Police and prison officers’ sick leave in the North cost almost £47m (€67.8m) in the last two years, it was revealed today.

Magilligan Prison in Co Derry is to be replaced with a new jail, it was confirmed today.

Police hunting an escaped prisoner fired shots while chasing the wrong man.

The escape of a convicted murderer from a courthouse in the North has opened a debate over the use of private security firms to escort prisoners.

Prison officers tonight threatened to plunge Northern Ireland’s jail regime into chaos as a bitter pay row intensified.

Army experts have dealt with a pipe bomb discovered at the headquarters of the Northern Ireland Prison Officers’ Association in Co Down.

Civilian staff are being recruited to work at Northern Ireland’s top security jail in jobs currently carried out by prison officers, it was revealed today.

POLICE were called into the North’s Magilligan Prison yesterday after the majority of prison officers walked out.

Police were called in to run prisons in Northern Ireland tonight after warders failed to report for duty.

A group representing loyalist inmates today called on the British government to bring the British army in to help run Northern Ireland’s prisons.

Prison officers in Northern Ireland are to step up their campaign for increased security measures by banning overtime working from tomorrow in protest at attacks on staff in Northern Ireland, it has emerged.

Prison officers in Northern Ireland were today threatening to take strike action after a series of attacks on them inside the high-security Magilligan Jail.

Loyalists have been blamed for leaving an explosive device outside an ex-prison officer’s home in Northern Ireland.

A prison officer’s car was attacked with a petrol bomb late last night, police said today.

Prison officers in Northern Ireland are under a new threat from loyalist terrorists, it was claimed today.

REPUBLICAN and loyalist paramilitaries are working hand in hand in the campaign to have the North’s prisons segregated, prison officers claimed last night.

The spectre of republican hunger strikes today loomed over Northern Ireland’s prison regime as inmates on a “dirty protest” planned new action.

Republican dissidents campaigning for segregation from loyalists inside Maghaberry jail are believed to have been responsible for starting small fires in the prison last night.

Fires broke out tonight at a maximum security prison in Northern Ireland which had been targeted by a recent prisoners’ rooftop protest.

Eight prisoners who staged a rooftop protest at a jail over cell conditions were back behind bars today.

Eight prisoners who staged a rooftop protest at a jail over cell conditions were back behind bars tonight.

Prison authorities were today trying to end a rooftop protest by republican and loyalist inmates at a Northern Ireland jail.

A group of prisoners were staging a rooftop protest at Maghaberry jail in Northern Ireland tonight.

A house belonging to a prison officer was targeted in a pipe bomb attack in Northern Ireland earlier today.

A firebomb found inside a Northern Ireland jail today is believed to be part of a campaign by loyalist and republican paramilitaries bidding to be segregated.

An IRA member is spying inside Northern Ireland’s prison service headquarters, it was claimed tonight.

A bitter dispute which threatened to plunge Northern Ireland’s prison system into crisis has been resolved, it was revealed today.

Hopes rose today of an end to a bitter dispute which has plunged Northern Ireland’s jail system into turmoil in a row over security breaches.

Prison officers’ representatives and the British Government are holding crunch talks today in a bid to end a bitter dispute which has plunged Northern Ireland’s jail system into turmoil.

Prison officers in the North today demanded that they be told what was being done to protect them as they planned unofficial industrial action for the second time this week.

The majority of prisons in the North have been affected by unofficial protest action by prison officers, causing significant disruption.

The Prison Service in the North was today preparing to put into action contingency plans after it received rumours that a large number of prison officers would this morning call in sick as part of a long-running dispute with the government.

Applications for cash to pay for new security measures for prison officers in Northern Ireland who fear for their lives are to be rushed through, the authorities pledged today.

Prison officers’ chiefs today demanded action after a warder’s home was hit by a shotgun blast.

Police and troops in Northern Ireland were on full alert today after a failed bomb attack on a high security prison.

Dissident republican terrorists were behind an explosion at a high-security prison in Northern Ireland, it was claimed today.

Police officers who were given big pay-offs and pensions as part of policing reforms in Northern Ireland are back working for the force as civilians because of a manpower shortage, it was confirmed today.

A woman and a four-year-old girl needed hospital treatment for cuts and shock after a device was thrown into the living room of a prison officer’s home in North Belfast, police said.