SAOIRSE32

BBC
31 Jan 2008

Police fear dissident republicans are preparing a series of firebomb attacks.

The PSNI has urged business owners across NI, including retail parks, to check their premises for devices and look out for anything suspicIous.

The police have asked managers and staff to check on a daily basis for incendiary devices.

“Devices can be left in garments, soft furnishings, and upholstery, anywhere that can catch fire easily,” said a spokesman.

“Business owners and staff must be observant and look out for anything suspicious. If something looks out of place, or even just raises concern, contact the local police.

“Members of staff should not touch or move any suspicious looking objects but rather contact police immediately.”

WEDNESDAY 30/01/2008 13:41:22
:::u.tv:::

The trial of the only man charged with the murder of Robert McCartney will go ahead in the spring it was confirmed today - the third anniversary of the killing.

Fifty-one-year old Terence Davison will go on trial in Belfast on either April 7 or May 12 - depending on openings on the Court List, said a spokesman for the Northern Ireland Court Service.

Two other men will stand trial with him charged with affray.

Details were confirmed as the McCartney family marked the third anniversary of his death.

The 33-year-old father of two died the day after he was beaten and stabbed outside a bar close to Belfast city centre.

At least ten people were involved in the killing and his sisters, Paula, Catherine, Donna, Gemma and Claire, together with his fiancee Bridgeen Hagans, have fought to lift the wall of silence which has surrounded the murder.

The have campaigned around the world for pressure to be put on the IRA and Sinn Fein to help convict the killers.

The McCartneys marked the anniversary in their own way away from the spotlight.

They are now pinning their hopes on the trial providing more information about the murder which would enable them to mount a civil action against those they believe are responsible in the same way the Omagh bomb families are.

“We hope that the murder trial will open the doors to allow us to take a civil action against the people we believe were behind Robert`s murder,” said Paula.

BBC
31 January 2008

A Maze escaper has been arrested at a border patrol in the United States, American officials have said.

The man was arrested by the US Border Patrol in Texas

Paul Brennan was arrested by officers at a border checkpoint in southern Texas on Monday night.

The US Border Patrol said Brennan was now in custody and was awaiting deportation.

It said he had been serving a 23-year prison sentence in Northern Ireland on charges of possessing a bomb and a firearm.

Brennan is understood to have produced an out-of-date immigration document at the Sarita checkpoint near Brownsville.

He was identified through fingerprinting after a search of his background through the Joint Terrorism Task Force and Interpol.

“The subject was arrested and is pending deportation proceedings back to his country of origin,” said the US Border Patrol.

‘Biggest search operation’

Ronald D. Vitiello, chief patrol agent for the Rio Grande Valley Sector, said: “The primary purpose of checkpoint operations is to support enhanced national security efforts that deter, detect and prevent the threat of further terrorist attacks against the United States.

“Consequently, law enforcement partnerships, coupled with Border Patrol checkpoint operation, continue to be a reliable means of detecting people who would attempt to enter the United States illegally and threaten the integrity of border security.”

38 republican prisoners escaped from the Maze in 1983

Paul Brennan, Kevin Artt, James Smyth and Terrence Kirby were arrested in the United States between 1992 and 1994 and fought lengthy legal battles against extradition.

Smyth was extradited back to Northern Ireland in 1996 and returned to prison, before being released in 1998 as part of the Good Friday Agreement.

In 2000, the British government announced that the extradition requests for Brennan, Artt and Kirby were being withdrawn as part of the Good Friday Agreement.

The men officially remain fugitives, but in 2003 the Prison Service said they were not being “actively pursued”.

A Sinn Fein spokesman said: “Pol (Paul Brennan) is not undocumented, after his extradition case was dropped in October 2000, he was granted the right to remain in the US where he has been living and working ever since.

“Pol and his family remain hopeful that this anomaly will be successfully resolved in the near future.”

The biggest jail break in the UK history took place from the high security Maze prison on 25 September 1983. On that day 38 republican prisoners escaped.

Prison officer James Ferris died of a heart attack after being stabbed while attempting to stop the jail break.

Security forces mounted the biggest search operation Northern Ireland had ever seen within minutes of the escape.

Ten of the prisoners were recaptured in the first few hours, but the remainder went on the run.

In 1997, a republican prisoner escaped from the jail disguised as a woman, during a Christmas party.

The Maze prison closed in September 2000 as a result of the Good Friday Agreement’s early release scheme.

Belfast Telegraph

Thursday 31, January 2008

A new help line for people considering suicide will be open 24/7 in the North.

The helpline will cost approximately €4.7m a year and follows a successful pilot in north and west Belfast.

Suicide rates in Ireland, north and south, have increased by more than 25% over the last decade and it is now the biggest cause of early death amongst the young.

In 2003, 577 people died in Ireland through suicide, last year the comparable number was 645.

Welcoming the news about the new phone line, Gerry Adams, in whose west Belfast constituency suicide levels are even higher, said he was concerned that only a quarter of doctors in the North’s eastern region had taken up an offer of specialist suicide training.