An former British Army soldier who hanged himself in jail might still be alive if staff had taken his shoelaces, an inquest jury found today.

The Northern Ireland Prison Service and the Human Rights Commission were at loggerheads today over where women prisoners should be housed.

The British government today hit back at claims it bowed under terrorist pressure by sanctioning a dangerous scheme of separating loyalist and republican prisoners at a Northern Ireland jail.

Loyalists tonight threatened to take the British government to court over conditions for paramilitary prisoners at a high security Northern Ireland jail.

Loyalist prisoners in Northern Ireland’s top security jail were being locked in their cells tonight after a riot during which 18 prison officers were injured.

Loyalist and republican prisoners could rebel against a tough new separation regime at a top security Northern Ireland jail, it was claimed today.

Jane Kennedy, the British Government's security minister for the North, has refused to review segregation policies at Maghaberry Prison in Co Antrim.

The oldest parts of Northern Ireland’s main prison, which was opened just 17 years ago at a cost of £40m (€58m), are “unsafe and unsatisfactory” and should be replaced as soon as possible, according to an inspection report published today.

An IRA member is spying inside Northern Ireland’s prison service headquarters, it was claimed tonight.

A woman arrested in connection with allegations of IRA intelligence-gathering was freed on bail today after a court was told that a laptop computer found at her home bore no trace of her fingerprints.