In just under two weeks, America's citizens will go to the polls to vote in what is being called the most important election of recent US history. George W Bush did not have an easy ride in his battle to become President in 2000 (Al Gore, Florida and Jed Bush spring to mind). And his rival in 2004, the Democrat's Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, is no pushover. Free article

21 October 2004 Free article

Sinn Féin called for the immediate removal of plastic bullets as its members joined a protest outside outside the poorly termed Less Lethal Weapons Conference in Dublin's Berkley Court Hotel on Tuesday evening. Free article

"Was it really 30 years ago?" was the most frequent comment in the Devenish Arms in Belfast last Friday night. Over 400 former prisoners attended the 1974 Burning of Long Kesh re-union, organised by former comrades and with the support of Coiste na n-Iarchimí, the republican ex-prisoners' support group. Free article

Local people in the Crossmaglen area of South Armagh have uncovered evidence of the British Army refurbishing and enlarging surveillance installations in South Armagh. Free article

Sinn Féin MP Gerry Adams urged the British Government to take urgent action to tackle the alarming rates of suicide in West and North Belfast after Sinn Féin Assembly member Fra McCann was left mourning the sudden death of his brother. Free article

Anti-deportation activists gathered outside Leinster House this week to draw attention to the government's failure to recognise fear of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as a just ground for refugee status. The activists were joined by Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh. Free article

Lisburn Sinn Féin Councillor Paul Butler is to write to the Police Ombudsman's Office asking it to investigate an attempt by the PSNI to cover up a gun and ammunition find close to a Sinn Féin office on the Stewartstown Road in Belfast. Free article

Members of the South Western Partnership LSP (Local Strategy Partnership) representing community victims Associations, travelled to Brussels last week to lobby for extra money for victims, and to seek the continuation of peace money in the form of Peace III. Free article

Sinn Féin is calling for CS Spray to be withdrawn after PSNI members used the weapon against nationalists in Derry on Saturday 16 October. Free article