The arrest of Rosa Parks sparked the boycott

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Civil rights leader, the Reverend Martin Luther King, has been convicted of organising an illegalboycottby black passengers of buses in the US state of Alabama.

Mr King, 27, was fined $500 (?78) and ordered to pay an equal amount in costs.

However, his lawyers immediately gave notice of their intention to appeal and the fine was converted into a prison sentence of 386 days, suspended until the appeal hearing.

Archaic law

The 17-week-old boycott in the town of Montgomery was sparked by the arrest of a black woman, Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat for a white passenger on 1 December last year.

The town's segregation laws stipulate separate areas on buses for blacks and whites and require blacks to give up their seats for whites if necessary.

Black travellers have long complained of being called racist names by bus drivers and being forced to stand even if seats were vacant in the whites-only section.

Mrs Parks, 42, was not the first to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat but she was a well-known and respected figure in Montgomery's black community.

Four days after her arrest an almost universal boycott of the town's buses by black passengers began which has seriously diminished the companies' revenues.

Mr King was found guilty under an archaic law dating from 1921 designed to break trade union action.

The law carries a maximum penalty of $1,000 and six months in prison.

But Judge Eugene Carter said he had been lenient with Mr King because he had advocated non-violence.

Sir Richard was an acknowledged expert on security affairs

Two gunmen opened fire on Sir Richard and his Dutch footman as they left his residence at The Hague to make the short five minute car journey to the embassy.

At about 0900 local time the 58-year-old and 19-year-old footman, Karel Straub, were both shot in the head.

The father-of-three is reported to have fallen into his car and been driven off at speed by his chauffeur Jack Wilson.

Mr Straub fell to the pavement and was repeatedly shot again.

Both men were taken to hospital but died on arrival within minutes of each other.

Eyewitnesses said the gunmen were wearing dark suits and coats, aged between 35 and 40, and escaped down a quiet alleyway.

Alyson Bailes, secretary to the former Trade Secretary Edmund Dell, is on a special visit to Holland and is understood to have been with Sir Richard during the attack.

But initial reports suggest she is unharmed.

A spokesman for the embassy said: "We have no idea who perpetrated this horrible act, or for what motive."

Police in the Netherlands and in Britain have not ruled out IRA involvement, but other groups under suspicion include Palestinians and Iraqis.

Detectives are also considering the possibility Dutch "hit-men" could be involved.

The embassy and the police said no threats had been made against the ambassador, and there had been no sign of IRA activity in Holland during recent months.

Sir Richard was an acknowledged expert on security affairs and had been a diplomat in Cuba, Peking and Washington.

He was responsible for an internal report on the safety of British diplomats following the killing in 1977 of the British ambassador to Eire, Christopher Ewart-Biggs.

Sir Richard took up his job in June 1977 after a two year posting as a Foreign and Commonwealth Office deputy under-secretary in London.

boycott: To act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion.（联合抵制）

chauffeur: One employed to drive a private automobile（（法语）司机）