Heavy weaponry was used in a suspected dissident republican gun attack on police officers in west Belfast, a senior officer has revealed.

The murder of a father of nine in a suspected bloody feud between former IRA members was a “ruthless and premeditated” killing, a senior detective has said.

Police have ruled out dissident republican involvement in the murder of a former IRA commander.

Almost 15,000 street lights are out across the North, the minister for regional development has revealed.

A Northern Ireland chief constable has warned of a surge in dissident republican activity after a bomb partially exploded under a shopping centre.

Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland has been summoned to appear before his Stormont scrutiny committee following allegations of political interference in the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.

Belfast City Council tonight elected an entrepreneur with a media empire in Belfast and New York as the new Lord Mayor.

A nationalist assembly member in the North has received a death threat.

Sinn Féin and the cross-community Alliance Party have been targeted as packages containing bullets were posted to the North's legislative assembly at Stormont, it was revealed today.

Two people have been arrested today by police investigating the murder of a man in Belfast city centre.

A man was shot dead in Belfast city centre, police said.

Hopes of an end to rioting in Belfast were growing today after a night which was free from trouble.

Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey has said the Ulster Volunteer Force launched a "coordinated attack" on the Short Strand after violence flared in south Belfast last night.

Bombers who lured police in the North into a booby trap by claiming a woman was being attacked have been branded “the lowest of the low”.

The PSNI has rejected criticism from Sinn Féin over the length of the detention of three men arrested over the murder of Constable Ronan Kerr in Omagh.

Sinn Féin is hitting out at the continued detention of three men in connection with the murder of Constable Ronan Kerr in Omagh.

The number of police officers recruited in the North will be low for the next eight years, it was claimed today.

A leading Irish nationalist today became the first leader of her party to wear the poppy on Remembrance Sunday.

Riots in north Belfast over July 12 cost police £1.1m (€1.3m) , it was revealed today.

Northern Ireland Assembly member Declan O‘Loan was today suspended from the SDLP after he called for a united nationalist party.

Dissident republicans have made death threats against two more of Sinn Féin's assembly members.

The Democratic Unionist Party was tonight in last-minute talks with the British Government before giving its verdict on a deal to save North's power-sharing Assembly.

The North's political parties were under increasing pressure today to agree a deal to save the region's power-sharing government.

Negotiations to save the North’s powersharing government are continuing tonight after a rebellion within Democratic Unionist ranks raised fears of a worsening crisis.

Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey is under a death threat from loyalists, it was revealed today.

The Democratic Unionist Party last night signalled it is not possible to have policing and justice powers devolved to the North by the end of the year, despite republican hopes for progress.

Members of the Stormont committee examining the devolution of policing powers from Westminster today demanded sight of the financial deal that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is offering to support the move.

The successor to the North's police chief Hugh Orde will be decided today as four high-ranking candidates face a rigorous interview process in Belfast.

Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey is defending the PSNI's decision to close 26 local police stations.

The search for a new Chief Constable for the Police Service of Northern Ireland was launched today.

The North’s police chief paid a moving personal tribute today to the police constable shot dead by dissident republicans and promised his widow that he would never be forgotten.

A country town in the North came to a standstill today for the funeral of the policeman murdered by dissident republicans.

THE PSNI chief constable of Foyle District has warned of a growing dissident Republican threat in Derry with paramilitary groups mounting a recruiting drive in the area.

The fatal shooting of a PSNI officer in Co Armagh last night has sparked condemnation from all political parties, as well as the Irish and British governments.

The North’s top police officer today said he was not overstating things by saying the potential for a serious attack was higher than at any time since he joined the PSNI seven years ago.

Two vulnerable women have been saved from human traffickers in the North, it was revealed today.

Four policemen in the North killed in an horrific road crash died trying to make their community a safer place, mourners at three of their funerals heard today.

Police chiefs and the North's political leaders were today attending the first of the funerals for the four PSNI officers killed in an horrific road crash.

Sinn Féin today warned its patience will eventually run out over the delay in the devolution of policing and justice in the North.

Evidence contained in an independent report on IRA activity is as good as it gets in terms of proving the organisation’s campaign of violence is over, the North’s top police officer said today.

THOUGH not on a par with the ferocity used by Russian forces to reimpose the old Soviet hegemony in Georgia this week’s pictures of burnt-out cars on the roads of Armagh, the gun and bomb attacks on PSNI officers in Craigavon, were reminders of the violence we all hoped had been consigned to the past.

THE north’s first minister, Peter Robinson, said there would be “serious consequences” if Sinn Féin fulfilled its threat to pull ministers out of the executive because of a lack of progress in devolving policing powers.

POLICE have come under petrol bomb and blast bomb attack in the north.

Sinn Féin tonight called for urgent talks with the Democratic Unionists to resolve the political crisis that has engulfed the North's powersharing institutions.