PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Demoralising the Serbs.
Mr John Major, the Prime Minister, decided to go to Birmingham to encourage candidates in the Conservative interest in the forthcoming local elections. He told a packed House of Commons on his return: `I did appreciate spending some time in Birmingham, which I much enjoyed.' Mr Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, pro- posed to send to jail shopkeepers who sold violent videos to children. He promised a government amendment to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill, in the face of a rival amendment by Mr David Alton, the Liberal Democrat member for Mossley Hill, which had threatened to defeat the Government. Mr John Smith, the leader of the Opposition, spent the week at home after spraining his ankle climbing a small mountain. Mr Bob Cryer, the Labour mem- ber for Bradford South, died in a car crash, aged 59. A body found in a field near Gloucester was thought to be connected with the murder investigation that led to the discovery of nine corpses in 25 Cromwell Street. A postmaster and magis- trate, Nam Dev Bagla, of Handsworth, Birmingham, was jailed for three years for cashing benefit cheques signed J. Major, T. Rex and A. Schwarzenegger. An army major who resigned after becoming preg- nant was awarded £299,951 damages by a Glasgow industrial tribunal. The Church in Wales voted against the ordination of women as priests. A chimpanzee named Bustah, aged 33, bit off a lady zoo-keeper's thumb and a finger at Port Lympne zoo owned by Mr John Aspinall; the same crea- ture had in previous years torn off a little boy's arm and eaten a keeper's finger. Paul Gascoigne, a footballer, broke his right leg in two places. Miinnehoma, owned by Fred- die Starr and ridden by Richard Dun- woody, won the Grand National at 16-1; Only six horses finished.
NATO Aeroplanes carried out repeated strikes against Serb positions around the Bosnian Muslim so-called 'safe area' of Gorazde. F16s and F18/A Hornets destroyed a tank and two armoured person- nel carriers. The raids were made at the request of United Nations forces under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Michael Rose. Mr Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader, said that the general was acting like a colonial ruler. President Boris Yeltsin of Russia made known his anger at not being consulted. Thousands of people were killed in Rwanda, mostly Tut- sis murdered by Hutus. The violence fol- lowed the deaths of President Juvenal Hab- yarimana of Rwanda and President Cyprien Ntaryamira of the neighbouring state of Burundi when their aircraft was shot down. Troops of the Rwandan Patriotic Front moved in on Kigali, the capital, as drunken government soldiers roamed the streets and foreigners were evacuated by air. In the Ukrainian elections communists emerged as the largest party; most of the seats went to independents; nationalists dominated in the west; and seats in the Crimea went to pro-Moscow candidates. Ukrainian sailors freed more than 100 Russians they had been holding in Odessa in a continuing dis- pute over the control of the Black Sea fleet. Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky,. the leader of the Liberal Democrats in Russia, threw pot- plants at demonstrators outside the Rus- sian consulate in Strasbourg. Mr Morihiro Hosokawa, the Prime Minister of Japan, resigned after allegations of financial impropriety; the seven-party ruling coali- tion found difficulty agreeing on a succes- sor. President Clinton of the United States and Mrs Clinton paid $14,000 in back taxes deriving from undeclared profits on her speculations in the commodities market. Ella Fitzgerald, aged 75, the jazz singer, had her legs amputated below the knee a year ago. Kurt Cobain, the leader of the grunge-rock group Nirvana, shot himself,
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