PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Several bodies were found at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, and police began looking for more nearby; newspapers implied that a man charged with murdering three women was guilty, though he has pleaded not guilty. An 85-year-old widow was stabbed to death as she walked to Sun- day morning Communion at Wimborne Minster. Mr John Major, the Prime Minis- ter, said Britain would send 900 more troops to Bosnia if other countries rallied round, but it proved hard to persuade them to do so. The Malaysian High Commission- er kindly suggested that his country's ban on British companies being employed on state projects might be lifted if British newspapers were 'accurate' in their reports; Mr Richard Needham, a trade minister, accused the Sunday Times of 'fanciful exag- geration', and criticised its editor, Mr Andrew Neil, for likening 'the Malaysian government to Hitler'. All this arose from allegations that the Malaysian Prime Minis- ter had been offered some small bribes some years ago. The parliamentary inquiry into the grant of more than £200 million to Malaysia for a dam at Pergau rumbled on, with Lord Younger, a former defence sec- retary, saying he was partly to blame for aid being entangled with arms sales. Mr William Waldegrave, the minister for pub- lic service, who is responsible for open gov- emment, told a parliamentary committee that 'in exceptional cases, it is necessary to say something that is untrue in the House of Commons'. The Audit Commission said that millions could be saved if doctors pre- scribed drugs rationally. Thousands of pris- oners were found to be claiming social security benefits. The House of Lords voted against a Bill that would have allowed eldest daughters to inherit titles to peer- ages. It emerged that among jewellery belonging to the Prince of Wales stolen from St James's Palace was a pair of rose diamond cufflinks which once belonged to the last Tsar. Mr David Spedding of Hen- ley-upon-Thames is the new head of MI6. A cat called Scribbles was rescued by fire- men after two weeks down a well in Headley, Hampshire.
OPPONENTS of President Bill Clinton of the United States called for a congressional hearing into the allegations of misconduct regarding property deals in Arkansas when he was Governor there. Mr Bernard Nuss- baum, the chief legal adviser to the Presi- dent resigned. Mr Clinton appeared on television to make an odd claim about his wife: 'I have never known a person with a stronger sense of right and wrong in my life — ever.' At the time he was standing next to President Eduard Shevardnadze of Georgia, who had come to ask him, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for money, and the United Nations for more peacekeeping troops. China reacted angrily to a recommendation by Mr Clinton that some dissidents it had imprisoned last week should be freed; Mr Warren Christopher, the American Secre- tary of State, visited China. Chinese pirates were reported to be in action off the shores of Hong Kong with the approval of Peking. Germany threatened to ban imports of British beef because of mad cow disease. Muslim militants fired upon three trains in southern Egypt and injured six; they were said to be trying to discourage tourism. More than 60 were killed and 300 injured in a train crash in South Africa. Thousands of Mexican Indians in Chiapas state demonstrated, calling for the removal from office of 21 mayors. A school production of Peter Pan in Long Island was cancelled because local Indians objected to words such as `redskins' and 'How!' Frank Sinatra, aged 78, the popular crooner, fell over in Virginia half way through singing the embarrassing song My Way. Walter Kent, the author of The White Cliffs of Dover, died in Los Angeles, aged 82; he first visited Dover in 1989. Melina Mercouri, the actress and Greek politician, died, aged
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