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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8289918.stm
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has left Stormont after a series of meetings with Northern Ireland parties on the devolution of justice powers.
Government sources said good progress had been made and Mr Brown would meet the first and deputy first ministers in Downing Street again on Tuesday.
Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness held separate talks with the prime minister on Monday.
Afterwards, both said the talks had made progress.
"We are calm, we are behaving rationally, we are working through the issues," the DUP first minister, Mr Robinson said.
Sinn Fein's Mr McGuinness said: "In terms of the financial situation, we are moving forward, I think fairly decisively."
The two parties have been at loggerheads over when the powers should be devolved from London.
While Sinn Fein wants it to happen immediately, the DUP is more cautious and has said the transfer of powers will not happen before Christmas.
Mr Robinson said his personal relationship with Martin McGuinness was not a factor in the issue.
"I am prepared and can work with anybody who has the same goals, which are to make the assembly and executive work for the benefit of Northern Ireland."
"I was not elected to be a buddy for Martin McGuinness, I was elected to work with him and that is why I am here."
Mr McGuinness said the prime minister had not put a final figure to him on the cost of a settlement.
"If the British government really want this in place... they will come up with the money. Gordon Brown has reiterated that this will not fail because of money.
"He said he was determined to deliver. We are very rapidly approaching make-your-mind-up time," he said.
Relations between the first minister, Mr Robinson and the deputy first minister, Mr McGuinness, have deteriorated in recent weeks.
http://www.derryjournal.com/journal/Post-mortem-on-custody-death.5703322.jp
Published Date: 05 October 2009
A post mortem will be carried out later today on the body of a Strabane man found dead in a police station in Derry on Saturday.
John Brady - a well known dissident republican was taken into custody on Friday night and was being questioned at Strand Road PSNI station about an alleged assault.
Officers discovered his body on Saturday afternoon and it is understood he took his own life.
On Sunday Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson confirmed his office has launched an investigation into the death.
Sinn Féin West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty said that investigation needed to be "full and open".
"This is a tragic loss for the family. I want toextend my deepest sympathies to them," he said.
"There are obviously serious issues of concern about how John Brady died during daylight hours while in police custody.
"While the full details surrounding this death are unclear it is vital that there is a full and open investigation by the Police Ombudsman."
Brady (40), from Lisnafin Park in Strabane, was jailed in 1991 after pleading guilty to killing RUC reservist David Black in a car bomb attack near the Co Tyrone town.
He was freed in 1998 as part of the Good Friday peace agreement's early release scheme but returned to custody five years later after breaking the conditions of his licence.
Last year, he was accused of leaving a bomb under the car of a former Royal Irish Regiment soldier in Sion Mills seven years ago.
However, the Crown case against him was dropped after concerns about low copy DNA were highlighted in the Omagh bomb trial
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/anguish-as-sons-body-found-in-police-station-14521931.html
The mother of a dissident republican found dead in a police station in Londonderry has said her son’s war was over.
Lorna Brady was was speaking after John Brady (40), jailed in 1991 for the murder of a RUC reserve constable, was found hanged in a lawyer-consultation room in Strand Road PSNI station in Londonderry on Saturday.
A post-mortem due to be carried out today is expected to shed some light on the circumstances surrounding the convicted killer’s death.
Brady’s grieving mother said she believed her son had left his past behind.
“John stated his war was over and I believe in my heart of hearts John’s war was over,” she said.
Terry Spence, chairman of Northern Ireland’s Police Federation, said: “At this early stage it looks like there was nothing at all to suggest the police were responsible for his death.”
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/violence-erupts-at-coleraine-flashpoint-14521756.html
Monday, 5 October 2009
Violence erupted in a flashpoint area of Coleraine last night after youths attacked police with missiles.
Ugly scenes broke out in the Heights area in Co Londonderry, where months before Catholic community
worker Kevin McDaid was beaten to death. Stones were thrown at PSNI officers and fireworks were set off.
The unrest occurred at around 8pm as police responded to bottles being thrown in Killowen Street.
After attempting to disperse the crowd officers were attacked.
PSNI officers met with community representatives in a bid to resolve the trouble which continued for a number of hours.
Police last night said they had no reports of injuries and the situation had calmed.
It is understood, however, that officers were still in the area at 11pm.
The trouble flared just hours after Rangers beat Celtic in the Scottish League Cup 2-1. In May, Mr McDaid (49) was murdered in the Heights area by a loyalist mob following Rangers' victory over Celtic in the Scottish league title race.
DUP Mayor of Coleraine Sandy Gilkinson appealed for calm.
“These people need to get off the streets of the town. This is not helping Coleraine at all”, he said.
“This (area) is where the trouble always comes from.
“I don’t know all the facts but the football match could have sparked the trouble, that is what sparked it the last time. I just hope people calm themselves down, we certainly don’t want another McDaid situation.
“They need to get back into their homes and stay in their homes.”
He added: “I would condemn anyone attacking police officers, they are out there trying to do a service.”
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/britain-offered-gaddafi-pound14m-to-end-military-support-of-ira-14521729.html
By Robert Verkaik
Monday, 5 October 2009
The deal, worth £500m today, was part of a package of compensation measures to appease the Libyan leader and help open up trade with the North African state during the late 1970s.
