Cuisine de France bakery owner Aryzta has agreed on an underwriting deal with five banks, setting the stage for raising €800m in new capital to strengthen its balance sheet.

Loyalist killer Michael Stone planned to slit the throats of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness inside the Northern Assembly Chamber when he stormed it in November 2006, a court was told today.

A couple were found guilty today of inflicting years of brutal cruelty and humiliation on seven children which only ended with the suspected suicide of one of their victims.

A nightclub doorman stabbed in a frenzied attack fears he will be killed if he returns to the North to testify against a Belfast loyalist accused of trying to murder him, a court heard today.

A retired PSNI officer was found by his daughter lying dead in pools of blood at his home, a court heard today.