A debate must begin over whether amnesties should be offered in a truth and reconciliation process in Northern Ireland to those involved in murders during the Troubles, the British government was told today.

Sinn Fein was accused today by a nationalist rival of an about-turn on the reconvening of a body involving political parties in Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Unionist and loyalist politicians were today heading to South Africa for talks aimed at producing a single unionist vision for Northern Ireland’s peace process.

The wife of former South Africa president F W De Klerk has been murdered.

Northern Ireland’s political parties need to negotiate a Good Friday Agreement Mark Two if the problems in the peace process are to be overcome, it was claimed today.