Well jj thanks for keeping US updated on OUR OWN news.
Now some headlines for you:
Murder of a 'sweet Christian woman'
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=476950
Why does it matter if she was a Christian? Why is it always about religion there?
Unionists slam 'Irish for all' plan
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=476963
Heaven forbid people should learn the language of the country they live in. Ohh oops that's right you are part of the UK.
'One Month Limit for Agreement Review', Sinn Fein
By Deric Henderson, PA News.
The review of the Good Friday Agreement must be limited to one month, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said today.
As London and Dublin prepare for talks with all sides in Belfast, he also insisted the two governments had to make it clear there could be no renegotiation of the deal struck in April 1998.
Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Republics Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, are hoping discussions in the new year will advance the process,
even though the Rev Ian Paisley has ruled out a chance of his Democratic Unionist Party entering into a power-sharing arrangement with Sinn Fein at the Northern Ireland Assembly.
No timetable for the talks has been announced, but Mr Adams has called for them to be limited to four weeks followed by prompt publication of the reviews conclusions.
David Trimbles Ulster Unionists and Mark Durkans SDLP will also be heavily involved,
but the Sinn Fein leader said other political parties should be invited to take part as well, along with business, civic, church, equality, human rights and trade union representatives.
This process he said, was about a review of the operation and delivery of the Agreement and while the party welcomed the assertion by both governments that it would not be a review of the fundamentals, they were concerned some parties may seek renegotiation.
Mr Adams said: There is an onus on both governments to make it clear that this will not happen or that anti-Agreement parties will not be allowed to use the review for their own ends.
The review is not a substitute for working political institutions.
It was disappointing and unfortunate that parties were considering their approach to the review in the context of a continuing suspension of the political institutions which, he claimed, could only serve to encourage those who persist with a negative agenda and seek to veto the Agreements implementation.
He said: The suspension is itself a breach of the Agreement and undermines substantially any assertion by the governments that its fundamentals are not up for renegotiation. The suspension of the Assembly should be lifted immediately.
http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2351640
Wow from the looks of this Sinn Fein wants to work with others but, imagine that, the Unionists don't.
And just one more:
Thieves behind racist attacks
Burglary gang accused city's ethnic minorities to hide their own crimes
Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday December 28, 2003
The Observer
A gang of thieves orchestrated a series of racist attacks in Belfast to take the heat off their own criminal activities, The Observer has learnt.
People in the loyalist Village area blamed last weekend's violence that led to two Chinese and one African family fleeing the area on a group that they say is responsible for 51 burglaries in south Belfast this year.
Fearing retribution from local loyalist paramilitaries, the gang spread rumours that foreigners were behind the burglaries. Its members then launched the attacks on the Chinese and African homes last Saturday night, according to people living in the area.
In one attack in the Lower Donegall Road the gang burst into a house and assaulted two pregnant Chinese women - one of whom was due to have her baby on Christmas Day. A man in the house had his nose broken when a brick was smashed into his face. Bricks were thrown through the window of the two other families.
One pensioner, who did not want to be named, said residents were certain that the criminal gang rather than an organised racist group or loyalist paramilitaries were behind the assaults.
'These boys have been torturing people around here for weeks. None of us feels safe in our beds. But they attacked these poor people just to take the heat off themselves. The decent people in the Village are disgusted about what has happened,' she told The Observer yesterday.
The largest loyalist paramilitary force in South Belfast, the Ulster Defence Association, also confirmed it is investigating a link between the racist incidents and the young criminals.
One leading UDA figure in the city said he would not tolerate or sanction any attacks on the ethnic minority community by any of his members. The UDA's way of dealing with any non-aligned criminals in their locality is to either beat or shoot them.
All three families, some with young children, spent Christmas in hotels and temporary accommodation and have refused to return to the Village.
The Police Service has confirmed that it is still investigating a racial motive for last weekend's violence.
The majority of racially motivated attacks have taken place in the Mid Ulster area around Portadown and Craigavon. The violence co-incided with a local political controversy over the proposed building of a mosque at Bleary, Co Armagh.
Local unionist politicians organised opposition to the mosque's construction. Anti-racist campaigners in Northern Ireland accused the unionists of stirring up racial tensions for political gain. The organisation behind the Portadown and Craigavon racist incidents was the White National Party, an extremist breakaway faction of the British National Party.
There have been similar attempts by the WNP to organise in Belfast especially in the Village area. Last July the WNP daubed KKK and swastikas close to the homes of foreign workers and nurses.
However, both major loyalist organisations, the UDA and UVF, have not allowed the overtly racist groups to grow in their redoubts. The UVF's political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party, has been at the forefront of a campaign to stop racist attacks on Philippine and African nurses living and working in Ballymena, Co Antrim.
In 1994 the UVF forced out a number of Combat 18 members from East Belfast at gunpoint, accusing them of spying on loyalists for the British intelligence services.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1113160,00.html
Sounds like you have a lot of your own issues you could be focusing on, huh?