Word: iras
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Bernard Madoff's lawyer, Ira Sorkin, told U.S. District Judge Denny Chin on Tuesday that Madoff expects to plead guilty to charges that will put him in prison for up to 150 years. (Watch the video of Madoff pleads guilty...
...claimed responsibility for this latest attack, and suspicions naturally pointed to the Real IRA, the group behind last Saturday's double murder at an army barracks in Antrim. On Tuesday morning, another splinter group, Continuity IRA, said they were behind the latest murder. Both groups were started by members of the Provisional IRA, who disagreed with the peace process, but have recently recruited younger members. They remain tiny organizations but the attacks raise the spectre of a new campaign of terrorist violence; something most people in Northern Ireland had thought they would never see again. (See TIME's photos...
...Northern Ireland's police force was a primary target for the Provisional IRA during the Troubles. Overwhelmingly Protestant in its membership, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was detested by many Catholics, with the staunchest republican neighborhoods effectively becoming no-go areas for RUC officers. Over 300 policemen and women were murdered during Northern Ireland's 30-year conflict. (See pictures of new hope for Belfast...
...policy of positive discrimination has seen the number of Catholic officers jump from less than 3% to over 20% in five years. The force has also launched recruitment drives to attract more women and ethnic minorities. Members of Sinn Fein, the republican political party with close links to the IRA, now sit on Northern Ireland's Policing Board. Monday's shooting, therefore, was both an attack on an old enemy and an assault on one of the most progressive symbols of the new Northern Ireland...
...United Kingdom's intelligence service - raised the security threat posed by dissident republicans to "severe," meaning an attack was regarded as highly likely. Furthermore, the murder in Craigavon wasn't the first time dissidents have tried to kill police officers. An off-duty policeman was shot by the Real IRA in County Tyrone in November 2007, but survived. Security forces in Northern Ireland also say they have foiled major terrorist attacks by dissidents, including defusing a 300lb car bomb left outside a County Down town last month...