Portrait of the week
Only a few days after Sir Geoffrey Howe said that the exchange rate for sterling Lweuld be set by market forces, the clearing 'auks, prompted by the Government, rais- ed their base lending rates by 1 to 1.25 Percentage points. The value of the pound, Which had fallen below $1.57 due to 'a dal. all Misunderstanding by markets' (accor- I;,ng to Mr Jenkin, the Industry Secretary), t"hier recovered to $1.63. Mrs Thatcher said b at the Government was 'not in the business of ... devaluing the currency'. he reduction of mortgage rates this week oas not affected. At the end of a meeting in teJleva of 88 ministers representing coun- said that the exchange rate for sterling Lweuld be set by market forces, the clearing 'auks, prompted by the Government, rais- ed their base lending rates by 1 to 1.25 Percentage points. The value of the pound, Which had fallen below $1.57 due to 'a dal. all Misunderstanding by markets' (accor- I;,ng to Mr Jenkin, the Industry Secretary), t"hier recovered to $1.63. Mrs Thatcher said b at the Government was 'not in the business of ... devaluing the currency'. he reduction of mortgage rates this week oas not affected. At the end of a meeting in teJleva of 88 ministers representing coun- N ih.'es affiliated to GATT (General Agree- 'bent on Tariffs and Trade), a 17-page f `e'aration commended the principle of toree trade but fell far short of an agreement cdo Much about it. OPY stories abounded. Professor Hugh atlibleton, formerly employed by NATO, ettas,,tried at the Old Bailey for having work- w '0r Russia over a period of 30 years. He thaps ,alleged to have dined. in Moscow with kii. thee head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov. s,sts Rhona Ritchie was given a suspended e, houence for communicating information to tihr. ,EgYptian lover while she was at the Airitish embassy in Tel Aviv. L/Cpl :ridge of the Army Intelligence Corps 's arrested, suspected of having contacted Iv: Russian embassy during the Falklands Q-cr,' The suicide of a radio operator at Cheltenham (where Geoffrey Prime Ite,r7 also employed) was apparently uncon- si'ted With any treacherous activities. Mr prersiPen Ward, an osteopath involved in the tv 71.11:nt0 affair, was said to have been sLillg for MI5 at the time he committed --we in 1963.
r Garret FitzGerald \seemed certain to I) 41,, be the next Taoiseach of Ireland after ro`.general election had provided no clear PiaPritY for Fianna Fail (75 seats) or for of,-e,,Pael (70 seats). Mr Dick Spring, leader we 'Lite Labour Party (16 seats) for three like,e," and a former rugby international, is gocY to get an important post in a coalition wa,ertunent. In Japan, Yasuhiro Nakasone ih.,-- elected prime minister with the all- ant backing backing of Kakuei Tanaka, a kitp.ttler prime minister now on trial for L `GedlY receiving 500 million yen from the w't)eh,s1(..heed Corporation. Mr Nakasone, Tatre first cabinet was composed largely of Nit aka proteges, said that he had tried `to iri the right men in the right place'. In 1aitp°11, The Organisation of African Unity to ed, for the second time in four months, oaconvene a summit meeting, because Col. (0 tIclart refused to allow President Habre represent the government of Chad.
Having frustrated an attempted coup in Ghana, Flight-Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, head of state, appointed himself chief of defence staff on the 'resignation' of Brigadier Nunoo-Mensah. Mrs Maureen Smith was given leave to appeal against her conviction and death sentence in South Africa for the murder of her husband by hired hands. France agreed to take over a US contract to sell uranium to India.
The Vatican formally rejected respon- sibility for the debts of the bankrupt Banco Ambrosiano (former president, Sig Calvi, death by hanging under Blackfriars Bridge), but promised to co-operate in trying to unravel the bank's relationship with the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (the Vatican bank). Vatican funds will be con- siderably improved in 1983 by the Pope's declaration of a Holy Year to celebrate the 1,950th anniversarY of the death of Christ. Mr and Mrs Malcolm Muggeridge were received into the Catholic Church, at a Mass of Thanksgiving attended by Lord and Lady Longford and a number of press reporters and photographers.
Of five letter bombs sent to politicians, possibly by the 'Animal Rights Militia', one exploded, slightly injuring an employee at 10 Downing Street. Undeterred by a 14-day prison sentence for refusing to keep the peace in Berkshire, several women returned to Greenham air base in inclement weather to continue their vigil for world peace without Cruise missiles. Queen Helen of Romania died at 86. In Marseilles, Em- manuel Vitra celebrated 14 years with a
b transplanted heart, but the surgeon who gave it to him died of a heart attack. Australia won the second Test match in Brisbane by seven wickets, and the cricket season opened in Argentina. SPC
'KGB card — that'll do nicely, sir.'
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