united Ireland . Since a peace agreement was signed in 1998 , violence between the province ' s Catholics and Protestants - which had raged on and off for three decades - has largely ended . But much of Belfast remains divided along religious lines . Members of three Protestant Orange Lodges agreed to hold direct talks with the Catholic Crumlin Ardoyne Residents ' Association to try and prevent violence during this year ' s marches , many of which are held in July . The Orange Order has previously always refused to talk directly with nationalist resident groups over their parades , which mark the anniversary of the 1690 victory of the Protestant King William of Orange over Roman Catholic King James of England at the Battle of the Boyne , north of Dublin . Last year there was some violence during the annual July marches but most of the 500 or so parades across the province , involving hundreds of thousands of marchers , bandsmen and watching crowds , passed off peacefully .
Asia North and South Korean officials held talks on Saturday seeking a way to reopen a jointly run industrial zone , a rare source of steady cash for the impoverished North , a month after their last attempt at dialogue collapsed in acrimony over protocol . North Korea called for an early restart of the Kaesong Industrial zone , just north of the militarized border . But Seoul ' s chief delegate Suh Ho sought an assurance from the North that it would not repeat the kind of actions it took in April that led to the halt of the factory project . The reopening of the Kaesong project is seen as meeting the political interest of the democratic South , one of the world ' s richest countries , and the economic interest of the reclusive and impoverished North that is incapable of feeding its people . Experts say the North often alternates between threats of military action and then negotiations in a bid to extract aid . Its long-term aim is to win diplomatic recognition from the United States and to be recognized as a nuclear weapons state . South Korean President Park Geun-hye has pledged to engage the North in dialogue and take steps to build confidence for better ties , but has also vowed not to give in to unreasonable demands or make concessions to achieve superficial progress .
Latin America Two explosions shut down Colombia ' s 80,000 barrel-per-day Cano Limon- Covenas oil pipeline , state-controlled oil company Ecopetrol said , with a military source describing them as attacks carried out by leftist rebels . The explosions on Colombia ' s No . 2 pipeline , used by US oil producer Occidental and owned by Ecopetrol , had no immediate impact on crude production or exports in Latin America ' s No . 4 oil producer . The explosions were probably carried out by a rebel group , either the FARC , as the nation ' s biggest insurgent movement is known , or its smaller counterpart the ELN . The guerrilla groups have attacked oil infrastructure with increasing frequency in the past year or so , even as peace
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