Councillor's house attacked

Three houses, one of them belonging to an SDLP councillor, have been attacked with paint bombs in a nationalist area of west …

Three houses, one of them belonging to an SDLP councillor, have been attacked with paint bombs in a nationalist area of west Belfast, writes Monika Unsworth. The attack occurred in Barrack Street, off the lower Falls Road.

Furniture and a family car belonging to SDLP councillor Ms Margaret Walsh were damaged in the attack. Residents have blamed loyalists.

The RUC is treating as sectarian a pipe-bomb attack on a Catholic family's home in Ahoghill, near Ballymena, Co Antrim. The device was thrown against a window early yesterday and was made safe by British army technical officers.

A disabled Catholic woman in her late 50s has died a day after being forced from her home in Lisburn, Co Antrim, with her brother, who is also disabled, and her two sons. The leader of the Ulster Democratic Party, the political wing of the Ulster Defence Association, Mr Gary McMichael, described the woman's death as tragic and said he would make inquiries into whether the UDA was in any way involved in forcing the family to leave home.

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Meanwhile, a number of suspect objects, at least two of them explosive devices, have been recovered by security forces in the Maghera area of Co Derry following a telephone warning. A hall at Longfield Road, near Desertmartin, and commercial premises at Glenshane Road near Maghera were cordoned off during the operation.