Tough new laws are set to be put in place to tackle sectarian violence and chanting at sports grounds, it emerged tonight.

A former IRA hunger striker who was questioned in April about the theft of sensitive security documents from a top security police station could be a Sinn Fein candidate in the next Assembly election, it emerged today.

Rogue republicans were today blamed for a bomb attack which killed a construction worker at a Derry army base.

Loyalist claims that republicans are masterminding street disorder to boost their vote in next year’s Assembly elections are laughable, a senior Sinn Fein figure claimed tonight.

Sinn Féin’s leading officials in Derry have condemned nationalists involved in sectarian attacks against Protestants and described the attacks as unacceptable.

An independent public inquiry should be set up to investigate claims that the British intelligence conspired with loyalist death squads to target republicans, Sinn Fein said today.