"Canadians must never again be held hostage by Quebec separatists who are bent on destroying Canada," he said. But another poll is not possible within the current mandate - at least three or four years.The Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, has said that Quebeckers and people in the rest of the country deserve some stability. During the campaign, enraptured supporters would reach out to touch him.Immediately after the results of the referendum were known, Mr Bouchard and Mr Parizeau promised Quebeckers another referendum soon. Nor did his comment that white Quebec women were not having enough babies to protect the Francophones' position in society appear to hurt him.There was even an air of mysticism about Mr Bouchard, enhanced by his return to public life after a brush with death in the form of necrotising fasciitis, the flesh-eating disease, which cost him a leg His limp and his cane were constant reminders. They remember his campaign performance, when none of the criticisms raised by the federalists about the dire economic consequences of separation would stick to him. But the pressure on him to move to Quebec City is overwhelming. He was almost single-handedly responsible for resuscitating the separatist campaign, which had been floundering under Mr Parizeau, and the nationalists are itching for another fight.Several senior ministers in Mr Parizeau's government made statements urging Mr Bouchard to come to Quebec and take over the government.

The close vote and the uncertainty about Quebec's future means there will still be a role for the Bloc Quebecois in Ottawa.As for his personal future, Mr Bouchard said that he had not anticipated the resignation of Quebec's Premier, Jacques Parizeau, on Tuesday, and he needed time to reflect. "The referendum," he said, "showed that sovereignty has gained 20 per cent [since the last referendum in 1980], so why should we quit now when maybe it needs just another little push?"In the past, Mr Bouchard had frequently stated that if the separatists lost the referendum, he would quit politics and the MPs in his party would leave Ottawa, because their only purpose in the federal parliament was to act as a watchdog for Quebec interests during the lead-up to independence That has all changed now, Mr Bouchard said yesterday. Now it appears 90 per cent certain that Lucien Bouchard will continue the independence pilgrimage as the new leader of the provincial government in Quebec.Mr Bouchard, who leads the Bloc Quebecois party in the federal parliament and is leader of the opposition, made it clear yesterday that he and the separatists do not accept the outcome of this week's referendum on sovereignty for Quebec, which the federalists won by half a percentage point. "She never panicked."The bus finally stopped outside the restaurant, where the hijacker said he wanted to eat lunch.

While police tried to negotiate, the bus started moving again slowly and stopped The suspect was then shot.. HUGH WINSOR Ottawa They are calling him St Lucien for the way he could apparently do no wrong as he raised the Quebec sovereignty movement from near death during the referendum campaign. News helicopters followed and the chase was broadcast live on national television.During the hijacking, the bus driver kept in radio contact with authorities and passed on the hijacker's demands."The bus driver frankly was a hero", Mr Visiedo said. The school bus was on the way to Blue Lakes Elementary School in Miami when it was commandeered in south-west Dade County.Police then surrounded the hijacked bus as it travelled from south-west Miami towards the town centre. About an hour after the hijacking began, police tried to negotiate with the hijacker. When that failed, they fired at least three shots at him, according to a police spokesman. The authorities were uncertain whether the suspect was shot on the bus or as he was getting off it in front of a restaurant in Miami Beach.Television showed police swarming around the front door of the bus and then dragging the suspect away.Two restaurant workers said the hijacker had worked as a waiter at the restaurant, but left on Wednesday night apparently because of the tax dispute.The hijacker told police he had a bomb and threatened to blow up the bus.Police said they found afterwards that the device strapped to the man's body was not a bomb.The Dade County schools superintendent, Octavio Visiedo, said 11 pupils were on the bus, with the bus driver and an aide.

Miami Beach, Florida (AP) - A hijacker angry with tax collectors commandeered a school bus yesterday with 11 disabled children and two adults on board, taking them on a harrowing ride before police shot him dead. Before then he had been a high-profile member of Bariloche's large German community and the president of a German-Argentine cultural association.. Ten Italian civilians were executed for every German soldier killed.Earlier this year, Priebke said his task was to "erase" the names of victims off a list, "as they were led one-by-one with their hands tied into the caves."He was arrested in June 1994 in the Andean mountain resort of Bariloche, 1,100 miles (1,770 kms) southwest of Buenos Aires after admitting to a role in the massacre during an interview with a US news network. Priebke, who has lived openly under his own name in southern Argentina since escaping from a British prison camp after the war, was immediately freed from 15 months of house arrest. His freedom lasted just 29 hours as he was arrested again the following day at the request of the German government, which said it would demand his extradition if Italy was unsuccessful.The massacre, in the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome, was ordered by Hitler to avenge the killing of 32 German soldiers in an ambush. IAN PHILLIPS Associated Press Buenos Aires - The Supreme Court ruled yesterday to extradite a former SS captain to Italy, ending a 17-month saga in which Argentina struggled to shrug off an image of being a safe haven for Nazis.The ruling, by a split vote of 6-3, meant Erich Priebke, 82, will face charges in Italy of participating in the 1944 massacre of 335 civilians, including 71 Jews, in Nazi-occupied Rome.Priebke's defence lawyer, Pedro Bianchi, accused the Supreme Court of "ceding to political pressure from Italy and Argentina." He added that there was no way of appealing against the final ruling.Argentina was heavily criticised by Jewish groups after an appeals court in August overturned a lower court extradition ruling. Now it appears that the chief activity of Gladio officers was to meet in luxury hotels in holiday resorts at the expense of the taxpayer..