Bomb defused in playground in Northern Ireland

The home-made bomb was found in a park near the perimeter fence of the police station in the border town of Strabane after a telephone warning. It was destroyed in two controlled explosions, police said.

"This was a large device which, had it exploded, could have killed or maimed anyone in the vicinity," a police spokesman said. "It does not bear thinking about what could have happened had a child discovered the device."

Police said they were working on the assumption that "dissident" Irish nationalists opposed to the 1998 peace deal were behind the attack.

Northern Ireland is preparing for the July 12 peak of the "marching season," a time of annual parades by Protestants which has triggered violent protests by Catholics in the past.

A building run by the pro-British Orange Order in County Fermanagh was completely destroyed in an arson attack overnight arson attack that a local politician described as sectarian.

(Reporting by Ian Graham; Editing by Conor Humphries)