Three men being held over a suspected terrorism bomb-making plot tonight won the right to challenge police refusal to give assurances that their conversations with solicitors were not being secretly taped.

John Alderdice, former speaker in the Northern Ireland Assembly, today won a court victory over newspaper allegations that he abandoned his post during a developing crisis in the peace process to buy a holiday home in France.

Two former carers at a Barnardos home were convicted today of a string of sex abuse charges against young children.