Man charged over courthouse bomb attack

A 51-year-old man was charged today with a car bomb attack on a courthouse in Northern Ireland.

The suspect will appear later this morning in the same court in Newry that he is accused of blowing up.

The dissident republican blast in February caused substantial damage to the outside of the building and security sanger. No-one was injured in the late-night explosion.

Police were left with just minutes to clear the area when the vehicle containing the 250lb device was abandoned at the front gates of the court in the border city.

The charged man was arrested in the Dunmurry area outside Belfast yesterday.

The car bomb was one of number of attacks on state buildings by dissidents this year.

Devices have also exploded outside the regional headquarters of MI5 in Co Down and at Newtownhamilton police station in South Armagh.

At the weekend, police in the Irish Republic raided a suspected bomb-making factory in Dundalk.

A 56-year-old man arrested at the site appeared in court in Dublin yesterday charged with possession of explosive materials.

Philip McKevitt, from Aghaboy, Mountpleasant, Dundalk, was accused of possessing a modified trailer and two gas cylinders.