THE bitter six-year stand off over the annual Orange Order parade at Drumcree could be resolved within weeks, the local Orange lodge said yesterday as marchers backed away from a confrontation with security forces.

The bitter six-year stand off over the annual Orange Order parade at Drumcree could be resolved within weeks, the local Orange lodge said today as marchers backed away from a confrontation with security forces.

A major security operation was being mounted at Drumcree Church in Co Armagh today to ensure no repeat of the violence of previous years when loyalists clashed with police.

A massive security operation was launched today as the British army moved in to fortify the surroundings of Drumcree Church in Portadown.

An Orange Lodge Hall was destroyed today in an arson attack in Co Armagh, Northern Ireland.

Police in the North are investigating an overnight attack which caused extensive damage to an Orange Lodge hall in Co Tyrone.

The South African mediator who has been trying without success to resolve the long-running Drumcree Orange Order parade dispute announced he was quitting tonight.

A Sinn Fein delegation from north Belfast is due to meet the Parades Commission later today to ask it to re-route a contentious loyalist march away from nationalist areas.

113 police officers were injured in Belfast overnight during some of the worst rioting seen in recent times.

A stand-off has developed between Orange men in Derry and the RUC because of the Parades Commission’s decision to prevent them marching into the centre of the city.