IRA officially disarms

This strikes us as a fairly momentous development:

The IRA has decommissioned a huge haul of its remaining weapons and explosives in a bid to break the political deadlock in Northern Ireland, The Observer has learnt.
Republican and government sources said the formal announcement that a vast arsenal of tonnes of illegal rifles, rockets, anti-aircraft guns and Semtex explosive had been put beyond use will be made possibly in the next 48 hours and definitely before Tony Blair's keynote speech to the Labour party conference this week.
However, there will be no photographic evidence of the disarmament, which was witnessed by two churchmen from Northern Ireland, one a Catholic priest, the other a Presbyterian minister.
John de Chastelain, the Canadian general who has the task of overseeing paramilitary disarmament, will deliver an inventory of the weapons destroyed at a press conference early this week.
The IRA will also hold on to a number of personal protection weapons for its so-called "internal security teams" ...