On New Year's Eve 1994, a large Russian force tried to storm Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. The attempt failed and a drawn out urban battle raged until the Russians two months later claimed to be in control of the city. One year later, a Chechen force entered the city for a few days, and in August 1996 the Chechens retook Grozny in an offensive that paved the way for the Khasavjurt Peace Agreement, which led to the withdrawal of the Russian forces from Chechnya. In 1999, the Russians again invaded Chechnya, with much greater force, flattening Grozny by aerial bombardment in the process. Free article

• North Belfast Sinn Féin Councillor Margaret McClenaghan has lashed out at the Ulster Political Research Group over its insistence that the UDA is not behind ongoing sectarian attacks on nationalist homes in Ardoyne. The latest attacks in and around Ardoyne occurred on Saturday night 3 April when up to 20 loyalists, coming from the direction of Twaddell Avenue, attacked a number of Catholic-owned houses on the Crumlin Road, near the junction of Hesketh Park. Free article

8 April, 2004 Free article

Two Filipino nurses and their families became the latest targets of loyalist racists when their Portadown home was attacked in the early hours of Wednesday morning 31 March. The attack was the second on the Filipino families' home in the space of a week. Free article

Arnaldo Otegi is the main spokesperson of the Basque left pro-independence party Batasuna. He joined the executive of the party in very traumatic circumstances, after the members of the previous executive were rounded up and jailed for trying to publicise an ETA peace offer in the late 1990s. Since then, Otegi - himself a former political prisoner - has experienced the repressive policies of the Spanish administration, from the banning of Batasuna to the criminalisation of Basque political, social and cultural organisations. Free article

It was a tale of two tax systems this week. One story features the Irish exchequer figures for the first three months of 2004. They showed a 15% rise in tax receipts on 2003 and a tax surplus of €272 million for the first quarter of the year, prompting calls from SIPTU for the government to reverse some of the previous year's social welfare spending cutbacks. The other tax story featured a consortium of Irish investors who, under the leadership of Derek Quinlan, a former Revenue Commission official, were bidding to buy the prestigious Savoy hotel chain in London. Free article

Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin has called on the Taoiseach in his role in the EU Presidency and using his experience in the Peace Process to encourage inclusive dialogue to address the Basque-Spanish conflict. He urged the lifting of the Spanish Government's ban on Basque political parties. Free article

As the shadow boxing between unions and employers around the new social partnership wage agreement goes on this week, consider some of the following wage facts: Free article

The electronic voting system the 26-County Government is planning to use for the local and EU elections on 11 June is flawed and should be either radically changed or withdrawn. So said Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin during the debate on legislation to provide for electronic voting. Free article

An attempt by the Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Agriculture, Martin Ferris TD, to amend the Bill amalgamating Bord Bia and Bord Glas to exclude Genetically Modified produce from the marketing of Irish food, was defeated on Wednesday morning in the Dáil. Free article