Northern News

• It was widely reported on Monday that dissident republicans have been planning to kill Gerry Adams and that the increased security provided for the Sinn Féin leader had forced the abandonment of at least one attempt on his life. For some republicans Mr Adams is now considered a traitor for his willingness to talk to the British and participate in a power-sharing assembly at Stormont. The fact that he may soon lead a party which acknowledges the legitimacy of, and supports, the PSNI is a step too far for many.
• Two boys aged 13 have appeared in Belfast juvenile court accused of rape, attempted rape and making threats to kill. The two allegedly attacked a young woman as she walked through Woodvale Park on Monday. The boys were also charged with stealing £40 from the woman at knifepoint and with causing her grievous bodily harm.
• The North's police ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, has found no evidence to support the allegation that the British intelligence services, in their anxiety to protect an informer, could have prevented the shooting of Stephen Restorick, the last British soldier to be killed by the IRA. During her investigation Ms O'Loan established that the car used by the killers had been under surveillance although documentation relating to the surveillance operation had disappeared. Lance Bombardier Restorick (23) was shot dead by an IRA sniper, while on checkpoint duty at Bessbrook in sough Armagh.
• Robbers have been targeting pensioners in their homes with alarming regularity. Wednesday's newspapers reported on five such incidents which took place in Co. Antrim over a five-hour period on Monday. Thieves terrorised elderly people in their homes in Ballinderry, Glengormley and Crumlin. The PSNI believe the incidents may be linked to similar incidents in Belfast and Co. Down during the previous week.
• The High Court in Belfast reversed an earlier decision and ruled that a prisoner on hunger strike need not be force-fed. The change came after a psychiatrist told the court that Belfast man Oswald Brown has no identifiable psychiatric condition and is capable of making rational decisions. Brown, who been on hunger strike for 58 days, was jailed for six years in 2001 after he was convicted of rape. He has always maintained his innocence.
• David McCartan (35) and his wife Geraldine (34), of Warrenpoint, Co. Down, on Friday appeared before Newry Magistrates Court charged with the murder of Mr McCartan's mother. Both have pleaded not guilty. Annie McCartan (75) was found dead in her Warrenpoint home in June of this year. She had been beaten and stabbed.
• On Tuesday a woman was killed in a road accident on the Glenshane Pass, Co. Derry, close to the Castledawson roundabout.
• Claire Wakeland (23) and Lisa McFerran (25), near neighbours from Rasharkin, Co. Antrim, were killed in a road accident near Portrush in the early hours of Saturday. The two women had alighted from a car on Ballybogey Road and were talking to the driver when the vehicle was struck by two other cars. Ms McFerran was the mother of two daughters, aged three and seven. Her brother was the partner of Ms Wakeland, who was brought up in England but had relatives in the area.
• A fund has been set up to raise the £200k needed to erect a life-size bronze sculpture of footballer George Best in his native Belfast. The fund patron is footballer David Healy and expressions of interest from sculptors are to be sought in the New Year.
• On Wednesday Gerry Adams led a Sinn Féin delegation at a meeting with PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde and other senior officers. The two men have met before but that was in London and this was considered groundbreaking as it took place at Stormont.
• Senior UUP politician Dermot Nesbitt (59) has announced that he is bowing out of politics. The MLA for South Down will not contest the next Assembly elections.
• Abandoning politics with almost immediate effect is the SDLP's Patricia Lewsley. She is currently MLA for Lagan Valley and a member of Lisburn council but has just been appointed Commissioner for Children and Young People.
• If we do have Assembly elections in March the Alliance candidate in South Belfast will be Anna Lo, the head of the Chinese Welfare Association.
• Since 2000 some 1,300 British soldiers have been found guilty of crimes in the North. Lady Hermon, UUP member for North Down, has called for a breakdown of the figures to reveal the kinds of crimes committed.
• Well-known Redemptorist priest Fr Bob McGoran (70), who was attached to the Clonard Monastery in Belfast, has died in hospital after a short illness.