WORLD BRIEFING / NORTHERN IRELAND

Nationalist rioters attacked police with bricks, bottles and other missiles, wounding at least seven officers on a day of parades by the pro-British Orange Order.

Police responded to the rioting by hundreds of youths in the mainly Roman Catholic Ardoyne area of north Belfast with water cannons and plastic bullets. At least one gunshot was fired at police.

The nationalists would like to see Northern Ireland united with Ireland; the Orange Order is made up of Protestants who want Northern Ireland to remain a British province.

The parade by the order, whose members wear orange sashes and bowler hats to commemorate a 17th century victory of Protestants over Catholics, causes tension each year with the Catholic minority.