Belfast

The Irish Republican Army said on Thursday it was giving ”due consideration” to an appeal from its political wing Sinn Fein to fully embrace politics and abandon its armed struggle in Northern Ireland. On Wednesday, Gerry Adams said he had supported the IRA in the past because there had been no choice, but that now there was an ”alternative”.

Not far from the red, white and blue paving stones, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) graffiti and the ”Chinks out” notices scratched outside Chinese takeaway restaurants in south Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, Hua Long Lin was at home watching TV when a man burst in and smashed a brick into his face.

British army experts in Northern Ireland disarmed two homemade bombs overnight on Monday near the scene of attacks which targetted black South Africans, police said on Tuesday.

Northern Ireland’s nationalists and the Irish government demanded explanations from London on Monday after it was revealed that a top-level mole had been working inside the Irish Republican Army for the British government for over 20 years.

A senior Protestant paramilitary source on Monday blamed hardline Protestants for nailing a Catholic youth to a fence post in Belfast over the weekend amid rising sectarian street violence.