Before Murphy's triumph, Ronnie O'Sullivan's defeat by Peter Ebdon and his announcement that hewasconsidering taking a year off from the game were what had set people's tongues wagging.
Mr. Gates declined to comment on what military steps the U.S. wasconsidering, saying he wanted to give a high-level U.S. delegation traveling to Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing and Moscow this week time to come up with a multilateral consensus.
Mr Trimble said he had been assured by the prime minister that the government accepted that the situation was serious and that it wasconsideringwhat it should say and do.