Trial of IRA Suspect Begins in Germany

The trial of Michael Dickson, a suspected member of the Irish Republican Army who is charged with attempted murder for a mortar attack on a British military base outside the northwestern German town of Osnabrück in 1996, began on Monday at a regional court in Celle. Dickson, 38, was arrested in Prague last December and extradited to Germany in April. The IRA claimed responsibility for firing three homemade mortar shells from an abandoned minivan on to the Quebec Barracks, causing material damage but no injuries among the 150 people who were at the facility. The trial is expected to last until early January.