There are fears of a rekindled loyalist feud in Portadown after a man escaped injury in an early morning gun attack.
Security sources said they had no doubt that the attack, which took place on the loyalist Killycomaine estate shortly before 8 a.m. yesterday, was connected with the feud between the UVF and LVF.
It is understood a car with a number of occupants approached the man as he sat in his vehicle. A number of shots were fired and the car drove off. It is believed yesterday's attackers came from the UVF.
The long-running, if sporadic, feud started when the UVF's Mid-Ulster brigade split from its parent organisation to form the LVF in 1996.
In early 2000, the LVF killed Mr Richard Jameson, named by loyalist sources as the UVF leader in mid-Ulster. In retaliation the UVF killed two young men, Andrew Robb and 18year-old David McIlwaine.
In May of this year a teenage workman was slightly injured in a gun attack on the Killy comaine estate which was also linked to the feud, as were a series of gun attacks on houses in Portadown and nearby Lurgan in April.
Meanwhile, two teenagers from the same area of west Belfast have been injured in violent incidents.
In the first incident republican paramilitaries are believed to have been responsible for shooting a 19-year-old man in the ankles and wrists at 6 p.m. on Monday. RUC officers attending the scene of the shooting at Glenalina Gardens were attacked by youths throwing stones and fireworks.
In the second incident, a 14year-old boy, also understood to be from the Glenalina area, was discovered beside the M12 near Portadown suffering from head injuries and burns. He was taken to Craigavon Area Hospital where his condition was said to be stable. An RUC spokesman said he did not know if the two incidents were connected.
Parents of girls at the Holy Cross Primary School in north Belfast have had talks with the Northern Secretary as the loyalist protest outside the school continued.
After being given the now standard police escort to the school gates yesterday, members of the right to education group left immediately for a meeting at Hillsborough Castle.
Loyalist residents stood in silence as the children were taken to the school but jeered, shouted abuse, waved flags and banners and whistled as the parents returned.
The North's Assembly has failed to back a DUP motion which would effectively have excluded Sinn Fein from the North's power-sharing Executive.
The motion that "only those committed to peaceful and democratic means can participate in government" was amended by an SDLP motion, backed by the Ulster Unionist Party, calling on "all paramilitary groups to give real effect to the decommissioning provisions of the Good Friday Agreement".
The SDLP amendment was carried by 54 votes to 35.