It was never our intention to spoil Sophie’s joy over her forthcoming marriage

“It was never our intention to spoil Sophie’s joy over her forthcoming marriage to Prince Edward,” it said.It added: “Don’t worry Sophie. There will be no more revelations in The Sun that cause you offence.”The picture, taken during a radio roadshow trip to Spain in 1988, showed the Who Wants to be a Millionaire presenter Chris Tarrant and Miss Rhys- Jones laughing together as they sat in the back of a car.Miss Rhys-Jones was pictured leaning against the Capital Radio breakfast presenter, who was lifting up her bikini top.Kara Noble, the radio presenter who took the picture, was sacked from her position as co-host of Heart 106.2 FM’s breakfast show this week.t Miss Rhys-Jones made her first public appearance yesterday since the picture story, at the London wedding of the dress designer Samantha Shaw, who is making the wedding gown.. A FORMER social worker was jailed for 12 years yesterday for 10 sex attacks on children over a period of 21 years. Geoffrey Morris, 43, described as being a “Pied Piper” to children, carried out the attacks on seven boys at the Taff Vale children’s home in Whitchurch, Cardiff, where he worked.
Ian Murphy QC, for the prosecution, told Cardiff Crown Court that Morris had befriended his victims, who were aged eight to fifteen, before carrying out the assaults.

He said: “Staff at the home remember him as being like a Pied Piper – groups of children followed him around.”He was frequently in the habit of visiting children in their bedrooms. The trademark of his abuse was to befriend his victims and their families. When they were vulnerable he would cross the line, preying on their trust.”The court was told that Morris attacked four boys who were under his care at the home. He also carried out assaults in the bedroom of his home, in a public swimming pool and at another nearby children’s home.Stephen Hopkins, for the defence, said Morris now displayed “a strong element of remorse”. He said the care of children “was the last sort of work that Geoffrey Morris should ever have embarked upon”. Morris, of Cardiff, admitted carrying out six indecent assaults, gross indecency and three serious sexual assaults between 1974 and 1995..

THE WAR crimes indictment of Slobodan Milosevic looked to have doomed the latest attempt to find a diplomatic solution to the Kosovo crisis yesterday, and increased the likelihood that President Milosevic will choose to fight to the finish over the province. Almost 24 hours of non-stop talks between top Russian and US officials and the Finnish President, Martti Ahtisaari, ended with no agreed position that Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Kremlin’s Kosovo envoy, would present to Mr Milosevic when he travels to Belgrade today.
But Mr Ahtisaari, the West’s representative, will not be going with him This is confirmation that no breakthrough has been achieved. Mr Ahtisaari returned home while the US envoy, deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott, went to Bonn.As the talks were going on, Mr Chernomyrdin delivered a scathing broadside against Nato in The Washington Post, accusing the alliance of seeking to set up a protectorate in Kosovo, and of setting back relations between Russia and the US “by several decades”.He called for an immediate end to the “pointless” air war and warned that the ground war that the allies are preparing for would bring “tremendous bloodshed”. Mr Chernomyrdin repeated his threat to abandon peace efforts entirely unless the raids stopped soon.Differences over the size of the force Mr Milosevic will be allowed to keep in Kosovo have narrowed over the past two days, but Nato and Moscow are still far apart on terms for a halt in the bombing and over the make-up of the international peace keeping force.The war crimes indictment – the first against a serving head of government – adds another sticking point. Mr Milosevic had been adamant any deal should guarantee his immunity. That is now plainly out of the question.”We will fully co-operate with the tribunal and press for all those indicted to stand trial,” Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, said, ruling out any formula that would permit Mr Milosevic to escape prosecution. Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, said it would change nothing, “since we never intended to negotiate with him anyway”..

NATO MADE clear yesterday that sanctions will stay in place and that reconstruction money will be withheld from Yugoslavia until its president is ousted, making the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic a long-term objective. The decision to indict Mr Milosevic for war crimes has brought into focus a central obstacle to an end to the conflict: the status of the Yugoslav leader when hostilities cease.
Nato disclosed yesterday that its member-states had provided evidence to the International War Crimes Tribunallinking Mr Milosevic with specific war crimes.But it stopped short of saying the handover of Mr Milosevic to The Hague is now a pre-condition of a settlement to the Kosovo crisis.”We are not going to insist on his surrender to The Hague,” said a Nato diplomat, “but he will not be allowed to travel to any civilised country. Any chance of Serbia being given a break in the terms of sanctions, aid to rebuild or reintegration in the the world community are unthinkable while he’s there.”Even Nato recognises that the indictment is likely to encourage Mr Milosevic to dig in his heals and delay any deal-making.In Brussels the hope is that he will be overthrown, by popular protest or a coup instigated by the ruling elite. This can hardly be relied on, even if there are increased signs of civil disturbances.Consequently, Nato is still not ruling out doing a peace deal with Mr Milosevic as long as he accepts the five conditions it has laid out: an end to the violence, withdrawal of his forces from Kosovo, the return of the refugees, acceptance of an international security force and of a political settlement.There could be no peace conference outside Yugoslavia, to whose territory Mr Milosevic is confined. But, in the short term at least, Nato is still arguing that he could stay in power so long as his troops leave Kosovo.

As a diplomatic source put it: “Obviously it becomes harder to contemplate dealing with Milosevic over the long term. At the same time, if we can get full acceptance of Nato’s conditions while he’s still there, I don’t think we’re going to rule out some contacts to that end.”This scenario would, the alliance believes, present more complications, with a resentful and aggressive Yugoslavia continuing to pose a threat to the rest of the region. Another option is for Mr Milosevic to be offered sanctuary in a non-Nato country. But that was made less likely by his indictment, because any nation offering haven would be harbouring an indicted war criminal. South Africa, which had hinted it would not turn away Mr Milosevic, ruled itself out yesterday.