raised the prospect of women returning to the backstreet abortionists who all but vanished after the introduction of the 1967 Abortion Act.

Mr Newton warned: "It would be rash to say there would be no return whatsoever to some degree of abortion outside the law." He favoured a 24-week limit, he said, but he told the Commons: "I do not find myself able to support the passage of the bill in the form in which it has been presented today." Yesterday's five-hour debate was the least acrimonious of the 15 attempts to change the abortion laws since 1967. Mr Alton, who confirmed that he believed, all abortions were murder, signalled from the start that he was prepared to make concessions on two key points exclusions for foetal abnormality and possibly the time limit itself in order to get the bill on to the statute book. He told MPs: "In my judgment, 18 weeks is about the right time. I recognise that there are strongly held views throughout the Commons and it would, be proper to examine other possible time limits in committee." After the vote, he said he believed it would still be a worthwhile bill if exclusions from the 18-week time limit were also allowed on the grounds that the baby was likely to be bom disabled. AJthough there was a hard core of Alton supporters who1 regarded the 18-week bill as a major concession, it was obvi Turn to back page, col 3 sensible compromise." Another" option, exempting some severe abnormalities from the 18-week limit, would be be unpractical, he said.

The women most seriously affected would be the 500 a year who have abortions after 18 weeks of pregnancy because their babies are severely deformed, according to figures given by Mr Newton, yesterday: 6 per cent of the 8,276 after-18-week terminations in England in 1986 were on grounds of foetal handicap, he told MPs. Tests such as amniocentesis and ultrasound for spina bifida and other severe malformations were not performed until the 16th to 18th weeks of pregnancy, Mr Newton said. Many of those mothers -would be beyond the 18-week: limit when the results came. He said: "As the bill stands it is hard to resist the conclusion that there would be some increase in the numbers of severely handicapped children, whose mother Would 'otherwise have an abortion." bill, voiced with considerable influence in yesterday's debate by the health minister, Mr Tony Newton, is that it will increase the number of handicapped babies because most tests to diagnose defects cannot be completed before 18 weeks of pregnancy. So late yesterday, Mr Alton's supporters began work on a stopthe-clock option which would mean that once tests had Debate report and how MPs voted, page Leader comment, page 14 begun, the woman would be assured of an abortion even if it takes more than 18 weeks to get a result.

Mr Alton's medical adviser, Professor Ronald Taylor, head of obstetrics and gynaecology at St Thomas's Hospital, London, said: "Once tests have started, they would be completed and the termination would go ahead even if' it was later than 18 weeks. It is a Nurses 'betrayed9 UNION leaders who encouraged strikes by nurses were betraying their members, Mr John Moore, the Social Services Secretary, said last night. Back page Ferry pay-out A FAMILY who lost their breadwinner in the Zeebrugge ferry disaster have received compensation above the usual level in a settlement expected to become a model for future claims. Page 4 Women exploited DEAFNESS and birth defects are occupational hazards for Soviet female textile according to a devastating attack on their exploitation published in an official newspaper. Page 7 Bombs kill five AT LEAST five people died when two bombs exploded in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, during the funeral of the Pa-than leader Khan Abdul Chaf-far Khan.

Page 6 MI5 'licence' SIR John Donaldson, the Master of the Rolls, said that law-breaking by MI5 is in the public interest and the courts should be pragmatic about its Page 2 Scargill ahead MR Arthur Scargill looked set to stay-MUM leader after yesterday's ballots, but with a reducwl rtajbriry. Page-2 Inside Arts, Reviews 12, 3 Bridge Business and Finance 21-26 Chess .7 Entertainments' nsMmaM2Q Grassroots 20 Home News 14 Overseas News Personal mtcmmmm itm6f)7 29 Property ,..27 a S-1 1 -3Q-31 Sports News TV and Radio fl fl ca a a of. the giant Prudential Corporation NOTICE PRO MERGER IN FIRST 1 1 CARRIAGES ANTI-MERGER IN LAST REMAINING CARRIAGE fheg ties up free vote SKETCH Andrew Rawnsley ISSUES of conscience are things modern government avoids. The whips take the day off. MPs can be themselves.

It is a startling sight watching them, for a morning, allowed to be individuals rather than footsoldiers in the trench warfare of usual parliamentary debate. The battle lines were flexible enough to form a horseshoe which could embrace Andrew Mackay, usually to be found on the Bomb The Avatollah wing of the Tory party, with Mildred Gordon, from Labour's outside left. The Rev. Ian Paisley read poetry and talked about Christian tolerance. Terry Dicks, a-dial-a-hanging-quote Tory whose phone, any other day, you would happily disconnect, talked, with some power, about himself: "Fifty years ago a mother aged 40 had a son who was a spastic.

That was me, the MP for Hayes and Harlington. I owe my right to life, my right to be here because luckily the technology was not there for a doctor to advise my mother to have an abortion." Then, like so many others, he spoilt it. "The minute that any woman takes part in any MxuJl act other than by rcej she loses her complete rights to control over her own body." Thus he achieved a parodv of the rigbt-to-lifers which Alton's opponents could nd have equalled. Clare jshort talked movingly about how she was born Catholic family where it seemed all quite simple and left it for a world where it was anything but. "Every man in this House who has used a woman and walked away has no right to vote in this debate.

