News in brief:London:

Diarmuid O’Neill

An inquest into the death of Diarmuid O’Neill, gunned down in Hammersmith in 1996 by police marksmen, found – by majority verdict – that Diarmuid was “lawfully” killed. It seems that the police have licence to kill anybody if they claim that they believe him to be armed, however incorrect the alleged belief!

Gerry Kelly, Sinn Fein’s policing spokesman put the verdict in a nutshell when he commented: “There is no expectation that Irish people, alive or dead, can achieve justice in British courts”.