Commonwealth update

While Australia, which will host the 2001 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Brisbane, staged the most successful Olympic Games in history, its diplomats mediated a Solomon Islands peace deal. Fiji and Pakistan, both under suspension from the Commonwealth, were warned that their timetables for a return to democracy were too slow. Popular discontent with President Robert Mugabe within Zimbabwe grew as living costs soared while in Sierra Leone internal division hindered work of the UN force and Britain sent in the SAS to rescue hostages. Finance ministers meeting in Malta sounded alarm bells over OECD threats to tax haven countries.