Most of the men here would have to walk away." Ruining a case by overstating it informed too much of the debate. Some of it was a caricature of argument, a bombardment of rival grotesque images which would have better been left outside the door. David Alton, talking about the procedures for terminating late pregnancies by poisoning the foetus in the womb: "The skull is crushed, the spine is snapped and the body is removed. The attendant nurse then has the job of re-assembling the body to be certain that none of it has been left behind." Peter Thurnham, otherwise one of the bill's most effective opponents, was drawn into the same grotesque game: "What would he (David Alton) say about the baby which was featured on the front page of a newspaper recently which was born with two heads and is living?" Rationalism got its head into the debate in the shape of Tony Newton, the health minister. "Honourable members must make their own judgment," said Mr Newton, who had the only statistics and background it seemed safe for any agnostic to trust.

It was unlikely that back-street abortions would return, he said. "But it would also be rash to say there is Turn to back page, col 3 fir DIVIDE AND RULE: Liberal By Andrew Veitch and Alan Travis Mr David Alton won the first round of his campaign to cut the abortion time limit from 28 to 18 weeks with a clear majority in the Commons yesterday. But his supporters immediately began work on a compromise to win over MPs concerned that women will be forced to give birth to babies if the bill becomes law. The majority of 45 for the second reading is too slim to ensure victory when the bill comes back to the Commons for its third reading, probably in the late spring. Mr Alton must take account of the voting 296 to 251 when he picks the members of the committee which will now shape the bill for the third reading.

That will limit the number oi hard line anti-abortionists the Liberal MP can choose. The central objection to the Liberals try to change the rules By John Carvel, Political Correspondent As Liberal delegates gathered in Blackpool last night for today's special assembly on merger with the SDP, attempts were being made to change the rules to make it possible for the union to go ahead even if it does not get the two thirds majority neoded A proposal from ifie ppliig Forest constituency" party was accepted by the conference steering committee foft debate. It says that, if the merger pack-' age is approved by morejhan 50 per cent of the but less than two thirds, it should be submitted to a ballot of the membership. Merger would then occur if the ballot gave it a two thirds majority. There was still considerable doubt about the prospects for union, whether or not this change is accepted.

Mr Jim Leader comment, page 14 Wallace, the Liberal Chief Whip, said: "I would never count my chickens but I think we are well on course for a two thirds plus With many delegates believed to be still undecided, however, the anti-merger group was also confident that it could achieve at least a blocking third. Mr Tony Greaves, a leading Liberal activist, said: "The real myth is that there is a SDP to merge with. There is not. The SDP has clearly splintered and fractured into different He said that Social Democrats who supported Dr David Owen were the natural allies of the Conservative Party and that Liberals should have no truck with them. He described the supporters of Mr Robert Maclennan, the SDP leader, as a "pathetic remnant" which had only two MPs, about half the SDP councillors and only 20,000 of the party's 60,000 members.

"Merger with what? Big deal. Most of the people we would wish to ally with would come and join us within six months and the rest we don't Mr Steel was asked last night Turn to back page.col ca's love of weaponry. California's Horse Racing Board has 16 armed agents, the Mental Health Department gives guns to 88 hospital personnel, and Alcoholic Beverage Control has 280 officers with firearms. More puzzling is why the Department of Motor Vehicles, which handles registration and issues driving licences, should require 241 armed officers unless it is to quell violent public outrage at the DMV's notoriously slow service. Other departments with armed "peace officers" as they are called in apt Orwellian double-speak are the Board of Medical Quality Assurance, Social Services, the State Lottery, and Consumer Affairs.

delegates awaiting their train at Euston, where a joking Genetic test traps girls' killer Tony Newton: illegal abortions tear He also voiced concern over women found to be infected by the Aids virus late in pregnancy. As the bill the stands, the only exceptions are for babies whose deformities are incompatible with 'life, and for mothers whose lives are at risk. The court heard that Pitch fork had killed Lynda Mann after driving his wife to an evening class. He left his four- month-old son in a carrycot in the car while he stalked the girl on a footpath near Narborough. He was alleged to have told police: "I ripped her clothes off and jumped on her and Deat her up.

Mr Brian Escort Cox, QC, prosecuting, said: "He exhibited ereat self control and what must have been a total lack of remorse neither his wife, whom he picked up later, nor anyone else, suspected he had been involved in this terrible crime." Three years later he carried out the identical rape and murder of Dawn Ashworth, who suffered "appalling A man working nearby heard her screams but thought someone was playing about. Pitchfork told police he killed the girls because he feared they would identify him. The court heard he enjoyed exposing himself to young women and was a sexual psychotic. Evasive double killer, page 4 sheriffs deputies, the Highway Patrol, and District Attorneys' offices. The Department of Justice, US Post Office, national parks, airports, universities, and even some railways also have armed police.

