Police in the North went to court today in a bid to force a journalist to hand over information about the Real IRA and sought to have the case heard in private.

THE former soldier convicted of murdering three of his colleagues is expected to apply for release following his transfer to the North, which was announced yesterday.

An Irish soldier in jail for almost 25 years after shooting dead three colleagues while on duty in the Lebanon is to be transferred to a prison in the North, it was confirmed today.

A 41-year-old man appeared in court in Belfast today charged with the murder of a man whose dismembered body was found dumped in a wheelie bin.

PRISON chiefs have agreed to transfer an Irish soldier who murdered three colleagues back to a jail in the North.

Prison chiefs have agreed to transfer an Irish soldier who murdered three colleagues back to a jail in the North, it emerged today.

Police were attacked tonight for carrying out searches at the home of a solicitor who was secretly taped during meetings with paramilitary suspect clients.

PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde is to be confronted next week over claims that the police secretly bugged a Co Derry solicitor during confidential meetings with his clients.

THE solicitor hired to represent Armagh players Paul McGrane and Ciaran McKeever has warned the GAA that its disciplinary procedures “have been thrown into chaos”.

The killer of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane expects to be freed by May, it emerged tonight.

A loyalist hitman who murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane is planning a new legal fight to be released within months, it emerged today.

Lawyers pledged to go to the European Court of Human Rights after judges today rejected a third appeal by a former soldier against his conviction for a sectarian murder in Northern Ireland more than 20 years ago.

Drugs baron John Gilligan today won the right to appeal his conviction on two points of law in the Supreme Court.

AN ALGERIAN man arrested in Belfast by police investigating terrorism by al-Qaida has claimed he was the victim of racial discrimination, a court heard yesterday.

THE Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) is to sell off multi-million euro properties belonging to crime boss John Gilligan.

A MAN yesterday denied murdering Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane when he appeared in court.

THE MOST dangerous prisoner in the country, John Gilligan, was under heavy armed guard in a hospital bed last night having undergone tests for chest and arm pains.

Convicted drugs dealer John Gilligan told the Special Criminal Court today that a prison officer verbally abused him and told him: "I hope you do every day of 28 years'' after a row over the opening of prison tuck shop.

The murder conviction of a former member of the Ulster Defence Regiment was today referred back to the Court of Appeal in the North for a third time.