INLA paramilitaries dump terror cache

The Irish National Liberation Army has decommissioned its weapons, days before the body overseeing Northern Ireland paramilitary weapons ceases to exist. The move took place in recent weeks and is expected to be confirmed on Monday by the INLA and General John de Chastelain, head of the IICD. The INLA was a small, ruthless group which killed more than 120 people, including Tory MP Airey Neave in 1979. In October, it said it would pursue its aims by exclusively peaceful means. ...

A series of bombs have exploded in the West End of London during the night - one person, believed to be a taxi driver, has been hurt. Twelve devices went off - four of them were outside employment agencies and another was found in Selfridge's department store in Oxford Street.
A 13th device was discovered later in an HMV record store.

Police say the bombs were small, between about 3-5lbs (1.2-2kg). Several of them started small fires.
They say it is too soon to say who planted the bombs, but anti-terrorist officers are investigating.
Officers say the bombs were probably planted during the day and timed to go off at night.
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Members of the Mercian Regiment and their families are to be given free access to sport and leisure centres in a Derbyshire borough.

Amber Valley Borough Council is to grant the Freedom of the Borough to the regiment at a ceremony later.
The regiment will exercise its new rights by holding a march through Ripley on 15 March.
Councillors said they decided to add on the free use of council leisure centres to show the forces they are "valued".
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A soldier who has served in Iraq has been officially crowned Miss England after the original winner relinquished the title last year to clear her name. L/Cpl Katrina Hodge, 22, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, was drafted in when Rachel Christie stepped down following her arrest over an alleged nightclub brawl. L/Cpl Hodge said she wants to use her title to promote the British Army and military charities. She was presented with her crown at the Manor House Hotel in Guildford, Surrey. ...

The British Government has accepted the recommendations of the Hunt committee on policing in Northern Ireland which include the abolition of the Ulster Special Constabulary, known as the 'B Specials'.

The Home Secretary, Jim Callaghan, ordered a commission, headed by Lord Hunt, in response to this summer's violence in the Bogside area of Londonderry.

The subsequent report recommends a complete reorganisation and disarming of ...

A former soldier has run into the record books by smashing a world treadmill record. Mike Buss now has the record for the longest distance covered on a treadmill in seven days - 517.25 miles - breaking the previous record of 468 miles. Mr Buss, 35, ran the equivalent of three marathons a day at Swindon's Brunel Shopping Centre, with only two hours' sleep a day and brief food and massage breaks. The former Army physical training instructor burned 11,000 calories a day and lost 8lb during the week, as well as two toenails. ...

Two people were killed and 63 injured when a suspected IRA bomb exploded in the lobby of the Hilton hotel in central London.

A warning stating a device would detonate at the Park Lane hotel within 10 minutes was received by the Daily Mail newspaper at 1155 BST.

The newspaper notified Scotland Yard which immediately sen...

When paratrooper Alistair Hodgson was blown up by terrorists he begged a friend to put him out of his misery.

“One leg was gone, the other was just mashed up bone held together with nerves and veins,” he says.

“When the first guy got to me I said, ‘Just shoot me. You can’t leave me like this’.

“He told me to f*** off and thank God he did. He fetched a paramedic for me, put on tourniquets and saved my life.”That was 17 years ago on the streets of Northern Ireland. Today Alistair is the British National Freestyle ...

The British armed forces could be forced to shrink by up to a fifth because of a lack of money, a military think tank has predicted.

The Royal United Services Institute said the number of trained military personnel could fall from 175,000 to little more than 140,000 by 2016.
Its report said the cost of troops and equipment was rising, and major cuts were "inevitable".
The Ministry of Defence said budgets would not be cut at all next year.
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Three soldiers returning from Afghanistan were ordered off a train and threatened with arrest by a 'jobsworth' ticket inspector. The men from the Intelligence Corps were on their way home from Helmand for a fortnight's rest and recuperation when he challenged them, claiming their rail warrants were not valid. ...