The National Union of Students in Britain has condemned the arrest under the PTA of Sinn Féin Councillor and Ógra Shinn Féin national organiser Matt Carthy, who was in Britain at the invitation of NUS last week to speak at two meetings in support of the Good Friday Agreement. Free article

Last week, outside Belfast Appeal Court, a West Belfast mother described her family's anguish following a decision to reduce the sentence of a teenage joyrider who killed her son. ``Patrick would have been 30 on 11 March and that would have been a big celebration, but we don't celebrate anymore. Patrick was my only son. Our whole lives are just completely shattered. We don't have lives any more,'' said Peggy Hanna. Free article

Cork Ógra Shinn Féin hosted a protest in Daunt Square in Cork City on Saturday, 26 February, to protest the recent inquest verdict in London which found that unarmed IRA Volunteer Diarmuid O'Neill had been lawfully shot dead by London Metropolitan Police on 23 September 1996. Free article

Speaking on the Finance Bill in Leinster House last week, Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin called on the government to reject what he described as `blackmail' by the Financial Services Industry Association. Free article

Guardian columnist Jeremy Hardy will be joined by Ardal O'Hanlon and Jo Brand in an evening of stand-up comedy and music on Sunday 5 March in the Jazz Café in Camden, North London to raise money for the Robert Hamill Family Campaign. The line-up also includes London Irish band Neck as well as comedians Kevin McAleer, John Moloney, Robert Newman, Ed Byrne and Gino Lupary. Free article

A young man from North Belfast was attacked and injured by the RUC last Sunday, 27 February. Free article

Joe McHale, Sinn Féin's representative in Castlebar, has called on all the people of Mayo to demand that their political representatives ensure that the maximum benefit comes to the county and the region from the gas find off our coast. Free article

``I never thought I would live to see the day when the `Derry Journal' would carry recruitment ads for the Paras,'' said John Kelly of the Bloody Sunday Trust. Kelly's comments came after an advertisement promoting the British Army, including the Paratroop Regiment, responsible for the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre, appeared in an edition of Derry's local biweekly newspaper. The Pat Finucane Centre and Bloody Sunday Trust have condemned the newspaper's decision. Free article

Belfast Sinn Féin Councillor Michael Browne has welcomed the decision to grant the city's St. Patrick's Day Carnival Committee leave to apply for a judicial review challenging Belfast City Council's decision not to fund the parade. The judicial review had been sought by Caitríona Ruane, chairperson of the Carnival Committee, and was granted by Judge Kerr at a hearing at Belfast's High Court on Wednesday 1 March. Free article

A new poster highlighting RUC human rights abuses was launched at RUC headquarters at Knock on Monday 28 February. Free article