His passing was marked with great respect  "I want to say how profoundly sorry I am" President Clinton, on being cleared  "I accept I made a serious error of judgement" Glenn Hoddle, former England soccer manager Should Hoddle quit? "I thought that persecuting a man for his beliefs had gone out with the Inquisition." Richard Thomas, UK "He is not fit to be in a position where he can influence young minds and represent a country." A Dale, UK The search for peace figured prominently in February with the start of talks aimed at stopping the persecution of ethnic Albanians by the Yugoslav government in the Serbian province of Kosovo. There was also the historic face-to-face meeting in the UK between delegates from Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists, part of the continuing effort to bring peace to Northern Ireland. The man at the top of Turkey's wanted list, the rebel leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was caught in Kenya - sparking a wave of diplomatic protests across Europe, Canada and Australia. One man who wriggled free of those who would bring abour his downfall, however, was Bill Clinton, who was cleared of all charges in his impeachment trial. The world paid tribute to King Hussein of Jordan, who died of cancer shortly after power was transferred to his eldest son Crown Prince Abdullah. Another new leader on the international stage was General Olusegun Obasanjo, who was elected Nigeria's first civilian president in 15 years. The catalogue of natural disasters was added to with a number of deaths in avalanches in ski resorts in the Alps. Meanwhile, Germany sought to atone for one of the century's worst atrocities against mankind by announcing plans to compensate Nazi Holocaust survivors. In the UK, the controversy over genetically modified food rumbled on. Tony Blair accused the media of scare-mongering and said he was happy to eat GM food. The fallout from the racist murder of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence continued to reverberate with the publication of a report severely criticising the Metropolitan Police. I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events, and the great burden this has imposed on Congress and the American people. President Bill Clinton after his acquittal For English football fans there was only one story that mattered, the sacking of Glenn Hoddle as the manager of the national team and the subsequent appointment of Kevin Keegan. Meanwhile, US heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson kept fighting outside the ring and ended up in prison once again after assaulting two men. Mergers and acquisitions were once again the flavour of the month for international business. Goodyear made the largest investment by an American company in Japan, spending almost $1bn on Sumitomo. Europe's then-largest unfriendly takeover bid was launched with Olivetti offering £37bn for Telecom Italia. The entertainment company USA Networks created an online retailing powerhouse when it took over Lycos, the third biggest online search engine. And an American venture capitalist decided that giving away computers with free internet access and email in return for users viewing particular adverts was a sure way boost his profits. The summer silly season came early this year with claims that the Teletubby character Tinky Winky was a homosexual role model.

	World: Reformers sweep to victory in Iran UK: £85m cocaine haul UK: Art faker sentenced for biggest fraud of century Entertainment: Robbie hits high note in Brits Sci/Tech: Stardust probe launched Obituary: Novelist Iris Murdoch Obituary: Actor Derek Nimmo

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