The IRA sent a tremor coursing through the Irish peace process last night by announcing it was suspending contact with the international body which deals with paramilitary arms decommissioning. Although the move is largely symbolic, it is a strong rebuff to Tony Blair’s recent call for the IRA to go out of business.He argued that Unionists would not go back into the Belfast power-sharing executive, which is presently in suspended animation, while the IRA is still active. In reply, the IRA claimed the Government was in breach of its obligations under the Good Friday Agreement and that Unionist leaders had “set their faces against political change”.The move will be seen as a hardening of republican attitudes. At the same time the IRA asserted that its ceasefire remained intact and the organisation was still committed to “the search for a just and lasting peace”.The statement confirms that Mr Blair can expect no encouraging response to his call for the IRA to cease activities, which the Government believes include political espionage, training, and continuing recruitment.The IRA stance smacks of venting the anger said to have been generated in the republican grass roots by the calls for IRA disbandment. But at the same time there is no sense of doors being slammed or of republicans walking away from the peace process.As if to emphasise this point, the Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are due to meet Paul Murphy, the newly appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, this afternoon. Mr McGuinness said they would be asking the British and Irish governments to call urgent meetings involving all political parties. He emphasised the issue of policing, saying the Government should fulfil commitments it had made.As an expression of anger the IRA move appears to be at the lower end of the scale.

The organisation said it was suspending, rather than severing, contacts with the International Commission, the body headed by General John de Chastelain which deals with arms decommissioning. The IRA broke off contact in 2000 following a previous suspension of the Assembly but restored it not long afterwards.. One was seen off St Kilda, the remotest of the Western Isles, in June, and another off Spurn at the mouth of the Humber last month.The red-billed tropicbird, which nest on islands off west and north-west Africa, was recorded for the first time in British waters in 2001 off south-west England. As well as sightings off the more expected south-westerly locations such as the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, Clare and Kerry, one was discovered 15 miles from Blyth, Northumberland, the first recorded off eastern Britain.Black-browed albatrosses, which never normally fly north of the Equator, continue to be reported around Britain despite a declining world population. Watchers counted 1,000 to 2,600 birds on 22 September.And tiny Wilson’s petrels, which nest on rocky, ice-free coasts of Antarctica and offshore islands 8,000 miles away, and were virtually unknown in British waters 20 years ago, have been recorded on many days between late June and September.

We knew they wandered, but not this far. Derek Salter, a spokesman for the London Electricity Group, 24Seven’s French-owned parent company, said: “There are some people who would say 36 hours off supply in a situation like that is quite acceptable.”. Attempts to contact his distributor, Aquila Networks, had been unsuccessful. He said he had lost business and was struggling to get by with a tiny generator. Delays and cancellations continued on routes across Britain because of leaf falls, debris on the track and signalling problems caused by the storms on Sunday, when windsof nearly 100mph led to eight deaths.Some 18,000 people were without power in the West Midlands yesterday, there were more than 17,000 in the East Midlands and 25,000 in East Anglia.