The bank official charged with the £26.5m (€33m) Northern Bank robbery in Belfast made last minute changes to the rota of staff who had a key to the vault to put himself on duty on the day, the opening day of his trial was told today.

A fishing boat from the North which sank with the loss of two crew was short staffed, a court heard today.

Robert McCartney turned to his friend during the vicious assault which ended in his fatal stabbing and gasped: “Nobody deserves this”, a court heard today.

Leading loyalist Andre Shoukri has been sentenced to nine years imprisonment after attempting to swindle thousands of pounds from a pub owner.

The British government was accused tonight of a scandalous cover-up after a decision not to prosecute police officers or soldiers in connection with the assassination of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.

No police officers or soldiers are to be charged after a major investigation into collusion with loyalist paramilitaries involved in the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane, it was revealed today.

Two of the 58 charges faced by Sean Hoey in the ongoing Omagh bomb trial are to be dropped, a judge in Belfast ruled today.

Unrelated charges against a man accused of making the Omagh bomb are expected to be dropped after a prosecutor admitted to gaps in the evidence.

The credibility and reliability of police witnesses in a terrorist bomb trial in the North should be treated with caution, a prosecutor said today.

A WITNESS in the Omagh bomb trial was “got at” before coming into court to give evidence, a senior defence lawyer claimed today.

DNA evidence will be used to convict an electrician of murdering 29 people in the Omagh bomb massacre, a court heard today.

THE Omagh bomb trial was dramatically halted yesterday when the senior defence lawyer revealed he was unfit to proceed after leaving his sickbed.

IRA blackmailers threatened to kill an alleged cigarette smuggler unless he paid them £300,000, a court heard today.

An electrician accused of murdering 29 people in the Omagh bomb atrocity tried to escape arrest by hiding in bushes, a court heard today.

A magistrate will rule tomorrow on whether the Omagh bomb suspect should stand trial for the murders of the 29 people killed in the Real IRA atrocity and a host of other terrorist offences.

An electrician accused of the 29 Omagh bomb murders has been linked to three terrorist explosions by DNA evidence, a court heard today.

A 61-year-old man accused of murdering a schoolgirl who vanished more than 10 years ago went on trial yesterday.

AN electrician is to be charged later this month with murdering 29 people who died in the Omagh bomb massacre, the High Court in the North was told yesterday.

An electrician is to be charged later this month with murdering 29 people who died in the Omagh bomb massacre, the Northern Ireland High Court was told today.

A man is to be charged with murdering the 29 people who died in the Omagh bomb atrocity, it emerged tonight.

The dirty war British intelligence waged against the IRA sank to its murkiest depths with Pat Finucane’s assassination.

The partial publication of the Stevens Report into the collusion

MILLIONS of pounds have been squandered on a major new probe into alleged security force collusion with loyalist paramilitary killers in Northern Ireland, it was claimed yesterday.

A BRITISH Army unit collaborated with loyalist paramilitaries to target both suspected IRA members and Catholics, according to a report to be published this month.

Ulster Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson has urged the police to arrest Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams for questioning about the IRA bombing of La Mon House near Belfast in February 1978.

A British diplomat at the centre of a major police investigation into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane may face prosecution, it was revealed today.

The murder of Catholic taxi driver Michael McGoldrick in July 1996 still causes fear throughout the community of mid-Ulster, a court heard today.

Feared renegade loyalist boss Billy Wright threatened to kidnap and kill three priests if Orangemen were not allowed to march on the flashpoint Garvaghy Road at the height of the 1996 Drumcree stand-off, a court heard today.

A Catholic taxi driver was murdered after plans to kidnap three priests from a parochial house in Co Armagh were aborted, Belfast Crown Court heard today.

A MAJOR report into the loyalist paramilitary murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane has been delayed for another six months.

A top loyalist named as the man who ordered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane’s murder could now find his own life under threat, it was claimed tonight.

A medical examination of the key witness in the case against a man charged in connection with the murder of Catholic solicitor Patrick Finucane is likely to determine whether the trial will go ahead.