While George Bush and Tony Blair continue to wriggle off the hook of culpability for manufacturing a phoney war on Iraq, all eyes are turning to the crisis in Sudan, except theirs, of course. Free article

It was a small irony, and perhaps that is why it was overlooked during the debate on the Butler Report in the House of Commons on Tuesday, but it was nevertheless a telling one. During Tony Blair's statement, an MP intervened to question the way in which intelligence was presented to Parliament in order to persuade it of the case for war. Free article

22 July 2004 Free article

The Police Ombudsman is to investigate the use of CS gas spray by the PSNI in Derry two weekends ago. Nuala O'Loan's office will investigate whether the use of the controversial CS Incapacitant Spray was justified after receiving two complaints in connection with an incident in the early hours of Sunday 11 July. Free article

The PSNI have been severely criticised for allowing a UDA gun gang to fire a volley of shots from a makeshift stage erected on Westland Road in North Belfast on 11 July. Masked and armed members of the UDA staged the show of strength on a platform bedecked with unionist paramilitary paraphernalia. A masked UDA man read out a statement stating that it would take the war to republicans if they attacked loyalists while other loyalists fired a volley of shots form automatic weapons and handguns. Free article

In Kilrea, County Derry, up to 60 loyalists, armed with cudgels, baseball bats, golf clubs and blackthorn sticks, took over the Diamond area in the middle of the Derry village on Saturday evening 10 July, and replaced four Union flags which had previously been taken down by a group of youngsters. Free article

A psychiatric nurse has said he is considering leaving his home in the mainly loyalist Fountain Street estate after it was attacked a number of times over the 12th weekend. Free article

Families of segregated prisoners at Maghaberry jail expressed anger after a 17-year-old female visitor was humiliated by prison officers last week as she went to visit her father, a remand prisoner. Free article

Speaking at the Patrick MacGill Summer School, in Glenties, County Donegal, Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin sharply criticised the proposal from the Minister for Education and Science Noel Dempsey for state examinations in primary schools. He said it bore all the hallmarks of a Minister "whose brainwaves inevitably go wrong". Free article

"We cannot sustain our struggle by being just a constituency service. We must include an extra dimension of practical steps towards a united Ireland," Pat Treanor, Sinn Féin National Organiser, told the party's National Elected Representatives Forum last Saturday. Free article