The British Home Office faced demands today for the release of two Nigerian families who settled in the North and are being held in a detention centre awaiting deportation.

The Ulster Unionist Party is united, a senior member insisted today.

The Ulster Unionists were today accused of being out of touch with the needs of working class Protestants after it called on the British government to boost loyalist confidence by ending concessions to republicans.

Football Associations in N. Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales were today urged by a former Stormont Sports Minister to give their blessing to a one-off UK soccer squad to compete in the 2012 Olympics.

Greater priority should be given to funding sports in Northern Ireland at a grassroots level rather than spending it on a stadium, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams claimed today.