Peace deal under threat as police raid SF offices

THE FUTURE of the Good Friday Peace Agreement hangs in the balance today, posing the most serious threat yet to the fragile peace in the North.

The crisis follows dawn raids yesterday by the North's police service on Sinn Féin's offices at the Northern Ireland parliament at Stormont. The police said they were investigating intelligence gathering by the Republican movement and they also carried out a series of swoops in other parts of Belfast.

The incident drew a furious reaction from Sinn Féin, which accused the police of setting out to wreck the peace process. On the other hand the Ulster Unionists said the development justified their recent hardline stance and called on the British government to remove Sinn Féin from the North's power- sharing government.