PSNI officers injured in east Belfast violent clashes
Sixteen police officers have been injured today during disorder in the Castlereagh Street area of east Belfast.
A Loyalist crowd walking home from an earlier union flag protest in the city centre clashed with nationalists in the east of the city. Rocks and fireworks were thrown at Albertbridge Road near the nationalist Short Strand area.
Officers moved in to separate the crowds. Water cannons and four non-lethal baton rounds were fired by officers as they came under a hail of bricks and fireworks when they separated the opposing factions at an interface flashpoint on the Albertbridge Road near Short Strand.
Some police officers have been taken to hospital for treatment
Police continue to maintain a presence in the area and are advising the public to avoid the Castlereagh Street, Albertbridge Road and Templemore Avenue areas. Some roads in the city centre have been closed.
There was violence earlier today after nearly 1,000 people staged a protest outside Belfast City Hall.
Senior politicians from Belfast, Dublin and London are to meet next week to discuss the protests.
First Minister Peter Robinson and his deputy Martin McGuinness will hold the talks with Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers and Tánaiste Eamonn Gilmore next week.
The demonstrations against Belfast City Council’s decision to hoist the Union flag from the City Hall only on designated days like royal birthdays have brought many parts of Northern Ireland to a standstill. Non-lethal baton rounds and water cannon have been used by police as they faced attack with petrol bombs, fireworks and other missiles in greater Belfast in recent weeks by children as young as eight.
Four police officers were injured last night in another night of loyalist rioting.Police also came under attack from protesters hurling petrol bombs and other missiles during the orchestrated demonstrations which were dubbed Operation Standstill.One of the officers required hospital treatment.
The most serious disorder was witnessed in Carrickfergus and the Rathcoole area of Newtownabbey, both on the northern outskirts of Belfast.
Police were attacked with 33 petrol bombs, as well as masonry and other missiles. Vehicles were set on fire. Officers fired five baton rounds and deployed water cannon to restore calm. A 15-year-old boy and a 30-year-old man were arrested. They have been charged with riotous assembly and were due to appear before Belfast Magistrates Court today.
In a statement this afternoon, Mr Gilmore condemned last night’s violence. “This violence is being orchestrated and those behind it are known criminals, intent on creating chaos,” he said. “This has nothing to do with real issues around flags and identity in a shared society which are the subject of intensive political discussions at present”.
Ms Villiers urged restraint. “We can’t afford to have these continuing protests damage our economy and
destroy potential jobs for Northern Ireland’s young people,” she said.
destroy potential jobs for Northern Ireland’s young people,” she said.
A small viable pipe bomb device was found on the Westlink dual carriageway in Belfast but it was unclear whether it was linked to the loyalist disorder. Police today appealed for information about the device, which was discovered close to the footbridge at Roden Street.
Meanwhile, police in South Belfast attended a security alert in the Donegall Avenue area of following the discovery of a suspicious object in the area this morning. Donegall Avenue and Donagall Road between Empire Street and Roden Street were closed. The rail line between Great Victoria Street Station and Adelaide halt has reopened after being closed earlier.
Last night’s co-ordinated action was dubbed Operation Standstill by organisers. Police said most of the protests were peaceful. Many roads were blocked off between 6pm and 8pm as protesters again took to the streets to voice their opposition at the flag decision. Most Belfast local bus services apart from the Falls Road service were suspended, while people trying to get to a Heineken Cup game between Ulster and Glasgow at Ravenhill suffered delays and parking difficulties
The SDLP today condemned news that a doctor was prevented from attending a terminally ill cancer patient because of loyalist road blocks in south Belfast. The GP was travelling to a home call with the sick man when he was stopped twice by crowds of demonstrators who blocked the road. Police asked them to move but they refused, SDLP MLA Conall McDevitt said. “These are depraved acts which immediately dismiss any claim on a protest being peaceful.” The doctor had to wait until the blockade was lifted.
A PSNI spokesman said: “A senior police officer has spoken to a GP who was unable to visit a patient in south west Belfast this evening, due to a street protest at which police were in attendance. The doctor was able to visit his patient a short time later. Police are endeavouring to contact the patient and their family to explain the circumstances of the incident.”
Willie Frazer of the newly formed Ulster People’s Forum, which has been involved in organising some of the protests, said Operation Standstill was designed to “keep the flag issue in the public eye”.
A counter Operation Sit-In was also organised last night on social network sites urging people to sit out the disruption in city centre pubs and restaurants to assist businesses hit by the six-week campaign of street action.
The Democratic Unionist Party and Progressive Unionist Party have both submitted challenges in Belfast council over the decision to restrict the flying of the flag. They claim the move contravened its equality policy.
A Belfast City Council spokeswoman said: “The decision to introduce the policy of flying the Union flag at City Hall was taken democratically by elected members at the monthly meeting of Belfast City Council on December 3rd.
