UK Army defuses bomb in N Ireland

This was the second time in three months the Spanish bank has been targeted by suspected Irish nationalists opposed to a 1998 peace deal.Two masked men carried the bomb into the bank branch in the city of Newry, on the border with the Irish Republic, on Monday morning, shouted a warning that the device would go off within 45 minutes and then escaped on foot, police said.Terrified staff and customers fled the bank in the city centre and police hastily sealed off the area and evacuated nearby businesses.This was a viable device which was capable of causing death, serious injury and substantial damage to the area, said area commander, Chief Inspector Davy Beck.Dissident pro-Irish paramilitaries have increased their activities in the past few years, bombing businesses and target police officers, in a bid to derail a power-sharing government created as a result of a 1998 peace deal between groups that want Northern Ireland to remain part of Britain and those that want it to re-unite with the Irish Republic.