Police hunting a convicted murderer and rapist who disappeared after being released on bail appealed today for him to give himself up following a confirmed sighting in the Brighton area.

A midnight deadline has passed with no word from an abductor who may have taken Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Police were today hunting gunmen who shot a man dead as he sat in a car on the outskirts of a flashpoint area in North Belfast.

Detectives in Manchester were today continuing to dig up a garden in their hunt for a schoolgirl who went missing 57 years ago.

Detectives were today investigating the death of a mother who apparently hanged herself after killing her two young children in their bedrooms.