Unionist paramilitaries who planted two pipe bombs in a public house in Lime Market Street, Coleraine on New Year's Eve were intent on causing serious injuries and even death, said Sinn Féin Assembly member Francie Brolly. British Army bomb squad members defused the two devices after a telephone warning was received. Free article

Two Chinese families and one African family, some with small children, were forced to flee their homes over the Christmas holidays following a series of outrageous racially-motivated attacks in the Lower Donegall Road area of the predominately unionist Sandy Row. In the most serious of the three incidents, a gang of men broke into a house and assaulted two pregnant Chinese women before breaking a man's nose by smashing a brick into his face. Free article

Sinn Féin Assembly team leader, Newry/Armagh MLA Conor Murphy, has called on the British Secretary of State Paul Murphy to allocate office space and facilities to MLAs at Stormont. Murphy's refusal to allocate office space to the new Assembly members, he said, is hindering their opportunity to get on with the job they were elected to do. Free article

Sinn Féin Assembly member for West Belfast, Fra McCann, is calling on the people of West Belfast to support a camp-out at Divis Tower on Friday 9 January organised by Ogra Shinn Féin. The camp-out is to highlight state collusion in the killings of numerous Catholics and the lack of demilitarisation by the British Government, especially in relation to the British spy posts on the top of Divis Tower. Free article

As part of its 30th anniversary celebrations, the Troops Out Movement, which campaigns for British withdrawal from Ireland, will launch a new book on its website www.troopsoutmovement.com on 15 January 2004 The book, Oliver's Army - A History of British Soldiers in Ireland and other Colonial Conflicts, is written by founder member of the movement, Aly Renwick. Free article

The provision of Irish-Medium Education has been making its mark in the Six Counties and judging by the response from local people on the doorsteps to the recent promotional drive of Naíscoil Thaoilinn, it would appear that Poleglass in Belfast is embracing this desire for bilingual education. Free article

Children from Gaelscoil Lios na nÓg, Ranelagh, Gaelscoil Chabrach, Cabra and Ráth Cairn in the Co Meath Gaeltacht, made an early request from Santa on Friday 19 December outside the EU Commission offices in Dawson Street, Dublin, with a giant card calling for the recognition of Irish as an official EU language. Free article

Sinn Féin Six-County EU candidate Bairbre de Brún MLA says comments by EU Commissioner Romano Prodi and by German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder about a two-speed Europe reinforce Sinn Féin's argument that the EU is heading in that direction and that smaller countries will lose out. Free article

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Transport Seán Crowe TD has said the Transport Minister Séamus Brennan will be "wholly responsible for the loss of service" if CIE workers go ahead with a threatened strike this week. He described the Minister's attitude to recent talks to settle the dispute as arrogant and "incredibly destructive" in terms of labour relations. Free article

Bairbre de BrÚn, has also called on Bertie Ahern to use the Irish Presidency of the European Union to pursue a social justice agenda across a range of areas. Detailing a 13-point plan of proposed priorities for the six-month Presidency, de Brún called on the Government to make the drive for social justice and poverty eradication the main focus of its Presidency and ultimately its legacy. Free article