An appeal for calm was issued today to a community in west Belfast which witnessed an horrific brawl in which a man was attacked with a hatchet and shot at.

A policeman was injured early today during disturbances in west Belfast.

AN Irishman who remains in custody in Israel after being arrested at the weekend is not a master bomb maker for the Real IRA, his father said last night.

A Belfast priest was stabbed in the face with a screwdriver while trying to prevent a burglary at a nursery school in the west of the city.

A 16-year-old youth was tonight charged with carrying out a weekend attack in west Belfast which left another youth critically ill in hospital.

A teenager wept today as he was charged with attempted murder which left a youth fighting for his life after a knife attack in west Belfast.

A teenage boy remains in hospital after he was singled out by a gang of men and beaten in west Belfast.