On Monday 26 April, news bulletins announced a mercury spillage in the cargo of a plane that had landed at Belfast Airport. Six airport workers underwent check-ups in hospital and were given the all clear. However, people in the Peruvian Andes 600 kilometres (375 miles) north of Lima, were not so lucky when on 2 June 2000 a truck loaded with the poisonous metal spilled 151 kilograms of liquid mercury over a 25-mile route. Free article

The loyalist pipe bombs uncovered in the Antrim area over the last fortnight were to be used in attacks on Catholic and nationalist targets, according to Sinn Féin Councillor Martin McManus. Although the PSNI are remaining tight-lipped about which unionist paramilitary grouping is linked to the bombs, Sinn Féin's Martin McManus said he, "had no doubt the gun and bombs, which were 'viable devices', belonged to one or other unionist paramilitary gouping and were to be used against members of the Catholic and nationalist community. Free article

29 April 2004 Free article

Ógra Shinn Féin National Chair MICKEY BRAVENDER was part of a small delegation from Ógra that travelled to the Basque Country earlier this month to attend a round of international meetings hosted by the Basque youth organisation, SEGI, followed by a Basque youth festival. Here, he writes about the trip. Free article

An Asian man, Brig Sharma, has died in hospital following a racist assault in the early hours of Saturday 24 April. The man, in his 30s, was attacked outside a friend's home in Rockview Park in Moneymore, County Derry, by two men who shouted racist abuse during the assault. He was rushed to hospital in a critical condition but died in hospital on Tuesday night 27 April. Free article

The UDA were behind an attempt to kill a Catholic family after three shots were fired at their home in Ballynahinch, County Down in the early hours of Thursday 22 April. A 34-year-old man and his three children barricaded themselves into an upstairs bedroom of the house in Calbert Way in the Langley Estate. Two bullets shattered a living room window, showering the father with glass. Free article

Sinn Féin Chief Negotiator Martin McGuinness MP attended the inauguration of South African President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday. Free article

Unionist paramilitaries have been distributing sectarian leaflets in South Belfast calling for Catholics to be forced out of the area. The threatening leaflets were delivered to houses in the Sandy Row and Donegall Road areas last weekend, calling for people to attend a public meeting at the Orange Hall in the area on Wednesday night 29 April. Free article

South Belfast UDA Brigadier Jackie McDonald warned at the weekend of a "long hot summer", as the number of sectarian attacks being carried out by the UDA across the Six Counties increases. The small Longlands Estate off the Whitewell Road was attacked twice on Sunday 18 April. In the first incident, up to 20 masked loyalists crossed the Arthur Bridge, as the PSNI watched, and attacked homes in the estate. Free article

Lisburn Sinn Féin Councillor Paul Butler has welcomed the news that the Dublin Government will monitor developments in Lisburn City Council in the run up to the council's Annual General Meeting (AGM) in June. Butler was speaking to An Phoblacht after Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Mary Harney replied to letters he sent in which he asked Dublin to raise the issue of sectarian discrimination against nationalist representatives and the continuing exclusion of Sinn Féin councillors from holding key positions on Lisburn City Council. Free article