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BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Belfast's most infamous militant stormed into the Northern Ireland Assembly headquarters Friday with a bagful of pipe bombs, forcing an evacuation that overshadowed the politicians' failure to meet a deadline for forming a new Catholic-Protestant administration. Two security guards trapped Michael Stone — an icon of Protestant extremism because of his grenade-and-gun attack on an Irish Republican Army funeral in 1988 — halfway inside the brass revolving door of Stormont Parliamentary Building. Stone, a long-feared figure who boasts of his desire to kill Sinn Fein leaders, repeatedly screamed "No surrender!" as one guard twisted Stone's arm...

An Islamist explosives expert now in a Northern Ireland prison conducted dummy runs for terror attacks at Dublin and Knock ************************************ A convicted al-Qaeda bomb-maker serving a jail sentence in Northern Ireland carried out dummy runs for a potential terrorist plot at Dublin and Knock airports, The Observer can reveal.Last Tuesday the expelled Islamist cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed was seen exhorting young British Muslims in an online broadcast from Beirut to target Dublin because he incorrectly believed US troops used the airport as a transit centre on the way to Iraq and Afghanistan. Now it has emerged that key al-Qaeda...

An Algerian with suspected links to al-Qaida was today jailed for six years for downloading instructions on how to blow up an aircraft with a bomb. The 27-year-old man, sentenced at Belfast crown court, was found guilty of possessing and collecting information connected with terrorism. Authorities have admitted they are unsure exactly who he is. During his six-week trial, he appeared in court under the name Abbas Boutrab. He has used at least seven aliases since his first known arrest for stealing a bag in Paris 13 years ago. Detectives in Northern Ireland, the British security services and the FBI...

The body of former high-profile Protestant militant, Jim Gray, lies beneath a shroud on a street in East Belfast. One of Northern Ireland's most high-profile Protestant militants - nicknamed Doris Day - has been shot dead outside his home, police say. Two gunmen fired several shots at Jim Gray last night after he answered his door in Protestant east Belfast, his longtime power base. Detectives covered his body with a white sheet as they combed the yard outside his home for forensic evidence. No group claimed responsibility for his assassination. Gray, 43, had been free on bail while awaiting trial...

HUNDREDS of rioters returned to the streets of Belfast last night, hijacking cars, blocking roads and attacking police lines with petrol bombs, bottles and stones. A blast bomb was thrown at a police station in West Belfast, but nobody was injured in that explosion. As attacks at the New Barnsley police station grew worse, a car and van were crashed into the gates. Wheelie bins and gas cylinders were also set alight. Elsewhere, ten people were arrested and police fired baton rounds after being targeted. One officer was injured. The renewed violence came after the chief constable of Northern Ireland...

BELFAST, August (LifeSiteNews.com) – After a concerted effort by Christian and pro-family groups to put a stop to Belfast’s annual “Gay Pride” event, on Thursday the Northern Ireland Parades Commission gave the homosexual group the go-ahead to hold the event. The Northern Ireland Police Service requested that the Parades Commission – originally set up to decide on whether parades held by warring Catholics and Protestants be allowed to proceed – rule on the matter, after receiving complaints about the lewd nature of the parade from concerned Christian groups. A Christian coalition, Stop the Parade Coalition, originally complained that the event...

The Irish Republican Army announced last week an end to its 35-year terrorist campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland. If the group can be believed, a conflict that took 3,600 lives, over half of them killed by the IRA, is over.... Why the IRA's apparent change of heart? According to a communique issued last week, the IRA believes "there is now an alternative way" to achieve its goal of a united Ireland, which is "to assist the development of purely political and democratic programs through exclusively peaceful means." This rings hollow. The IRA is already politically well-represented through Sinn...

Roman Catholic protesters assaulted police and Protestant marchers in a polarized part of Belfast, and nearly 30 people were injured, police in Northern Ireland said Saturday. The violence flared Friday night as a parade by the Orange Order, a Protestant fraternity, passed a hostile crowd on the edge of the Ardoyne district, a traditionally Catholic enclave. Hundreds of police in riot gear tried to keep the two sides apart, but Catholic men and youths spent more than an hour hurling bottles, bricks and at least 10 Molotov cocktails at the police lines. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said 18...

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (Reuters) -- The United States has demanded that the IRA disband after the guerrilla group's astonishing offer to shoot the killers of a murdered Northern Ireland Catholic man. "It's time for the IRA to go out of business," U.S. special envoy Mitchell Reiss said Wednesday. For the IRA's political ally Sinn Fein, Northern Ireland's biggest Irish nationalist party, the U.S. demand was yet another blow to its democratic credentials. Reiss told BBC radio: "It's time for Sinn Fein to be able to say explicitly, without ambiguity, without ambivalence, that criminality will not be tolerated. "You can't sign...

