Sinn Féin is seeking a judicial review and calling for the political isolation of Lisburn City Council, after the UUP and DUP excluded Sinn Féin, the SDLP, and the Alliance Party from holding any senior position on the Council at its AGM on 26 June and unionists deferred a Sinn Féin motion calling for equality on the council this week. Free article

The US House of Representatives has voted in favour of government funding to train both the PSNI and the Gardaí. Free article

It takes more than a gunman. It takes more than a culture of race hatred in which "yaba daba do any Taig will do". It takes more than a getaway car or, as in the shooting of 19-year-old Gerard Lawlor, a speeding drive-by motorbike. It takes more than the silence of gang members, or the complicity of the killersí friends, or family. Free article

Sinn Féin Health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD has described as "scandalous" the situation that has been allowed to develop at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital. He deplored the statement of the Minister for Health and Children Mícheál Martin's spokesperson that the situation was "an operational matter" for the hospital's authorities and the Department "could not interfere". Free article

Sinn Féin Representative Conor Murphy has accused the British Home Office Minister Fiona McTaggart of deliberately misrepresenting the situation regarding people claiming asylum who are being held in Maghaberry prison. His remarks come after an interview on last Wednesday morning, 16 July, on Good Morning Ulster, when the minister claimed that only 10 Asylum Seekers are held at any one time in the prison. Free article

Fourteen members of the US Congress have called on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to set a date for the suspended Six Counties elections. In a strongly worded letter, the Congressmen said they were concerned about the 'suspension of political institutions and the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement'. The letter was presented to Blair last week as he visited President Bush in the United States. Free article

A year to the day since the Irish government gave verbal support to the demand for total cancellation of the debt of the world's poorest countries, Bertie Ahern was urged to live up to his words by making this a priority of his EU presidency beginning next January. Free article

The eleventh Frank Cahill memorial lecture, an essential part of West Belfast's Féile an Phobail, will this year be presented by Sinn Féin Vice President Joe Cahill. Free article

The Robert Emmet Association and the Bogtrotters combined forces and took to the Dublin mountains last Saturday afternoon. Free article

This year's New Lodge Festival in North Belfast and Féile an Phobail in West Belfast are packed with things to do and people to meet. The Festivals are for kids and adults alike, and the line-up includes talks, music, dance, poetry, art and photography exhibitions, film-making for kids, and trips and tours. Be sure to pick up both programmes to check the entire range of events on offer. Free article

A mob of more than 20 loyalists attacked a Catholic man last Sunday, 20 July, as he played golf on an Antrim course, in what was clearly a sectarian attack. Free article

Increased levels of homelessness, rising house prices, rack-renting landlords... The PD/Fianna Fáil government has stood by for six years and watched as the housing crises spiralled out of control. There is growing anger in Dublin and elsewhere as people struggle to secure adequate accommodation for themselves and their families. Sinn Féin activists are faced with the results of this crisis daily. Free article