Sinn Féin has clashed with the Police Federation, which represents rank and file police officers, after the Federation criticised those who oppose loyalist parades.

The INLA is being linked to a shooting incident in north Belfast on Friday night in which a 14-year-old boy was wounded in the leg.

Paramilitary gunmen who shot a 14-year-old Belfast boy in the leg were today branded child abusers.

Eight schoolgirls were treated in hospital tonight after their buses were attacked by stone throwers at a flashpoint in north Belfast.

Republicans in North Belfast are today initially sceptical about the PUP's claims of an apparent attempt to abduct Billy Hutchinson in Belfast this morning.

Police in north Belfast have informed a pregnant Catholic woman that her life is in danger from loyalists, according to a local Sinn Fein councillor.

Fresh violence has erupted in north Belfast this evening, with nationalists and loyalists throwing missiles at each other across the peaceline separating nationalist Ardoyne from the loyalist Glenbryn estate.

A delegation of Sinn Fein councillors and residents from Alliance Avenue in the Ardoyne today met the US Consul General Barbara Stevenson.

A woman and children had a narrow escape tonight after their North Belfast home was attacked with gunfire in a sectarian flash point area of the city.

Reports of gunfire in a volatile north Belfast district where a bitterly disputed loyalist march took place were tonight being probed by police.

A pipe bomb discovered at the rear of Catholic homes in north Belfast was intended to add to the sectarian death toll in the area, it is claimed.

Police were expected to make more arrests today following the trouble at Drumcree which left 31 police officers injured.

Two contentious Orange parades in Belfast were tonight given the go-ahead.

Rioting has flared tonight in a number of flashpoint areas of north Belfast.

Tensions in north Belfast were on a knife edge tonight amid fears that the bitter sectarian violence blighting the area could spiral out of control.

Reports of fresh gunfire in strife-torn north Belfast were today being investigated.

Detectives investigating the raid on Special Branch offices at Northern Ireland’s most secure police station have extended their inquiries to the United States, it was confirmed this evening.

The RUC is investigating a suspected pipe-bomb attack on a Catholic home in Alliance Avenue in north Belfast.

The Northern Ireland Parades Commission was today due to issue new rulings on controversial Twelfth of July marches.