ATHLETICS action at the weekend centred on the 46th running of the KitKat Tailteann Schools’ Interprovincial Championships in Santry on Saturday and the Woodie’s DIY Junior and U23 Track and Field Championships yesterday in Tullamore.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair tonight won House of Commons backing for his plans to replace Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent, despite the biggest Labour Party backbench revolt since the Iraq war.

Anger has been expressed at the revelation that British under-18s were deployed in Iraq.

Around 1,500 civilian jobs are to be axed as part of a sweeping military normalisation programme in Northern Ireland, it was announced today.

The British government has announced details of a £250m (€364.3m) redundancy package for more than 3,000 soldiers in the North.

A £250m (€364.3m)-plus British government redundancy package for more than 3,000 soldiers in Northern Ireland should have been allocated to improving public services, a Sinn Féin MP claimed today.

The British government will today reveal details of a redundancy package for more than 3,000 soldiers in the North.

A children’s park built in the Stormont Estate at the suggestion of Mo Mowlam is to be named in her memory, it was revealed today.

The Royal Irish Regiment is being awarded a Battle Honour by the Queen of England for its service in Iraq, it was announced today.

The British government tonight faced demands to agree a £200m (€296m) redundancy package for Royal Irish Regiment soldiers.

British soldiers accused of abuses against Iraqi civilians could face a military trial in Iraq in front of the families of their alleged victims, a senior Ministry of Defence (MOD) official said today.

A lawyer claiming to represent a nephew of Saddam Hussein has said he has filed a suit at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for alleged war crimes by British military leaders in Iraq.

PICTURES purportedly showing British soldiers abusing an Iraqi detainee were “categorically” not taken in Iraq, the British Government said yesterday.

Daily Mirror photographs claiming to show abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers “were categorically not taken in Iraq”, Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram told MPs today.

BRITISH armed forces minister Adam Ingram was yesterday preparing for one of the most important days of his political career.

THE lives of British troops in Iraq may have been put at risk by the publication of photographs apparently showing British soldiers torturing and abusing an Iraqi prisoner, the British government warned last night.

An investigation was under way today into the deaths of three Royal Military Police servicemen in an ambush in Iraq’s second city Basra.

A top level investigation was under way today after six British soldiers were killed and eight injured in two separate attacks in Iraq – the heaviest British combat casualties since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Detectives probing the murder of Northern Ireland lawyer Rosemary Nelson wanted to charge a prominent Mid Ulster loyalist with involvement in the killing, it emerged today.

TWO British soldiers whose bodies were shown on Iraq television “may well have been” executed, Downing Street insisted yesterday.

Coalition bombers battered Baghdad again today, hitting a major communications centre and one of Saddam Hussein’s presidential palaces in one of the heaviest bombardments for days.

The British Government has announced that it will keep many of its ships and troops on standby in the Middle East for participation in the US-British war against Afghanistan.

The British Armed Forces Minister says 200 Royal Marine Commandos are immediately available for the US-led military campaign against Afghanistan.

Britain is to keep a ‘‘powerful force’’ of ships, Royal Marines and submarines available for the campaign against terrorism, it was announced today.

An advance party of British troops was today setting out for Macedonia to begin Nato’s reconnaissance mission in the troubled Balkan state.

The North’s Security Minister Adam Ingram has said that women and children could have been killed after a hostel was set on fire by teenagers on Belfast’s peaceline.

More than 300 people from the Republic have applied to join the new policing service in Northern Ireland, it was revealed today.

Troops were back on the streets of another Northern Ireland town tonight as security chiefs fought to combat the growing campaign of loyalist sectarian bomb attacks on Catholic homes.

Northern Ireland Minister Adam Ingram is among three candidates likely to be considered to take over as Northern Ireland Secretary from Peter Mandelson.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Northern Secretary Peter Mandelson are in conflict over reducing the military presence in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness claimed today.

A senior SDLP figure today insisted that there was still time for the British Government to get its policing reforms in the North right.