“The council has taken legal advice throughout this process and the decision is in keeping with the outcome of the equality impact assessment that was undertaken in line with the advice of the Equality Commission.
“The designated days agreed are in keeping with those notified by the UK Government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport.”
Yesterday, one of Northern Ireland’s most senior Protestant ministers called on loyalists to end “intolerable” attacks on police.
Presbyterian Moderator Dr Roy Patton said: “The situation being faced by the police is intolerable and in keeping order on our streets and bringing people before the courts the PSNI must have the full support of all who want to see an end to this violence.” Unionist politicians have tried to find common ground by setting by a forum to consider ways to move beyond demonstrations, but they have insisted it was not a step towards a single unionist party.
EU Commissioner says tax systems must allow creation of jobs
Europe must create a tax environment which allows businesses to create jobs, the EU’s tax commissioner Algiras Semeta has told the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin.
Calling on countries to cut red tape so that businesses could invest in research and training, he said Europe must create a tax environment where it pays to work.
“Over the last few months, there has been a general trend observed in the member states towards fundamental tax reforms. However, there is still scope to shift the overall tax burden towards tax bases that are less detrimental to growth and job creation.”
He said most of the tax-related elements of the Irish budget last December were “in line with what the commission recommends for quality tax reforms”.
Why we trust brown-eyed girls over blue-eyed boys
(and wearing coloured contact lenses won’t make a difference)
If you have blue eyes, this could make you a bit green. Men and women with brown eyes are seen as more trustworthy.
But before blue-eyed boys and girls reach for coloured contact lenses, the results may simply be to do with the facial shape of those with brown eyes.
Researchers have found men and women with brown eyes are seen as more trustworthy
Researchers took pictures of 80 men and women and asked almost 250 volunteers to rate them.
Overall, brown-eyed faces were judged to be more trustworthy than the blue-eyed ones and the women as more trustworthy than the men.
Faces that were rated as attractive were also seen to be trustworthy, science journal PLoS ONE reports.
Women with brown eyes marked pictures of blue-eyed females lower than those whose eyes were green or brown.
And in a show of blatant eye-colour bias, those ladies with brown eyes rated brown-eyed female faces more highly than blue-eyed ones.
The colour of the eyes on the pictures were then changed, to see if this affected perceptions.
For male participants the change did not make a difference, suggesting there is something about the shape of brown-eyed faces that conveys honesty.
Photos of men with brown eyes tended to have bigger eyes, noses and broader chins.
Smaller facial features may lead to a man being perceived as less masculine, and so less trustworthy, the researchers, from Charles University, in Prague,
Irish smoking ban in cars with children to come into effect by February 2013
Legislation to ban smoking in cars where children are passengers may be ready by the end of the month.
Independent senator John Crown and other campaigners have said they have met with Department of Health officials.
In the meeting, they were assured that the legislation will be finalised in the coming weeks with a view to having it implemeted in the summer
The legislation will make it an offence to smoke in a vehicle with children present or to allow someone else to do the same.
The pro-smoking group Forest Éireann has said that the suggested €3,000 fine is disproportionate.
The anti-smoking lobby, Ash Ireland says the planned changes are good news.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health said that progress is being made but works still needs to be done on the issue.
A definite implementation date is not yet known.
Hundreds of protesters attend property tax rally in Dublin
Almost 600 people attended the year’s first national rally against the property tax in west Dublin this afternoon.
The meeting, organised by the Campaign against Household and Water Taxes, was held in the Red Cow Inn, which was almost forced to initiate overflow arrangements due to the large turnout.
According to organisers, the crowd was made up of people from all around the country with a variety of different professions, with small farmers, public servants, teachers and factor workers making up a large amount.
The meeting is split into two sessions, with the first discussing relating to legislation and the second organising strategy and tactics.
According to Joan Quirke, who came from Waterford to take part in the meeting, the people who attended are there to fight for “ordinary people”.
“The Government insists on tackling the people with a middle or low income and these people barely have enough to put food in the fridge,” she said.
“I haven’t paid the household charge and from speaking to people on the street, an awful lot of people are the same and have no intention of paying it. We are going to continue on the fight, but I’m very happy to see so many people here today.”
People Before Profit councillor Brid Smith said that the only way the Government will take any action on the issue is if there is a mass-movement made by the general public, which she hopes will stem from today’s meeting.
“What we need is a mass resistance on the streets. I don’t think [the Government] will listen to us with out a mass movement and that’s what we intend to do. Just look at the amount of people who are here today. It’s entirely possible,” she said.
People Before Profit TD Joan Collins said the turnout was tremendous. “These people came from all parts of the country to be here and to have their voices heard. We are midway through a battle with the Government and we are not going to back down.”
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