He underlined the growing anxiety in Dublin at the failure of the British Government to drop its insistence that the IRA should begin decommissioning its weapons as a pre-condition to allowing Sinn Fein into inclusive all-party talks.The Irish Foreign Minister said a way through the impasse could be found if the parties were brought to the table for talks. However, he confirmed during a visit to London that the Irish Government had applied to the Home Office for the transfer to Irish prisons of 26 IRA prisoners held in Britain.Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, is reluctant to allow the transfers without assurances they will not be given early release. McCauley threatened prison staff with a gun which had been smuggled into the prison in the sole of a training shoe.Dick Spring, the Irish Foreign Minister, denied the extradition was part of a comprehensive deal with Britain on IRA prisoners. COLIN BROWN

Chief Political Correspondent
Extradition proceedings were started By Britain yesterday in the Republic of Ireland for two IRA prisoners who broke out of Brixton prison four years ago in one of the most embarrassing breaches of security in a British jail.Nessan Quinlivan and Pearse McCauley were yesterday held for an extradition hearing next Monday after being released with two other IRA prisoners by the Irish Government as a conciliatory gesture to revive the stalled peace process.The two, who are fighting their extradition, have been on the wanted list in Britain since the Brixton break-out, which sparked a full-scale review of security.They were being held on charges of conspiracy to murder Sir Charles Tidbury, the former chairman of Whitbread, when they fled. And despite this, or perhaps because of it, Sony and Sega have embarked on extensive promotions drives.Sony, with an unprecedented advertising budget of pounds 20m, has launched a cross-media blitz, complete with gimmicks, demonstrations and sports sponsorship, which is likely to ensure maximum impact across all ages.The company has installed PlayStations at the Ministry of Sound, the high-profile London nightclub – a move which Sony says accords the games system a specific “credibility” – and at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Manchester’s G-Mex Centre.Sega, which is spending a relatively modest pounds 5m, has instead chosen stunts such as projecting huge images of John Major and John Redwood as Virtual Fighters on to the Houses of Parliament..

It has yet to launch its rival, Ultra-64, developed in conjunction with Silicon Graphics, the US computer animation company.The new launches come after research published in August by Durlacher Multimedia, the stockbrokers, suggested that British sales of video games would collapse this year to less than one-third of 1993 levels.The hefty price of the systems, which require games at about pounds 50 each, might not be conducive to widespread sales.But Mr Dardis said the more “sophisticated” 16 to 30-year-old market targeted by the two companies were likely to be prepared to pay for it. “The reality is that after the initial batch was manufactured, the success of Saturn means that we’ve been able to make economies of scale.”The two CD-based games systems are said to be 500 times (Sony) or 900 times (Sega) more powerful than the 16-bit systems of most existing games systems, with a “quantum leap” in speed and graphics quality.Nintendo, Sega’s traditional rival, is considered to have temporarily “dropped out of the equation”. It said that in some UK stores the system, promoted as “Sony’s most important product since the Walkman”, sold out within days.Sega, which has dominated the UK market, is said to have sold 50,000 of its rival 32-bit Saturn games system since its launch this summer, although it is not disclosing sales.Sega has just reduced the price of Saturn by pounds 100 to pounds 299, although Noel Dardis, marketing director of Sega UK, denied that this was to match PlayStation’s pounds 299 price tag.”That’s what Sony would have you believe,” he said yesterday. JOJO MOYES

The battle for the hearts, minds and power supplies of the lucrative Christmas computer games market began in earnest yesterday, as Sony announced that its PlayStation was the fastest-selling video games system ever.
The Japanese consumer electronics company said that 50,000 units of the new generation 32-bit system had been sold since its launch five weeks ago. “I would like to believe that the Lord Chancellor is willing to make amendments,” she said “No-fault divorces are not acceptable.”. The one-year period of reflection would, however, make couples consider more carefully the consequences of their actions.

The Lord Chancellor is also expected to emphasise plans for a lengthy pilot period. Roger Gale, the Tory MP for Thanet North who helped mobilise opinion against the now shelved Family Homes and Domestic Violence Bill suggested yesterday that the Bill could, in fact, make divorce harder. But Lady Olga Maitland, Tory MP for Sutton & Cheam, pledged to fight the Bill as it stands.The Conservative Party, she said, was supposed to be the party of the family, yet could be seen to be helping the break-up of family life. And it has been argued that the removal of fault would rob the marriage contract of substance.Some critics would like to see the bill amended to retain the concept of fault, and perhaps to make couples wait two years instead of one, but a proposed emphasis on mediation to solve disputes over children and finances would be retained.The one-year period would not begin to run until those seeking the divorce had attended a compulsory interview with a panel of experts to explore the options of mediation, and to receive information about the consequences of the break-up, such as the impact of the Child Support Agency.Lord Mackay has argued that the “quickie” divorce amounts to divorce on demand, in which the exchange of acrimonious allegations harms children. Tory right-wingers have protested that the measure would make divorce too “easy” by reducing the current two-year period for a divorce by consent, to one year.

Critics will ensure the bill has a stormy passage in both Houses, particularly when it transfers to the Commons early next year. He emphasised also that the measure had John Major’s personal backing: “.. the Government is pretty firmly in favour. The Prime Minister also believes there is a case for the Bill, not to make divorce easier – that is not the purpose.”Lord Mackay, however, has cleared only the first of a series of potential hurdles. It is expected to begin its parliamentary passage in the House of Lords soon after the newsession begins.
A Number 10 spokesman said that completion of the public-spending round at the weekend had left the entire planned government programme unchanged. He claimed his organisation had no connection with the GIA and condemned the bombings in France but maintained the basic human right to pursue their political aims peacefully.. Proposals by Lord Mackay, the Lord Chancellor, to overhaul divorce law have emerged unscathed from an onslaught by Tory right-wingers and will be outlined as originally planned in next week’s Queen’s Speech.