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - The Irish Republican Army (news - web sites) said Friday night it expelled three members implicated in the knife slaying of a Belfast man, a killing that has focused Catholic anger against the outlawed group. In a lengthy statement, the IRA said it was doing everything it could to ensure that the killers of Robert McCartney, 33, were brought to justice. The underground organization emphasized it would not tolerate any attempts to intimidate witnesses to the Jan. 30 attack on McCartney and his friend Brendan Devine, who had his throat and stomach slashed but survived. The...

Sunday, 10pm: Armed and masked gangs take over the homes of two Northern Bank staff, one in Loughinisland and one in Poleglass. The families are taken to undisclosed locations. Monday, 7am: The bank employees are told to go to work as usual at the Northern Bank HQ on Donegall Square West. Monday, 4:30pm: Belfast city centre is packed with Christmas shoppers. Monday, 6pm: After the bank closes only the two bank employees and security staff are left. Black bin bags are left outside to be cleared away by a 'refuse' lorry. The bank's vaults are believed to have contained up...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Belfast, Nov 28 : Two leading businessmen of Indian origin are leading the way in keeping the flag of Indian culture flying in Northern Ireland. Unlike British towns such as Leicester, Birmingham, London and Bradford - which have a large Asian population - Belfast and Northern Ireland have a small but influential Indian community. Estimates vary between 200 and 250 families of Indian origin in Northern Ireland, but the community is said to be influential in trade and business. It is being increasingly incorporated in official efforts to change perceptions about Northern Ireland and sell it as an ideal destination...

BUSH LANDSLIDE (95%) IN NORTHERN IRELAND(WHERE THEY KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT FIGHTING TERROR) Rush Limbaugh interview of Christopher from Northern Ireland, 10.28.04 flashmovies by Mia T, 10.31.04 (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) thanx to Wolverine for the audio (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) NEW! compleatjohnkerry.blogspot.com NEW! unfitforcommand.blogspot.comjohnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com COPYRIGHT MIA T 2004       election update!10.24.04JOHN KERRY IS UNFIT~THE SERIES YOO-HOO! SECURITY MOMS: George Bush will protect and defend our...

Members of Northern Ireland's gay community today defended the proposed "gay marriage" law after clashing with a high profile Christian organisation. The two groups aired their conflicting views when members of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association picketed a meeting held by The Christian Institute in Belfast this week.The meeting, in Great Victoria Street Baptist Church, was organised in opposition to governmental plans to introduce a civil partnership bill for same sex couples. The Christian Institute believes such a union is "immoral" and has been campaigning to ensure the law is not passed in Northern Ireland or the rest of...

THE controversial Mel Gibson film 'The Passion of the Christ' has been dismissed by the Evangelical Protestant Society as a 'Catholic' interpretation of events which "does not present the Gospel". Wallace Thompson, secretary of the Evangelical Protestant Society, said the film displayed "an un-Biblical fixation on Mary, the mother of Jesus. None of this should surprise us, for both Mel Gibson and Jim Caviezel, who plays the part of Christ, are enthusiastic devotees of the traditional teachings of the Church of Rome." He further claims that Mel Gibson "belongs to an ultra-conservative Catholic group which does not recognise the reforms...

THE Belfast Provisional IRA of 1972 - of which Gerry Adams was a senior member - beat and intimidated women who had shown any sympathy to the British soldiers who had saved the Falls Road from invasion by loyalists during fierce rioting in 1969. Between 1970 and 1972, according to local accounts and contemporaneous newspaper reports, some 14 women in Catholic west and north Belfast were kidnapped and beaten by IRA units whose specific task was to ensure that fraternising with British soldiers stopped. A number of young women who went out with off-duty soldiers were "tarred and feathered" -...

Report: suspected IRA bombmaker is a reporter Yaakov Katz Jul. 15, 2003 The British media reported Monday that an Irish national who was arrested by security forces on suspicion that he came to Israel to train Palestinian terrorists, is a journalist and not a member of the Real IRA. The Shin Bet confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that the man was arrested Saturday afternoon and was being questioned. Britain's The Observer reported on Sunday that a massive manhunt was under way for the Irish bombmaker, traveling on a British passport, who is believed to be a member...

<p>When does a "peace process" become more about process and less about peace?</p> <p>That question comes to mind in light of yesterday's Belfast summit between U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Iraq was certainly at the top of the agenda for the 25-hour meeting. But two other festering trouble spots found their way into the discussions as well -- Northern Ireland and the Middle East.</p>

April 5, 2003 Bush and Blair Will Meet in Belfast Early Next WeekBy ELISABETH BUMILLER ASHINGTON, April 4 — The White House said today that President Bush would meet with the British prime minister, Tony Blair, in Belfast next week to discuss the war in Iraq and the peace efforts in Northern Ireland and in the Middle East. The meeting of Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair, to begin on Monday, is expected to focus on when to declare the existence of a new Iraqi government, an event that American officials now say could come even before the government of Saddam...