A security operation on the dual carriageway between Warrenpoint and Newry closed the road for most of yesterday until it was reopened last night. The RUC did not disclose what security forces were looking for, but said nothing was found.
Four men are recovering in hospital after two separate shooting incidents in Belfast, while a teenager was given treatment following an incident in the republican Whiterock area.
On Saturday evening two men, both aged 21, each received a single gunshot wound to the leg. They were shot in an alleyway off Park Parade in the Ravenhill Road area, a mixed district of east Belfast. Less than an hour later two men, aged 19 and 20, were bundled into a car in Drumadoon Drive, in a loyalist area of Dundonald, and driven to Morven Park where they were shot in the legs.
The incidents have diminished hopes of an end to paramilitary attacks in the North. A total of 56 people have been shot or beaten by republicans and loyalists since January. Loyalists have attacked 10 people in February .
An incident on Friday night has sparked controversy about whether republicans have heeded appeals from politicians and security chiefs to stop the beatings. The apparent cessation of attacks followed a statement from the Provisional IRA denying any involvement in beatings.
The 19-year-old man told police he was beaten up by a number of masked men as he walked along Britton's Parade in the Whiterock area of west Belfast. He had a broken leg and multiple bruising to his head and back.
It was the first such incident reported in a republican area since February 2nd. But local people deny the teenager was attacked. Mr Tommy Holland, a community worker, said the driver of a stolen car was injured when he crashed into a graveyard wall. The injured man was taken to hospital for treatment, Mr Holland added, and there had "been no punishment beating whatsoever".
An RUC spokesman said last night the "circumstances surrounding how a 19-year-old man sustained his injuries are under investigation".
It is understood that republicans recognise that attacks are not a deterrent to crime, and view the restorative justice programmes in operation in Belfast and Derry as important.
The Sinn Fein chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, said last week: "I think punishment beatings are brutal. I think they are dehumanising, and I think they should stop, no matter who is involved in them."
Mr Jim Rodgers, of the UUP, has called on loyalists to follow the example of republicans and stop their attacks. "I would urge those on the loyalist side to do something positive to bring to an end some of the terrible shootings and beatings that we have been hearing about this year. If we are ever going to move forward in Northern Ireland these things must end and end forever."
The RUC issued an appeal for information after a number of masked men broke into a house in Burrenreagh Court, Newtownards, at around 9 p.m. on Saturday.
The gang smashed three windows and daubed paint on an outside wall while a woman and her three children were inside. They escaped injury but were left badly shaken. Police have described the incident as an act of intimidation.