From today’s Times, describing the “charm offensive” by Omar Hassan al-Bashir who is expected to be indicted soon on charges of genocide:
The minute he stepped off the plane here, a white dove was thrust into his hands.
Mr. Bashir threw the bird toward the sky. It flapped its wings a few times, but did not really fly.
No bother. Mr. Bashir beamed and strutted down the runway.
Am I to take it from this glancing reference that the dove that was thrown towards the sky then plummeted back to the earth, perhaps to it’s death?