Bomb Threat Empties N. Ireland AssemblyParoled terrorist's bomb threat brings quick end to debate
on Northern Ireland deadlockBELFAST, Northern Ireland, Nov. 24, 2006
By SHAWN POGATCHNIK Associated Press Writer
(AP) The Northern Ireland Assembly missed another deadline for forming
a government Friday, then politicians fled the building after one of the
province's most infamous Protestant militants tossed a bomb-filled bag
into the entrance.
Police subdued Michael Stone, who killed three people at an Irish Republican
Army funeral in 1988. The Northern Ireland police commander, Chief Constable
Hugh Orde, later said Stone's bag contained at least six explosive devices
that British army experts safely dismantled.
Politicians and journalists were ordered out of Stormont Parliamentary Building
as the fire alarm sounded _ and two security guards pinned Stone by both arms
to the main doorway. He was later wrestled outside, into pouring rain and wind,
as he shouted a favored Protestant militant slogan: "No surrender!"
-snip-The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, said
Stone's threat illustrated why rival British Protestant and Irish Catholic
politicians should compromise and form a stable coalition as the Good Friday
peace accord intended.
-snip-