What can be said with certainty is that violence does not provide any section of the community with an option. The past use of the gun and the bomb has been nothing less than disastrous for all the people of Ireland.The IrishIndependentDublinHE MUST answer to the Irish people, North and South, for his defiance of their clear will as expressed in last year’s referendums. But in the task now facing the two governments, picking up the pieces, blame and punishment will serve no purpose The assembly can be dissolved Cross- border bodies can be instituted The governments, however, must look above and beyond. The Good Friday agreement was the best deal for both nationalists and unionists in this century It was based on justice and equality. Any replacement must not only be founded on the same principles, but replicate it in detail.

The roof has fallen in, but we know the only possible shape for the ultimate edifice.An Phoblacht(Republican News)Dublin and BelfastULSTER UNIONIST leadership has attempted to accomplish in the past few days what it failed to achieve during the negotiations of Good Friday 1998 and in the most recent Stormont discussions. The amendments put into the legislation by British Prime Minister Tony Blair undermine the Good Friday agreement. The legislation itself is a sop to Unionism and clear evidence that the Orange card is once again being played with success. On the basis of ever more strident unionist demands, Mr Blair headed down the path of exclusion. But even Blair’s best efforts at appeasement may once again not be enough for the insatiable no men of Unionism.The Irish TimesDublinMR BLAIR’S “absolute deadline” failed to resolve the relationship between the establishment of the Executive and the decommissioning of paramilitary arms. It did produce a commitment from Sinn Fein for the first time, however, that the IRA was obliged to decommission its arsenal and that it could be convinced to conclude that process within eight months. The two governments failed to have a cross-community Executive formed but they forced the pace by triggering the D’Hondt system.

The antagonism displayed by members towards each other at the Assembly meeting visibly highlights, once again, the level of distrust to be bridged in the politics of Northern Ireland. A period of reflection is needed now before attempting a further step forward.. IGOR BELSKY was an outstanding dancer who became one of the leading choreographers of Soviet ballet in the 1960s and 1970s and the artistic director of the Kirov Ballet for four years. As a choreographer he made a particularly big impression with his first two pieces: The Coast of Hope (1959) and Leningrad Symphony (1961). These were viewed as highly original in the way they forged a new classical language and dealt with modern themes and music. He was born in 1925 in Leningrad, the son of well-known vaudeville dancers, and entered the Leningrad Choreographic School (now the Vaganova Ballet Academy), which has traditionally supplied dancers to the Kirov Ballet.

Here he learnt character dancing under one of its greatest exponents, Andrei Lopukhov.
In 1942 he joined the Kirov before graduating from the school because of the short supply of male dancers during the war. (Later he married the fellow Kirov dancer Lyudmila Alekseeva.) His official debut was the following year, dancing the chief warrior in the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor. This ensured his future career as a leading character dancer.He did not fit the category of classical princes, but neither did he restrict himself to character or national dance. Possessing a colossal stage personality and extraordinary acting gifts (refined at the State Institute for Theatrical Art in 1957), he sought roles requiring strong characterisation.