Young people must be shielded from the sectarian violence plaguing parts of the North, the children’s commissioner said tonight.

A man arrested as part of a PSNI investigation into an alleged IRA spy plot at government offices in Belfast today accused the North's Special Branch of threatening the Good Friday Agreement.

Loyalist representatives cannot effectively engage in the peace process unless there is an end to paramilitary violence on the streets, British security minister Jane Kennedy warned today.

Sinn Féin has threatened legal action unless British Prime Minster Tony Blair sets a date for elections to the suspended Northern Ireland Assembly, it emerged tonight.

Police in Northern Ireland secretly copied files stolen by the IRA from the British government’s main offices in Northern Ireland as part of a major anti-terrorist intelligence gathering operation, it has been claimed.

The peace process will be plunged even deeper into crisis if ex-paramilitary prisoners are allowed to sit on police scrutiny bodies before the IRA disbands, the British government was warned tonight.

The civil servant arrested in connection with alleged IRA intelligence gathering at Stormont has been released without charge.

ALLEGATIONS that a civil servant was spying on David Trimble for the IRA plunged the Northern Ireland peace process deeper into crisis last night.

A civil servant who once worked in Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble’s private office at the Northern Ireland Assembly was questioned today by detectives investigating IRA spying allegations.

A civil servant who worked in David Trimble’s private office at the Northern Ireland Assembly was questioned today by detectives investigating IRA spying allegations.

Seized weapons were being examined today after eight loyalists were arrested by police near Belfast.

A FORMER Government porter at the centre of a suspected IRA spy ring copied top security papers on Northern Ireland’s most senior army officer, a court heard yesterday.

A former British government porter at the centre of a suspected IRA spy ring copied top security papers on Northern Ireland’s most senior army officer, a court heard today.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams is meeting Bertie Ahern in Dublin this evening to discuss the latest crisis in the peace process.

Sinn Fein are planning a string of protests outside police stations in the North today.

THE raids began around 5am. Teams of police officers fanned out across north and west Belfast, arresting four people and searching their homes.

Police in the North have revealed that a former messenger who once worked at the British Government’s main office in Belfast was arrested during a series of raids in republican areas this morning.

Crisis talks to rescue the Northern Ireland Assembly were taking place between the Government and a cross community party today as speculation mounted that there could be another bid to elect new First and Deputy First Ministers.

The new Northern Secretary John Reid has had his first formal meeting with First Minister David Trimble and his deputy, Seamus Mallon.