THE LORD Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, may be facing fresh trouble over his home improvements – this time at his retreat in Scotland. He provided no further details on the agreement.Officials of three Swiss banks – Credit Suisse, Union Bank of Switzerland and the Swiss Bank Corp – felt the agreement was “a very important step forward”, said Robert O’Brien, US corporate banking head for Credit Suisse.The deal does not affect a separate commission, headed by Paul Volcker,the former Federal Reserve Board chairman, which is auditing dormant Holocaust- era accounts in Swiss banks to determine their rightful owners. However, their work is far from done as the participants still have not reached a consensus on how much money would be involved.
“I felt it was very important not to put the cart before the horse, not to start throwing dollar amounts out before we agreed to a structure,” Mr Eizenstat said outside the hearing.Lawyers have filed a multi-billion- dollar class action suit in the case.According to Mr Eizenstat, all the various claims filed would go into a “rough justice fund” that would eventually pay off the plaintiffs whose money and other assets wound up in Switzerland during and after the Second World War. NEW YORK (AP) – The structure for a “global settlement” between Swiss banks and Holocaust-era victims and their survivors was in place last night after a day-long hearing prompted by charges that the bankers had been unco-operative. Stuart Eizenstat, the US Under Secretary of State, announced the agreement between the banks, lawyers in the civil suit, and the World Jewish Congress.

The protest has been sparked by the local council’s decision to fell 56 poplar trees that line the bank of the River Thames, blocking the view of a new luxury home development. The responsibility for removing the protesters, originally 60 in number, falls to the under- sheriff of Greater London, John Hargrove, with 140 private security guards under his control A police spokeswoman said around 120 officers were on duty.. Doug Henderson, the Minister for Europe, said: “It is about time Mr Hague told the British people exactly where the Tories stand on this important issue instead of changing his mind every five minutes in a desperate bid to cover up the deep divisions within his own party.”. TWO environmental protesters spent last night underground in specially dug tunnels as the campaign against the felling of 56 trees continued. Police said yesterday evening that the operation to remove the remaining eco-warriors from the tunnels at Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, had been halted for the night.
“There are still two protesters underground but the attempt to remove them has now stopped until tomorrow morning,” said a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police. But the hero of the Tory right Mr Portillo has shown no doubts over his own stance on the single currency, to which he is opposed in principle.Labour seized on Mr Hague’s diffidence, and accused the Tory leader of changing his position “more frequently than Eurostar leaves Waterloo”.

I am not always sure, in any case, what that would mean.”I don’t think it’s ever right to say we will never, we can never imagine going into something like that.”Michael Portillo, a former secretary of state for defence, softened his own image after losing his seat by admitting mistakes over social policy and the family by the Conservative Government at a fringe meeting at last year’s Tory party conference. Within days of being at the centre, where youngsters swim with the mammals, he had uttered his first few stumbling words.
“We hadn’t been there long when Nikki was told to get out of the water at the end of a dolphin swimming session and he stood very quietly at the side of the tank,” said his mother, Tabitha.”He was telling us that he wanted to get back in the water. So I don’t think it would be right to say we should never go into it.”He said his opposition to the single currency in this and the next Parliament now amounted to a nine-year period. But he clearly signalled that he wanted to abandon any linkage to a firm number of years.”What I have always said is that we intend to oppose at the next general election That would mean for the next Parliament. WILLIAM HAGUE was accused yesterday by Labour of being “vague” after admitting that he might be wrong in ruling out Britain’s entry to a European single currency for 10 years. The admission that he might be wrong is a rare step for any politician, but the Conservative Party leader’s remarks on a phone-in programme will revive speculation – killed only last week – that he is preparing to soften his policy on the Euro. He said Tory opposition to the single currency could last for as little as six years, depending on the length of the next Parliament.
Mr Hague reaffirmed his policy of keeping Britain out of Emu during the lifetime of this and the next Parliament, highlighting what he saw as the huge economic and political risks the single currency posed for the UK.However, he added: “But I might be wrong about that.

I might be wrong; over a long period, I might be demonstrated to be wrong. Mr Kelly alone also pleads not guilty to dishonestly handling.The jury at Southwark Crown Court, south London earlier heard that Mr Kelly paid Mr Lindsay, a former RCS trainee lab technician, pounds 400 to help smuggle out “a large number” of parts of dead bodies after wrapping them in bin liners and putting them into a rucksack.Sometimes the sculptor took them home on his motorbike, while on other occasions Mr Lindsay would ferry them to Mr Kelly’s flat by taxi.After preparing casts of the items, he made “exact copy” sculptures which were displayed at an exhibition in London last year.Police began an investigation and some of the body parts were exhumed by officers from a makeshift grave in a field next to Mr Kelly’s family home in Smarden, Kent.Other items were recovered from the basement of a flat belonging to an unsuspecting girlfriend in Brixton, south London.The haul of some 50 body parts was taken to Greenwich mortuary, catalogued and then examined by a pathologist.His report, which was read to the jury yesterday, listed the head and torso, another head, numerous limbs, feet, toes and just about every other part of the human body, including a portion of a brain, a right buttock, what was thought to be male genitalia, and some “unrecognisable” items.The court has heard that in interviews with police, Mr Kelly and Mr Lindsay admitted taking the items after discovering that the RCS had held them for longer than the three years allowed under the special licences granted by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Anatomy.They contended this meant the institution had forfeited any right to them and therefore they could not be guilty of stealing them from the college.The case resumes on Monday.. In between rested another example of Mr Kelly’s work – a large chunk of a woman’s body dissected to reveal part of her womb.Both Mr Kelly, of Clapham, south London, and Mr Lindsay, from Stoke Newington, north London, deny one charge of stealing “human anatomical specimens” from the RCS between June 1991 and November 1994. We all just stood there in shock because it was so unexpected, but once we got over it we quickly told him that he could go in again and he soon cheered up.”Nikki, from Weston-super-Mare, north Somerset, is now being coached in how to use his vocal cords properly and is picking up new words.”I have hoped for years to hear Nikki speak and I really didn’t mind what his first word was,” said Mrs Brice.Scientists are largely undecided about why dolphins have a therapeutic effect on people suffering from depression or else with learning difficulties. Some believe the underwater sounds dolphins make may play a part..