A CRIMINAL ASSETS BUREAU (CAB) officer told the High Court yesterday that a €100,000 settlement made with a man who is suing a newspaper for libel over an article calling him a drug king arose as authorities believed he was involved in drug trafficking and benefit fraud.

A top orthopaedic surgeon could face disciplinary action over claims that blood cells taken from fracture patients in the North were used for research without proper procedures being in place, it was revealed today.

Catholic bishops are to put themselves forward for vetting to demonstrate the Church’s commitment to child protection policies, it emerged today.

The family of a mother hacked to death by a mental patient demanded a public inquiry today into why her murderer had been allowed to walk free from a psychiatric hospital a month before the killing.

Northern Ireland’s Assistant State Pathologist is facing British government disciplinary proceedings over his failure to identify multiple fractures on the body of a 14-month-old Romanian orphan who died less than four months after being adopted and taken to live in the North in 2000, it was revealed today.