'POSITIONS SOUGHT: due to a change in overall political circumstances beyond their control, six actors now available for regular voice-over work. Irish accents a speciality.'

(First Edition)

(First Edition)

GERRY ADAMS, the Sinn Fein president, was unlawfully banned from Britain to stop him embarrassing the Government by revealing to MPs the existence of secret talks on Northern Ireland, the High Court was told yesterday.

Magdeburg - The Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens in the east German state of Saxony-Anhalt voted yesterday to form a minority government, which will rely on tacit support from reform communists. The deal is the first in which the mainstream parties will depend on the reform communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). The so-called Red-Green coalition will have 41 seats in the 99- seat state parliament. Reuter

Sinn Fein yesterday passed the crucial task of deciding its formal response to the Downing Street declaration to a delegate conference to be held in mid-July. But hopes that it could lead to an early IRA ceasefire are unlikely to bear fruit, as the delegates will not be given, or asked to provide, any recommendation to the IRA.

GYULA HORN, the reformed Communist who as Hungary's foreign minister in 1989 was instrumental in the decision to dismantle the Iron Curtain, now appears certain to be the next prime minister.

The Prime Minister's office yesterday denied it was being drawn into negotiating with the IRA over its response to questions put by Sinn Fein on the Downing Street Declaration.

Tokyo - The Justice Minister, Shigeto Nagano, resigned yesterday after his attempt to whitewash Japan's deeds in Asia during the Second World War ignited a furious controversy in neighbouring countries.

THE RUC yesterday described the killing of the wife of a Sinn Fein member by loyalists in south Belfast on Thursday night as 'a blatantly sectarian murder'.

SINN FEIN officials went to Downing Street yesterday to hand in a letter demanding clarification of the British and Irish governments' declaration on the first day of the IRA's three- day ceasefire.

Sir Patrick Mayhew, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, yesterday supported a decision to grant the Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, legal aid to fight a government ban preventing him entering Britain.

SINN FEIN will give a definitive reply to the Downing Street peace declaration 'very soon', the SDLP leader, John Hume, forecast yesterday. Mr Hume made his prediction before receiving an honorary degree from Dublin City University.

ROY HATTERSLEY, a Labour heavyweight who fought against the left-wing take-over of the party, yesterday revealed he would be stepping down at the next election after 30 years in Parliament.