PORTRAIT rJH F I J r Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, held
talks at Hillsborough Castle outside Belfast with President —George Bush of the United States. Mr Bush said that the United Nations should play a 'vital role' in the reconstruction of Iraq. The two men, joined by Mr Bertie Ahern, the Irish Taoiseach, issued a declaration calling on terror groups in Northern Ireland to end militaty activities 'irrevocably' and seize a 'historic opportunity for peace'. In Iraq, Britain's 7th Armoured Brigade and 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment took control of Basra, losing three men. All Hassan al-Majid, known as 'Chemical Ali' for his part in gassing Kurds in 1988, was killed in an airstrike on his house in Basra. British forces said that they were not in a position to stop continued looting. By 9 April. 30 British servicemen had died in the war, nine in combat, five from 'friendly fire' and 16 in accidents. Five men were jailed for between 16 and 22 years for their part in the Real IRA bombing of Ealing Broadway and Wood Lane in London, and Smallbrook, Birmingham, in 2001. In the Budget Mr Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said he would present an assessment of the euro by the first week of June. He revised his prediction of growth this year to between 2 and 2.5 per cent (down from between 2.5 and 3 per cent predicted last November). Cigarette duty went up 8p a packet. Duty on beer went up lp, on wine 4p, but remained unchanged on spirits. Duty on bio-ethanol would go down 20p a litre in 2005. He said stamp duty on Islamic mortgages would change. Every child born since September 2002 will have a Child Trust Fund with £250 in. Mr John Reid was made Leader of the House, replacing Mr Robin Cook, who had resigned over the war. Mr Reid was replaced as Labour party chairman and Minister Without Port-folio in the Cabinet by Mr Ian McCartney. Oxford won the Boat Race by a foot; Cambridge has now won 77 races, Oxford 71. A market survey found that 46 per cent of meals at home are consumed in solitude.
Coalition forces entered Baghdad after continued bombing and the disruption of electricity supplies. There was little immediate organised resistance. The international airport was secured and, after forays into the city, the Jumhuriy,,a and Sijood palaces and the military airfield were taken. Cheering crowds greeted American tanks moving into the city from the east, There was widespread looting. An American bomber aircraft dropped four 2,000lb smart bombs on a restaurant in the Mansur district of the city on hearing that President Saddam Hussein was there, but he was thought to have escaped. A
Reuters cameraman and a Spanish Tele 5 cameraman died when an American tank shell hit the Palestine Hotel. By 9 April, 96 American servicemen had died in the war and ten were missing. Kurdish forces advanced with American support in northern Iraq. Interim administration of Iraq will come under the United States's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, headed by General Jay Garner, with General Tommy Franks providing military support; the north will be governed by General Bruce Moore; Baghdad by Miss Barbara Bodine, a former UN ambassador to Yemen: and the south by General Roger 'Buck' Walters. France, Germany and Russia arranged a summit on Iraq with the UN secretarygeneral in St Petersburg. The European Commission forecast growth of 2.2 per cent this year in Britain compared with 1 per cent in the euro-zone and 0.4 per cent in Germany. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, UN workers found 966 people had been massacred on 3 April in villages around Drodro, 50 miles from Uganda; Drodro is a town of the Hema people, and the attackers were said to be an ethnically Lendu militia. Seven Palestinians were killed when Israeli helicopters attacked Gaza City. Scientists in Hong Kong identified a human pneumoniaassociated coronavirus as the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars). CSH
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