Northern News

• Following the discovery of two suspect devices in the North on Monday, one in Craigavon, Co. Armagh and the other in Strabane, a device was found in Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone on Tuesday. The device in Strabane was in a pub car park while the one in Newtownstewart, which had the "potential to kill", was left in the garden of a house. In Craigavon it is thought that a mortar fired at the local police station missed its target and landed at the rear of a health centre. The PSNI believes that the devices, which were safely defused, were the work of dissident republicans.
• At the High Court in Belfast, Justice Weatherup spent much of two days hearing arguments as to whether Derry City Council has the right to change the official name of the city from Londonderry to Derry. The Department of the Environment is disputing the council's right and instead argues that the change can only be made by petitioning the British Queen to amend a royal charter dating from 1613.
• Following a car chase in Belfast on Thursday evening the PSNI freed a jeweller who had been abducted as part of a robbery plan. Two men were arrested and a large quantity of jewellery and a firearm were recovered. It appeared that the would-be robbers had held Craig McClelland of McClelland's Jewellery Wholesalers hostage while they raided his premises. On Saturday Patrick Watson (34), of Dunmurry, and Patrick Close (30), of no fixed address, appeared at Craigavon Magistrates Court where they were charged with kidnap, theft and possession of a firearm.
• Plans to overhaul the North's education system have come in for very strong criticism from the nine local Catholic bishops, who view the proposals as posing a "serious threat" to the right of parents to choose a Catholic education for their children. The recommendations for change come from two sources, the Review of Public Administration and a review of the education system by Professor George Bain. Under the proposals Catholic schools would lose their independence in the drive to share resources. It is claimed that there are currently 50,000 empty school desks in the North's schools and that rationalisation is essential. The bishops accept this latter statement but do not like the approach suggested.
• Áine de Baróid, who was undertaking community work aimed at moving loyalist paramilitaries away from violence, has returned to work in Belfast after leaving due to death threats. It is believed that the threats, which had been widely condemned, came from 'dissident' loyalist sources. Ms de Baróid works in tandem with Dr Martin McAleese, husband of President Mary McAleese.
• William Fulton (38), a leading member of the Loyalist Volunteer Force from Portadown, was convicted of involvement in the 1999 murder of Elizabeth O'Neill. The grandmother, who lived in the mainly loyalist Corcrain estate in Portadown, was killed when she picked up a pipe bomb which had been thrown through the window of her home while she watched television. After a trial, which lasted six months followed by nine months for the judge to consider the evidence, Fulton was convicted of 48 out of 62 offences; these included seven attempted murders, possession of the gun used to kill Catholic taxi driver Michael McGoldrick, and directing terrorism and membership of the LVF. His co-accused Muriel Gibson, who has an address in Cornwall in England, was also convicted on a number of counts including impeding the arrest of those responsible for the murder of Catholic council worker Adrian Lamph in 1998. Fulton was sentenced to life imprisonment and Gibson was remanded in custody for sentencing at a later hearing.
• Donna Marie Ferguson (24), from Belleek, Co. Fermanagh, was fatally injured in a three-vehicle collision on the Boa Island Road near Kesh, at about 7:00am on Tuesday. One of the drivers, a 50-year-old man, was arrested. Donna's death was widely mourned as she had made something of a name for herself through her work as a sports journalist. She had even made her mark here in Galway as she had enrolled to do an MA in journalism and had edited two editions of the student magazine she started. Tribute was paid by fellow student, actor Martin Sheen, at an event in the college on Friday. He recalled how Donna had successfully tracked him down for the magazine's first edition; he appeared on the cover. He then asked the audience to observe a moment's silence in her memory and also in memory of another student who had died in the recent past.
• Matthew Holohan (16) from Ballywalter, Co. Down lost his life in a single vehicle accident on Wednesday morning, while he was being driven to school at Ballyhalbert on the Ards Peninsula.
• A man died after being hit by a car as he walked home from a GAA club near Lurgan in Co Armagh, shortly before midnight on Saturday. The accident happened on the Derrytrasna Road.
• The PSNI is trying to trace a Belfast taxi driver who drove off with a fare's handbag. A man and woman got into the taxi in the early hours of Sunday but the vehicle broke down on Grosvenor Road. The driver asked the couple to give him a push and when the taxi started he drove off, leaving them stranded.
• An inquest into the May 2004 death of Mick Doyle in Co. Tyrone heard that the former Ireland rugby coach executed a sudden U-turn on the Ballygawley Road during rush-hour traffic. His car was hit by an articulated lorry and thrown across the dual carriageway into a field.
• The BBC reports that Invest NI is in talks with financial services company JP Morgan with the aim of creating a "jobs bonanza" in the North. The reporter who broke the story believes that Northern Secretary Peter Hain has met senior JP Morgan executives. Invest NI has, however, played down the story.