LONDON: The Spice Girls, Shakespeare and the Royal Opera will share equal billing in a new public-relations campaign to boost Britain's sometimes stodgy image abroad. The effort is in line with Prime Minister Tony Blair's ``Cool Brittania'' campaign to show his nation is not as stuffy and tradition-bound as some would have it. Foreign office minister Derek Fatchett stressed the important role that the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and even Scary, Baby, Posh and Sporty Spice have in creating the right image of Britain abroad. Art, innovative science, dance, sport, computer games and films are just as important as heritage, theatre and classical music, he said.

Willy free at last

HEIMAEY (ICELAND): The killer whale `Keiko', famous for his role in the movie ``Free Willy'', arrived yesterday aboard a US Military aircraft in Heimaey, on the island of Vestmannaeyar, off Iceland. In a bay off the southern coast of the island, Keiko will be released into aspecially built pen to prepare him for eventual release in the Atlantic. The whale lived in captivity for 19 years, but now the Free Willy Keiko foundation, which owns Keiko, plans to prepare him for freedom.

Second heart

HANSON: Peter Banusiewicz has broken two hearts and is working on his third. Banusiewicz, 29, is recovering this week after undergoing a rare second heart transplant. Gregory Couper, surgical director of the heart transplant programme at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said only about 5 per cent of all heart transplant patients receive a second organ. Banusiewicz has suffered from a heart ailment since he was an infant.