BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II and a former Irish Republican Army commander have offered each other the hand of peace in a long-awaited encounter symbolizing Northern Ireland's progress in achieving reconciliation after decades of violence.

Northern Ireland Office officials say the monarch and Martin McGuinness met privately Wednesday inside a Belfast theater during a cross-community arts event. Media were barred from the event, but the two are expected to have a public handshake later.

Experts say McGuinness was the IRA's chief of staff when the outlawed group assassinated the queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, in 1979.

The IRA renounced violence and disarmed in 2005. Two years later, McGuinness became the senior Catholic in Northern Ireland's unity government.

McGuinness' Irish nationalist party, Sinn Fein, had refused all contact with British royals until Wednesday.

LONDON (AP) — The iconic Clock Tower of Britain’s Parliament — widely, though incorrectly, known as Big Ben — is being renamed in honor of Queen Elizabeth II, authorities said Tuesday.The 315-foot (96-meter)-high structure, one of Britain’s most recognizable landmarks, will now formally be known as Elizabeth Tower following a campaign by lawmakers to mark the monarch’s 60 years on the throne.A House of Commons Commission statement said arrangements were being made for the “decision to be implemented in an appropriate manner in due course.”The tower was completed in 1858. It houses a four-faced chiming clock and the famed 13.5 ton Big Ben bell. Over the years, people began calling the whole tower Big Ben.Prime Minister David Cameron, who backed the campaign for a change, said the new name was a “fitting tribute to the queen and the service she has given our country.”Opposition chief Ed Miliband, head of Britain’s Labour Party, said the honor “rightly recognized Queen Elizabeth’s lifetime of dedication and tireless service.”