A three-man "hit for hire team", which included an Afghan war veteran, were planning to kill a member of the Hutch family before they were intercepted by gardaí just 250 metres from the "intended target's" home in Dublin's north inner city, the Special Criminal Court was told today.

Two men, one aged 52 and the second in his 40s, are still being questioned by police in the North after three teenagers died outside a St.Patrick's night disco in Co. Tyrone.

The trial of a Meath resident accused of possessing a firearm and assisting armed robbers has begun at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

The Real IRA tried to invent a new explosive device using propane gas and petrol and tested it at a remote area on Mount Leinster in Co Carlow, the Special Criminal Court heard today.

A 32-year-old Dublin man was today found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment for the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend's former lover at the Central Criminal Court.