Northern Ireland's political leaders return to the negotiating table this week alongside British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Ireland's Bertie Ahern, with hardline parties vowing to use "no surrender" tactics that could kill the peace effort.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the province's largest party, refuses to talk directly with Sinn Fein, the second-largest party, until the Irish Republican Army (IRA) disarms and declares its armed struggle for a united Ireland over.
The DUP's firebrand leader Ian Paisley, in a clear reference to the IRA, insisted the "rubbish has to be removed" before any progress in talks could be made.
DUP chairman Maurice Morrow stressed in Belfast last week that the party, which opposed the Good Friday peace accords of 1998, could block any deal for months or years in order to "get it right this time".
Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, said it would talk with the DUP but concede no new ground at the high-level talks Thursday to Saturday at Leeds Castle in England.
While party leader Gerry Adams signalled last week that deal-making with the DUP was "inevitable" at some point, local lawmaker Francie Molloy expressed the view from Belfast: "Republicans in general are not in the mood for surrender."
Blair has warned both sides he will not continue to push for peace at all costs, after two years of intermittent failed talks between the belligerents.
"Two years on, the elements are still the same ... There has to be a complete and unequivocal end to violence, there has to be a willingness on that basis to share power," Blair said on Friday.
"There is no point in us continually having these meetings unless that will exists, and we will find out next week whether it really does."
Sinn Fein is calling for the full implementation of the Good Friday agreement, which effectively ended three decades of sectarian violence that killed nearly 3,300 people and injured more than 36,000.
The key plank of the deal, a power-sharing government including an executive and legislative assembly, was suspended in October 2002 over allegations of spying by the IRA, as the province was put back on direct rule from London.
Demands that will be put to Sinn Fein this week include a repeat call for the IRA to disarm under the watch of an international commission and in a way which can be believed by skeptical Unionists.
The IRA has been observing "a complete cessation of military activities" since August 1994, and given up some of its arsenal, but has resisted calls to give up armed struggle.
"We are waiting for the words `The war is over,'" said Ulster Unionist Party assemblyman Norman Hillis.
Sinn Fein's Molloy suggested the IRA would just disappear on its own if a political deal is made, but warned further stalemate could push the main republican paramilitary group to renew its campaign of violence.
Were he an IRA militant, he said, "if I was being denied my rights, I would have no problem in taking up arms again."
All parties at the table are also likely to urge Sinn Fein to sign up to the policing board -- a highly significant move that would signal approval of the reforms to the controversial force.
The 7,000-strong Police Service of Northern Ireland has revamped its name, uniform and recruitment process to redress a long history of anti-Catholic discrimination by the Protestant-dominated force, but republican paramilitaries continue to target Catholics who join the force.
"The only way for (Sinn Fein) to move forward is in the new policing," said Pat Ramsey, an assemblyman from the more moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), while a Northern Ireland political officer called any Sinn Fein approval "an historic move."
Both DUP and Sinn Fein chalk up their election wins last November in part to their tough no-compromise talk, and analysts fear they could upend the Leeds Castle summit with a similar show directed at voters ahead of a possible British general election next year.
In addition to Blair and Ahern, US envoy on Northern Ireland Mitchell Reiss is to attend the three-day summit.
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability