theSun | WEDNESDAY JULY 15 2009 9

news without borders

BELFAST: Northern Ireland

Violent start to N. Ireland

east County Antrim. A 1998 peace
police fired water cannons and accord ended most of the violence
plastic bullets on Monday to between Catholic republican and
disperse youths throwing petrol pro-British Protestant groups,
bombs as the Protestant marching which had plagued Northern
season got off to its most violent Ireland for three decades, killing
start in years. at least 3,500 people.

At least 10 police officers
were injured as violence erupted
in a flashpoint area of northern
Belfast and several other towns
and cities, said a spokesman for
the police force in the British
province, the Royal Ulster Con-
stabulary.
Three of the police injuries
happened in the northern town
of Armagh, where a small bomb
also exploded close to the route of
the marchers.
“This was an extremely dis-
turbing development. The bomb
was clearly left there either to kill
or cause maximum disruption,”
an Orange Order spokesman
said, adding that the parade was
not affected.
Protestants from the Orange
Order hold marches across
Northern Ireland every year, an
annual tradition that typically
heightens tensions between them
and the Catholic community.
The marches commemorate
the victory of Protestant King
William of Orange over James
march season
II’s Catholics in Ireland in 1690.
Several of the parades have
become flashpoints over the years
because they pass close to Catho-
lic neighbourhoods – one hotspot
in particular being around the
Catholic enclave of Ardoyne in
the capital Belfast.
“Petrol bombs, paint, fire-
works, stones and bottles have
been thrown at police in the
Ardoyne area,” the Royal Ulster
Constabulary spokesman said.
In further violence in Belfast
rioters fired a gun shot at police
and hijacked a van which was
pushed at police lines, the spokes-
man said.
“Water cannon have been de-
ployed in the area and at least 14
AEPs (plastic bullets) have been
discharged by police,” he said.
A masked youth throws a stone
at police officers in the Ardoyne
area of North Belfast.
Republican politician Gerry
Kelly blamed the violence in
north Belfast on the Real IRA,
a dissident republican splinter
group opposed to the peace proc-
esss in Northern Ireland.
“The Real IRA or whatever
they may call themselves and
some other splinter organisations
sent people over here with the
sole aim to cause riots, to bring
this further down into sectarian-
ism,” he told the BBC.
Six officers were injured in
Belfast during the violence, and
another in the northwestern city
of Londonderry where unrest
also flared.
Police also came under attack
from missile-throwing youths in
the village of Rasharkin in north-
Devolved self-rule is now in
place in the province after a land-
mark accord in 2007 between the
Protestant Democratic Unionists
(DUP) and Catholic Sinn Fein.
Despite the peace accord, two
British soldiers and a police of-
ficer were shot dead within 48
hours of each other in March,
killings blamed on dissident
republican paramilitaries.
They were the first such kill-
ings in roughly a decade and
raised fears of a return to civil
unrest.
However political parties from
all sides in Northern Ireland have
spoken out against the shootings,
while thousands of people joined
peace rallies across the province
showing solidarity against the
attacks. – AFP

Crime raid lifts

briefs
Man dies after car
plunges into canyon
PHOENIX (Arizona): A man plunged
to his death after apparently driving
his car over the edge of the Grand
Canyon, authorities at the world-
famous Arizona landmark said on
Monday.
A spokeswoman for the National
Park Service said rangers received
a call early on Monday that a man
in a blue sedan had driven off the
South Rim of the popular tourist
attraction.
When rescuers later descended
into the canyon they discovered a
car 183m below and the man’s body
nearby. – AFP
Australian jockeys
prove slow learners
SYDNEY: Three pint-sized jockeys
were handed one-year bans from
flying on Australia’s Regional
Express airline yesterday after
defying the cabin crew and
drinking four beers each on a
one-hour flight from Adelaide to
Mount Gambier.
They were returning from an
all-day seminar on the dangers
of heavy drinking, paid for by
employer Thoroughbred Racing
South Australia.
The three have been banned
from racing for a month and fined
A$500 (RM1,300) a piece. – dpa
At least 16 killed in
Mozambique crash
MAPUTO: At least 16 people were
killed and 39 were injured in Mo-
zambique on Monday when a bus
and truck collided in the northern
touristic province of Cabo Delgado,
local TV channels reported.
The accident took place early
morning in remote Ancuabe district,
80km from Pemba, the provincial
capital.
The details of the crash were
unclear. Television reports said eight
people died instantly and another
eight died later on the way to, or in,
hospital.
Police suspect drunk driving is to
blame in some cases, but that they
lack the personnel and equipment
to carry out regular inspections.
– dpa
NZ prisoner count
WELLINGTON: A crackdown on
crime and public demands for
tougher sentences have seen
New Zealand’s prison population
increase by 40% in the last six
years, a government minister
said yesterday.
The prison roll call has
risen from under 6,000 in 2003
to just under the nation’s record
number of 8,457 inmates logged
in September 2007, Corrections
Minister Judith Collins said.
“Within the next couple of
weeks it likely that we will have
more people behind bars than at
any other time in New Zealand’s
history,” she said, warning that
the prison system could run out
of beds by February. – dpa
Drug hitmen dump
12 bodies on highway
NUEVO CENTRO (Mexico): Police
found 12 bodies tortured, executed
and dumped on the side of an iso-
lated highway in western Mexico
on Monday, the latest victims of an
ongoing feud between rival drug
cartels.
A threatening message likely
written by drug gangs was found
near the bound and beaten bodies
of 11 men and one woman piled up
and wrapped in a tarp, said police
at the scene.
“It seems they were all killed by
gunshots,” said an official at the Mi-
choacan state prosecutors office. “It
is a place in the middle of nowhere.”
Police found four bodies in the same
spot a week ago, also shot and left
with a narco-message. – Reuters
Plane with hole in
fuselage lands safely
CHARLESTON (West Virginia): A
Southwest Airlines plane with 131
people on board made an emer-
gency landing in Charleston, West
Virginia on Monday after a hole
appeared in the fuselage.
No one was injured in the inci-
dent on the flight from Nashville to
Baltimore, a spokeswoman for the
airline told CNN.
It is not yet known what caused
the football-sized hole in the middle
of the cabin. The sudden appear-
ance of the hole caused the plane
to depressurise, forcing the 126
passengers and five crew on board
to use oxygen masks. – dpa