BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Police blasted water cannons Wednesday at protesters in Northern Ireland who set small fires and hurled bricks, rocks and bottles at them during a second night of violence over a brutal stabbing on a Belfast street.Demonstrators wearing masks tore bricks from the walls outside homes and smashed sidewalks with sledgehammers to toss at riot police.In one place, the unruly crowd used sections of a dismantled a picket fence to take cover on the street.The clashes with police came several hours after a 30-year-old man from Sudan appeared in a Belfast court charged with attempted murder in a stabbing attack that left a man seriously injured and triggered anti-immigrant violence.Hadi Alodid, 30, was ordered held in jail after appearing by video in Belfast Magistrates' Court, where a detective said he blinded Stephen Ogilvie in the left eye during the knife attack.
He was also charged with possessing a knife and threatening to kill a radiographer while being treated for a hand injury after the assault.When police arrived at the crime scene, they found Alodid on the man, armed with a kitchen knife, the detective said.Alodid later told hospital staff: "I've killed someone, I don't know if they are dead," and said, "I will kill you."He refused legal representation through an Arabic interpreter and did not enter a plea.Police were prepared for more violence after masked men on Tuesday set fire to several homes they believed to house immigrants, burned trash bins, torched a Belfast bus and pelted police with objects.Firefighters rescued several people from burning houses and more than two dozen people were left homeless.Anselme Shima, a Belfast resident originally from Congo, said he saw smoke from burning vehicles near his home."I've lived on my street for almost 10 years, I have a good relationship with my neighbors, but last night was a horrific one," he said.
"We don't know what to do.I'm scared.
Seeing this, I'm wondering if I'm next."Famili...