A 29-year-old Belfast nationalist stabbed six times in a frenzied attack by a unionist gang last week, believes he is lucky to be alive. In the attack, on Brompton Park, Ardoyne on Friday 16 September the man received up to six wounds in his left shoulder and right upper arm after at least two men plunged knives into him. A third man, the driver of the car, was armed with a machete but as he left the vehicle to join the attack the baseball cap he was using as a disguise fell off and he leapt back into the driver's seat. This, and the fact that the victim landed a powerful blow on one of his assailants may have saved his life. Free article

The myth peddled by the PSNI and elements in the media that unionist roadblocks, established in the wake the re-routed Whiterock Orange in Belfast on 17 September, are peaceful has been shattered after a number of attacks on motorists including a woman who was five months pregnant. Free article

"That's the perception," said David Ervine of the PUP commenting on the list of imagined grievances cited to justify last week's orgy of unionist violence. And it's perception that matters. For over a week unionist politicians, commentators and the media have sought to explain away unionist violence in terms of a series of underlying grievances. This journey of the imagination has been embarked upon as a means of overcoming a number of difficulties arising out of the widely publicised scenes of sectarian unionist mobs rampaging through the streets. Free article

As the Rossport 5 spent their 86th day in jail, the issue of their imprisonment and the wider oil and gas giveaway scandal continues to attract increasing public interest. Following the outcome of the Norwegian General Election and the likely inclusion of a coalition partner in the next government committed to pulling Statoil out of their partnership with Shell, the families of the Rossport 5 are due to travel to Norway to press the issue. Free article

The British Army's carefully nurtured image of 'soft' occupation in Basra, was blown away last Monday in an episode which exposed Iraqi hatred and mistrust of occupying British forces. It appears British undercover forces - in this case the Special Boat Service (SBS) - are up to their old tricks, fighting a dirty war against local people, killing with impunity. The incident began on Sunday when British troops detained three fighters from the Mahdi Army, the local resistance force loyal to the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The arrests provoked demonstrations by locals. Free article

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams MP was in Castlerea Jail, County Roscommon for the first time this week where, in an historic development he met with the republican prisoners there. Adams was accompanied by Sinn Féin's North Kerry TD Martin Ferris. Free article