The police's failure to conduct an overarching examination of state collusion with a notorious loyalist murder gang in Northern Ireland was inconsistent with its human rights obligations, a judge has found.

A top loyalist and a former leading member of the Ulster Volunteer Force, Mark Haddock, was today charged with the murder of a 39-year-old man in the North more than a decade ago.

The work of a specialist police unit set up to investigate unsolved murders in the North is to be scaled back because of spending cuts.

A HUMAN rights organisation has expressed grave concern about a British Government bill allowing people who committed offences before the 1998 Good Friday Agreement to avoid serving a prison sentence.

A human rights organisation expressed grave concern today about a British government bill allowing people who committed offences before the 1998 Good Friday Agreement to avoid serving a prison sentence.