As well as the FBI, US Marshals, Secret Service and drug investigators, there are at least a dozen other federal agencies with armed agents. With their state equivalents, they may carry weapons off-duty. Yet in the "land of the free' this extraordinary possession of force against the citizenry is rarely noted. The proliferation of official firearms does not appear to be resented but this may be because few realise: its extent. claim to be something of a big fish in pool.

But a shark, never. In is hardly enough to convince you it is to invest in our PEP. Until CHOOSE A PEP US WHEN THERE PLENTY OF OTHER FISH IN THE SEA? Pictures: Garry Weaser I a ft ft I. As part ARE you add not in a Surname. I I I ffl we can the financial itself, this how prudent WHY FROM to This not growth, but safer, why our For more I to 2,400, Prudential I required), that the fact that ours is invested.

handful of shares, but in up to 20. notice suggested new splits. Duchess unruffled by assault From Jane Rosen and agencies in New York A young Irish Republican sympathiser, screaming "murderers" and brandishing a flag on a pole, was in police custody yesterday after trying to attack the Duchess of York outside her Manhattan hotel. The Duchess was unhurt in the attempted assault in front of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. A British embassy spokesman said that she was "perfectly relaxed about it." The Duchess arrived in New York City on Wednesday to attend a gala Broadway benefit performance of The Phantom of the Opera.

The suspect, identified as Michael Shanley, aged 22, of New York, was being held at Ithe federal Metropolitan Cor rectional Centre Manhattan. He has been charged with attempted assault on the Duchess and assault on a federal agent. "Two security agents of the State Department's diplomatic security service grabbed the man before he reached the Duchess," an American official said. "She was immediately rushed inside the hotel by other members of the department's protective detail." Earlier on Thursday night, about 50 IRA supporters picketed outside the theatre as the Duchess pulled up in a Phantom Rolls Royce. The pickets carried Irish flags and chanted "IRA all the The play's performance was to benefit the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theatre Centre in Connecticut, the Royal College of Music in London and the Sick Children's Trust for pa tients and their families at the Great Ormond Street and St Bartholomew's hospitals.

Among those present was Andrew Lloyd Webber, who composed the musical extravaganza. received three years for conspiring to pervert the course of justice by getting Ian Kelly to take his place on the genetic test. All sentences are to run concurrently. Kelly, aged 23, of Leicester, admitted conspiracy and was jailed for two years, suspended for 18 months. The prosecution accepted that lie did not know he was shielding the killer.

The deception was revealed by another workmate. Colin Pitchfork: tried to avoid DNA-test pensions, retire five years earlier, and pay less social security taxes. Yet there is also a definite trend in the US towards becoming not a police state but the world's most policed country. As well as numerous state police there are non-police federal security forces carrying guns. These include the Internal Revenue Service, US Customs, Immigration and Naturalisation Service, the Border Patrol and US Supreme Court bailiffs, who have powers of arrest anywhere in the US.

Citizens are simultaneously under scrutiny from Public Housing Police (who, in San Francisco have shot a person dead), state and city police, By Paul Hoyland A man who killed two 15-year-old girls and was caught as the result of the first mass screening for genetic fingerprints, was sent to prison for life yesterday. He had tried to avoid the test by talking a workmate into taking it instead. Mr Justice Otton, sentencing Colin Pitchfork, aged 27, at Leicester Crown Court, said he was a danger to young women. Had it not been for the development of the genetic fingerprint test, which identifies unique chromosome patterns from a sample of blood or saliva, he might still be at large. Pitchfork, of Littlethorpe, near Leicester, who is married with two children, admitted strangling teenagers Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth in 1983 and 1986.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment on two counts of murder, and was also gaoled for ten years on two counts of raping the girls. He admitted two charges of indecently assaulting two other girls and was gaoled for three years on each count. He also The pistol-packing civil servants came to public notice with a state assembly debate on arming 86 Employment Development Department investigators. This office handles unemployment and disability benefits. There have been no dental surgery shoot-outs yet but a Board of Dental Examiners official suggested: "There are dentists out there who have criminal leanings." Those who have received California's huge dental bills might agree, but gunfire seems a drastic solution.

One reason for a trigger-happy bureaucracy may be the privileges that go with guns. "Peace officers" receive better only gives you 20 opportunities for should also make any investment especially in troubled times. Which is PEP stands out from the small fry. bureaucrats get trigger-happy ra a information on investing up clip the coupon and send it to Holborn Ltd, Freepost (no stamp llford, Essex IG1 1BR. First Name.

Address From Christopher Reed in San Francisco Hollywood has made us familiar with the intrepid US agent who bursts in, gun at the ready, and shouts "freeze But in the dentist's surgery? Or while checking out a new insurance policy Californians have been surprised to discover that 14 state departments have their own police, of which more than 1,000 carry guns. They include such crime-infested fields as the Board of Dental Examiners, the Department of Insurance Regulation, and the Labour Standards Enforcement Division. Other armed departments are less surprising, given Ameri Code. (OR PHONE FREE TODAY 0800 010345) rLDBNfTIAL HOLBORN ffi i A 13 I HE.