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Olympic torch starts 5-day tour of Northern Ireland to excitement, cheers -- and no IRA trouble
• BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) -- The Olympic torch began its five-day tour of Northern Ireland with plenty of excitement and no signs of trouble Sunday as the territory's Protestants and Catholics vowed to show the world how united the community has become after four decades of conflict.
• Police warned of extra security to deter any of the region's small Irish Republican Army factions -- still trying to undermine a broadly successful peace process with guns and bombs -- from trying to disrupt the event.
• But the Olympic torch proceeded from Belfast's Titanic Quarter to the prosperous belt of towns along the County Down coast with no unusual security evident. Just as during its first two weeks on British soil in England and Wales, the crowds were free to stand beside the passing torchbearer, who was flanked by four to six tracksuit-clad security staff jogging alongside.
• Between stops, a Northern Ireland police motorcycle unit used to protecting VIPs sped ahead to block roads and ensure the torch convoy of more than a dozen vehicles carrying support staff and media stuck to its ambitious schedule to reach every corner of this province of 1.7 million by Thursday.
• Sinn Fein, the Irish nationalist party that long supported IRA attacks but today helps govern Northern Ireland alongside its British Protestant majority, said all of Ireland was excited to see the symbol of the 2012 London Games arrive. The flame will cross the border Wednesday into the Republic of Ireland to tour Dublin, a special concession to demonstrate today's exceptionally strong British-Irish relations and cooperation between the two governments on the island of Ireland.
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Trayvon Martin shooting: Neighborhood watch volunteer ordered to surrender after bond revoked
• SANFORD, Fla. (AP) -- A neighborhood watch volunteer charged with second-degree murder in the Florida shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin faced a court order to turn himself Sunday.
• A judge revoked bond for George Zimmerman on Friday and ordered he be returned to jail by Sunday afternoon. That step came after prosecutors argued that Zimmerman and his wife had lied to the court about their finances to obtain the bond.
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