JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell yesterday apologised to the family of Seamus Ludlow for the State’s handling of his murder investigation.

Dissident elements within the British security services are undermining progress made by the IRA during the peace process, Gerry Adams has warned.

The Irish Embassy in London has been receiving an increasing number of calls from Ireland inquiring about relatives in the wake of the terror attacks on the British capital,Minister for Foreign Affaris Dermot Ahern confirmed today.

SINN FÉIN last night attacked the Irish Government for its support of the Independent Monitoring Commission, accusing it of failing in its "stewardship of the peace process".

Northern Ireland’s peace process is caught in a “dangerous crisis” because Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble allowed hard liners to set the agenda in recent years, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness claimed today.

The widow of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane has secured leave to seek a judicial review of the British government’s refusal to publish the Cory Report into his murder.

An FBI spy testifying against alleged Real IRA chief Michael McKevitt suggested he should be hypnotised in order to remember details of meetings with dissident republicans which he infiltrated, a court heard today.

A DEAL that could lead to the alleged Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt serving just two more years in prison has been put to his legal team, according to reports.

Former British Prime Minister Edward Heath today insisted he was not responsible for the deaths of 13 civil rights protesters on Bloody Sunday nearly 31 years ago.

CIVIL rights groups have criticised planned EU legislation which allows the Government pass on the contents of phone, fax and e-mail messages to US authorities.

A team from the North's police service is due to travel to Dublin today for the first ever official Gaelic football game involving members of the British security services.

The terrorist group behind the Omagh bombing made several attempts to trace an FBI agent preparing to give evidence against its alleged leader, a top garda told Dublin's Special Criminal court today.

A retired RUC officer has claimed that police in the North failed to catch those responsible for the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane because of a cover up by RUC Special Branch.