BLOODY SUNDAY victims have finally been cleared of false findings that they were armed when soldiers opened fire, a barrister said yesterday.

IT has taken a six-year inquiry to elicit the facts behind Derry’s Bloody Sunday massacre, but the families of 13 people gunned down by British soldiers will derive solace from the claim that their names will finally be vindicated.

Bloody Sunday victims have finally been cleared of false findings that they were armed when soldiers opened fire, a barrister said today.

A six-year inquiry into the Bloody Sunday shootings has finally proved none of those killed were armed, it was claimed today.

Alan Erwin

The British government and police chiefs in Northern Ireland exploited a voluntary severance scheme to stop up to 200 officers quitting the force, a court heard today.

The chairman of the Bloody Sunday Tribunal today angrily ordered a witness to leave after he refused to co-operate with lawyers.

A former paratrooper who claimed he was prepared to shoot Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness before Bloody Sunday, today admitted recurrent nightmares may have become more real to him than actual events.

A former British army paratrooper did not see any threat that would have justified the shooting dead of civilians on Bloody Sunday, the Saville Inquiry heard today.

A former British soldier has told the Saville Inquiry that he was shot at on Bloody Sunday in Derry more than 31 years ago after spotting a group of men in combat gear loading unknown items into a car.

A federal judge has approved a plan by telecoms group WorldCom to pay a record US$750m to settle fraud charges in its historic accounting scandal.

The officer commanding paratroopers on Bloody Sunday said today he could not recall if any thought was given to the danger to innocent bystanders if shooting broke out.

THE first shots fired on Bloody Sunday were directed at paratroopers as they entered the Bogside area of Derry, it was claimed yesterday.

The British army operation on Bloody Sunday was an assault on the participants in a civil rights march, it was claimed today.

The officer commanding paratroopers on Bloody Sunday admitted today it was surprising that two of his soldiers did not inform him they shot two men before he ordered other troops into the nationalist Bogside area.

A paratrooper today recalled being ordered to take cover when he heard shots aimed towards his platoon before the main shootings on Bloody Sunday.

The senior army officer who was the army’s helicopter observer on Bloody Sunday today said he only had a limited view of events - and that he had lobbied to handle the march differently.

The British Army had not been considering killing people for taking part in illegal marches, a retired Major General told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry today.

Soldiers opened fire in Derry on Bloody Sunday after automatic gunfire was heard, the Saville Inquiry was told today.

The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland at the time of Bloody Sunday did not believe Army claims immediately afterwards that they had shot dead terrorists on the civil rights march in Derry, it was disclosed today.

The 30th anniversary of Bloody Sunday today comes amid mounting complaints about the cost of the inquiry into the events of the day.

The 30th anniversary of Bloody Sunday tomorrow comes as the inquiry into the Army killings prepares to move into a new phase, amid mounting complaints about the cost.

Relatives of those killed on Bloody Sunday and the surviving casualties of the day later stepped into the wranglings about IRA activity with a public appeal for all reluctant witnesses to come forward immediately.