A rescue package to save troubled Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff from closure today appeared to be edging towards government approval.

Nationalist and loyalist politicians were tonight locked in a desperate bid to resolve the north Belfast school dispute after the protest reached a terrifying new level of violence.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams seems either oblivious or uncaring about the impact the republican approach to the Northern Ireland peace talks is having on unionists, a leading loyalist politician claimed today.