Discovery of the secret offer, detailed in a letter sent by the then prime minister, Harold Wilson, raises fresh questions about whether Britain has ever paid Gaddafi compensation.
Jason McCue, the lawyer currently negotiating with the Libyans on behalf of victims of IRA bombings, said he was astonished that Britain was prepared to pay-off the Libyans.
“This all goes to support why our peace and reconciliation delegation is keen to meet and discuss matters in Tripoli. We believe that Anglo-Libyan relations should be flourishing but that certain human tragedies in the past have been overlooked and never reconciled,” he said.
Daniel Kawczynski MP, the chairman of the Libyan all-party group, accused the former Labour government of breaching the trust of the British people. “We should never entice other states away from terrorism by offering them taxpayers' money,” he said.
The Foreign Office maintained it was not aware of the £14m offer to Col Gaddafi and the Ministry of Defence said there were no “live issues” regarding compensation for Libya.
The documents, transferred from the Foreign Office to the National Archives in Kew, include telegrams and secret policy documents setting out the terms of a settlement with Libya. They include Wilson's “personal message” to Col Gaddafi from 1975, in which he makes clear that in return for ending material support for the IRA, Britain was prepared to give the Libyan leader money.
Wilson wrote: “I do not want to anticipate the results of the forthcoming talks, which we shall enter into in a truly constructive spirit, but it might be helpful nevertheless to mention two questions of particular importance to us. The first of these concerns Northern Ireland.”
The prime minister's message added: “Secondly, there is also, of course, a history of unsettled financial claims between Libya and Britain. I hope that these and any other bilateral matters can be speedily dealt with during the forthcoming talks between our officials and the way cleared for close and mutually beneficial relations between the United Kingdom and Libya.”
Those “financial claims” related to cancelled contracts for Chieftain tanks and Bloodhound and Rapier missile systems that Libya had ordered from Britain.
At the same time Britain had cross claims against Libya for the expropriation of UK assets and interests when Col Gaddafi came to power in a 1969 coup. The Libyans later added compensation claims for death and injury caused by thousands of landmines left by the Eighth Army while fighting in North Africa during the Second World War.
Underpinning Britain's desire to reach a settlement with Col Gaddafi was the growing concern that Libyan-supplied explosives and weapons were being used to kill British civilians and soldiers. Fears over an Irish-Libyan link continued after James Callaghan succeeded Wilson as British prime minister in April 1976.
In a telegram to the British embassy in Dublin on September 16 that year, the then foreign secretary, Tony Crosland, suggested that pressure be put on the Irish Government to end Col Gaddafi's continued interest in Northern Ireland. He wrote: “You should explain that our ambassador in Tripoli has tried for the past year to educate Gaddafi about the true nature of the Northern Ireland problem, but with little success.”
But Col Gaddafi rebuffed all diplomatic overtures to end support for the IRA, forcing the British government to draw up a memorandum agreement in which it set out the terms upon which the £14m would be paid.
In relation to Northern Ireland, the document stipulated “that the Libyan Government, acknowledging that the majority of people have freely chosen to remain part of United Kingdom, confirm they will not offer political, moral or material support for the IRA or other organisations committing or supporting violence in Northern Ireland”.
By the end of 1976, with the £14m offer still on the table, British interest was dominated by a desire to capitalise on Libyan trade.
A Foreign Office memo reads: “The arguments for ending the dispute are, if anything, more powerful than in July 1975. Our share of the Libyan trade has fallen by half in the last five years, although it has remained steady over the past 12 months. Prospects of getting a share of the latest Libyan five-year plan, 1976-80, which has an investment budget of dinars 7bn are correspondingly poor.”
But at the close of the decade, it was clear the policy of appeasement towards Col Gaddafi had failed.
Libya had rejected the offer and was holding out for a more generous payment of £51m — £1.5bn today.
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/britain-offered-gaddafi-pound14m-to-end-military-support-of-ira-14521729.html#ixzz0T7MuUdPG
http://www.derryjournal.com/journal/Anderson-warns-of-Stormont-39crisis39.5699068.jp
Date: 02 October 2009
Republicans in Derry are being warned to prepare for a "crisis" at Stormont as the relationship between Sinn Féin and the DUP continues to sour.
Foyle Sinn Féin MLA Martina Anderson addressed a specially convened meeting of more than 100 Sinn Féin activists in the city on Wednesday night to discuss the situation at Stormont.
She told the meeting - at Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin - that the poli
ADVERTISEMENTtical process at Stormont was entering a "critical phase."
"It is becoming increasingly clear that the First Minister is pandering to those elements within the DUP and wider unionism who are opposed to the institutions, to north south arrangements and to power sharing," she said. "It is alarming that these positions are gaining some currency within our partners in the DUP."
The Foyle MLA says said the situation may get worse in the coming weeks.
"Many of you will have heard talk of a potential crisis in the Executive and, unfortunately, that is the direction we are heading if the DUP continue to refuse to engage on the basis of genuine equality and partnership," she warned.
However, Ms Anderson says nationalists and republicans will not accept "second class status."
"The days of second class status for nationalists and republicans are gone and rejectionist unionists are going to have to accept that.
"I believe we are now entering a critical phase in the political process and only time will tell what the outcome will be. One thing is certain though; Sinn Féin will continue to demand that our mandate and the people who vote for us are respected. We will accept nothing less than that," she said
Updated: 11/5/2009
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