Wembley Honour May Cost Injured Soldier £25K

An injured British soldier who was invited to parade the Carling Cup at Wembley has been told it could cost him his £25,000 insurance payout.

Private Dave Tatlock who was told he would never walk again after being seriously hurt in Afghanistan bravely hobbled onto the pitch in February. The soldier, from 2 Para, was seen carrying the trophy in front of thousands of fans and TV viewers before the final between Manchester United and Aston Villa. The following day the insurance firm handling hi...

Real IRA causes alerts in Londonderry Security alerts are continuing in Londonderry after the Real IRA said they left four devices in the city. A hijacked van has been left outside Strand Road Police Station and the roads between Lawrence Hill and Asylum Road are cordoned off. An area around Bishop Street Courthouse is also closed after another hijacked vehicle was abandoned at Bishop's Gate. At least three controlled explosions have been carried out. People have been evacuated from both areas. Madam's Bank Road was closed for a time, but has now reopened. The Craigavon Bridge has also been reopened. The police said they searched the areas, but nothing untoward was found. ...

Thirty-one people have been injured after a car bomb exploded at a British army base in West Germany. The device, believed to contain 300lbs (136kg) of explosive, went off close to the officers' mess at Rheindahlen, 50 miles (80km) from the West German capital Bonn. Twenty-seven West Germans and four Britons were hurt in the bombing at 2230 local time. The force of the blast ripped up the road and caused extensive damage to parked cars and surrounding buildings. The injured have been treated for shock and wounds caused mainly by flying glass. Firefighters at the scene say none of the injured are in a critical condition. ...

And as a contrast to the earlier posted 1973 article...

More people identify themselves as Irish than British in Northern Ireland according to a new poll in Monday's Belfast Telegraph.

Over 1,000 people were interviewed for the survey.
A total of 42% of those surveyed told the pollsters they were Irish while 39% identified themselves as British. 18% saw themselves as Northern Irish.
...

The people of Northern Ireland have voted overwhelmingly to remain within the United Kingdom. In a referendum on the future of the province, 591,280 people or 57% of the electorate voted to retain links with the UK. A boycott by the Roman Catholic population meant only 6,463 voted in favour of a united Ireland.
The turn out was reported to be 59% of the 1,030,084 electorate, although less then 1% of Catholics voted. ...

Bloody Belfast is a fascinating oral history given a chilling insight into the killing grounds of Belfast’s streets. Wharton’s work is based on first hand accounts from the soldiers who experienced the violence in Belfast. The reader can walk the darkened, dangerous streets of the Lower Falls, the Divis Street, and new Lodge alongside the soldiers who braved the hate-filled mobs on the newer, but no less violent streets of the ‘Murph, Turf Lodge, and Andersonstown. Wharton’s reputati...

Scotland Yard has said the man who shot dead a police officer in London yesterday had been staying in a flat used as a "bomb factory" by the Provisional IRA. PC Stephen Tibble, aged 22, had been in the force for just six months.

He was shot three times at point blank range by a gunman on the run from detectives in Baron's Court, West London.

Within two hours of the killing, a large Victorian house was searched after routine enquiries.
The basement was found to contain enough bomb-making equipment to make half a dozen high explosive bombs as well as a box of ammunition and an automatic pistol.

...

Police say it is a "miracle" no-one was killed or injured in a car bomb explosion at Newry courthouse. Officers were evacuating the area when the bomb went off at about 2200 GMT on Monday. The explosion damaged the gates of the courthouse. Dissident republicans opposed to the peace process are being blamed for the attack. There is severe traffic disruption in Newry as the area remains cordoned off and a security operation continues. Police Chief Inspector Sam Cordnor said: "It is only by sheer miracle that nobody was killed or injured." The attack comes days after a mortar bomb was abandoned near a police station in the village of Keady, about 20 miles away. ...

A memorial event is taking place in Aldershot to mark the 38th anniversary of the IRA bombing which killed seven people. Five women, a male gardener and an army priest were killed in the car bomb at the 16th Parachute Brigade HQ. The IRA said the Hampshire attack was in revenge for the events of Bloody Sunday when 13 civilians were shot dead by members of the Parachute Regiment. The bomb site will be open on Monday so that people can pay their respects. The massive car bomb exploded at lunchtime on 22 February 1972 in a car park outside the officers' mess killing five female kitchen staff, a gardener and Padre Gerry Weston. Nineteen others were injured. The force of the blast was felt a mile away in Aldershot town centre. ...

Police in Northern Ireland have arrested at least 20 people in connection with the La Mon restaurant bomb. The blast killed 12 people - including children - and injured 30 others and was the second worst since the present wave of troubles began in 1969. Only six of the bodies have been formally identified after the petrol bomb exploded in the La Mon House entertainment complex at 2100GMT, in a usually peaceful area of County Down, 14 miles from Belfast. None of the people detained after police and army raids has been officially named and the round-up operation continues. A police statement described the people they picked up as "suspected of being active in IRA ...

Two men have been arrested in connection with the murder of a police officer in Craigavon, County Armagh.

Constable Stephen Carroll was shot dead by dissident republicans when he went to answer a distress call on 9 March last year.
The men, who are in their 20s and 30s, are being questioned at Antrim police station.
A teenager and a 38-year-old man have previously been remanded in custody charged with the murder.
...

The Docklands bombing (also known as the Canary Wharf bombing or South Quay bombing) occurred on 9 February 1996. It was conducted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and brought an end to their seventeen-month ceasefire. The bomb detonated in a financial district, killing two people and causing an estimated £85 million worth of damage.

At about 19:01 on 9 February, the IRA detonated a half-tonne bomb containing an ammonium nitrate fertilizerand fuel-oil mixture, in a small lorry about 80 yards from South Quay Station on the Docklands Light Railway (in the Canary Wharf area of London), directly under the point whe...

The Irish National Liberation Army has decommissioned its weapons, days before the body overseeing Northern Ireland paramilitary weapons ceases to exist. The move took place in recent weeks and is expected to be confirmed on Monday by the INLA and General John de Chastelain, head of the IICD. The INLA was a small, ruthless group which killed more than 120 people, including Tory MP Airey Neave in 1979. In October, it said it would pursue its aims by exclusively peaceful means. ...

A series of bombs have exploded in the West End of London during the night - one person, believed to be a taxi driver, has been hurt. Twelve devices went off - four of them were outside employment agencies and another was found in Selfridge's department store in Oxford Street.
A 13th device was discovered later in an HMV record store.

Police say the bombs were small, between about 3-5lbs (1.2-2kg). Several of them started small fires.
They say it is too soon to say who planted the bombs, but anti-terrorist officers are investigating.
Officers say the bombs were probably planted during the day and timed to go off at night.
...

Members of the Mercian Regiment and their families are to be given free access to sport and leisure centres in a Derbyshire borough.

Amber Valley Borough Council is to grant the Freedom of the Borough to the regiment at a ceremony later.
The regiment will exercise its new rights by holding a march through Ripley on 15 March.
Councillors said they decided to add on the free use of council leisure centres to show the forces they are "valued".
...