Two weeks ago, Finance minister Charlie McCreevy announced massive cutbacks. They will reduce hospital services, stop school building programmes, deprive 200,000 people of a medical card and put 5,000 CE scheme workers back on the dole. Free article

"Farcical" was how Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe described the opening days of the trial in Bogota, Colombia, against Niall Connolly, Jim Monaghan and Martin McCauley. The trial of the men, charged with aiding FARC guerillas, was adjourned on Tuesday after two main prosecution witnesses failed to show. The first is actually in custody but still refused to travel, while the second, who is in a witness protection programme, apparently could not be located. Free article

The family of Jim Wray, one of the victims of Bloody Sunday, has accused the British government of deliberately suppressing documents concerning Edward Heath, the British prime minister in 1972, because they illuminate Heath's "planning and foreknowledge" of Bloody Sunday. Free article

The British government has admitted that a 16-year-old youth, Daniel Hegarty, who was shot dead by the British Army during Operation Motorman in July 1972, was unarmed when killed. Free article

The New York City Comptroller's office, along with New York State and the State of Minnesota, are taking action against Yum! Brands, the owner of Kentucky Fried Chicken, to demand that the fast food outlets in the Six Counties implement the MacBride Principles, barring the investment of city and state pension funds in companies that practice sectarian or political discrimination. Free article