Bomb rattles British spy HQ in Belfast

DUBLIN - Police say Irish Republican Army dissidents have detonated a bomb near the British spy headquarters in Northern Ireland hours before rival Catholic and Protestant leaders elect a new justice minister.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland says the blast shortly after midnight Monday caused no injuries and little damage to nearby homes in Holywood, a Belfast suburb.

Police say IRA dissidents held a Belfast taxi driver at gunpoint in his home Sunday and used his cab to carry the bomb to the rear of Palace Barracks, a British Army base that houses the Northern Ireland branch office of domestic spy agency MI5.

Later on Monday the Northern Ireland Assembly is expected to appoint its first justice minister, a long-sought step in peacemaking.

- AP