n a remarkable claim made to the BBC on Wednesday afternoon, the self-styled inner council of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) claimed that their killer gang is not involved in the ongoing bomb and gun attacks on nationalists across the Six Counties. Free article

Amid speculation that Tony Blair is to visit the Six Counties this week to advance the ongoing negotiations, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has said that unless there is movement from the British Government on policing, the British Prime Minister might as well stay at home. Free article

A female Force Research Unit operative at the centre of the Pat Finucane controversay and only known previously as ``Mags'' has been named on the Internet. An American-based Web site which specialises in releasing intelligence information, ``Cryptome'', named the British Intelligence officer as Captain Margaret Walshaw. Free article

IThe family of Volunteer Diarmuid' O'Neill, who was killed by the Metropolitan Police in September 1996, were at Westminster on Thursday 8 February for the launch of a booklet, Another Case of Shoot to Kill, produced by the Justice for Diarmuid O'Neill Campaign. The booklet presents the case for an independent public inquiry into the shooting. The launch was hosted by Labour MP John McDonnell and was addressed by Sinn Féin Assembly member Gerry Kelly, human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce, who knew Diarmuid personally and who now represents the O'Neill family, and Shane O'Neill, Diarmuid's younger brother. Free article

The new Secretary of State John Reid, along with Scottish Secretary Helen Liddle, continues to be implicated in the fiasco surrounding the forced cancellation of Bertie Ahern's visit to unveil a famine memorial at Carfin in Lanarkshire. The incident has severely embarrassed the Scottish Labour Party and has again raised the issue of sectarianism in Scotland. Lanarkshire is said to be the heartland of such sectarianism. Free article

As the 1,000th day of the siege of Garvaghy Road approaches, Orange protesters have again taken to the streets of Portadown. Free article