Water cannon will be used in a bid to clear sectarian rioters off the streets of Belfast, police have said.

Northern Ireland faces a ‘‘huge crisis’’ if unionists persist in demanding sanctions against republicans, it was claimed today.

The British government is to be urged in the North's Assembly to make a judgment on the status of the IRA’s ceasefire.

There is no evidence that the IRA is poised to resume its terror campaign, Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid insisted today hours after it emerged that a republican hit list had been found.

Police in the North have arrested two more people in connection with the break-in at Castlereagh police station in east Belfast two weeks ago.

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.

Agents operating within paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland were tonight urged to think carefully about how they operate if it is proven republicans were behind the break-in at a high security police station two weeks ago.

Five of the six people who were arrested in connection with the break-in at Castlereagh police station during St Patrick’s weekend have now been released.

Police in the North have released two of the six people who were arrested in connection with the recent break-in at Castlereagh police station.

Detectives were today questioning six people over a raid on Northern Ireland’s highest-security police station including a civilian who worked there.

The British government came under fire today for its selection of a former top Northern Ireland civil servant with links to the intelligence services to conduct a review of the theft of Special Branch documents in a break-in at a Belfast police station.

A number of police informers in the North have reportedly been told that their lives could be at risk following the break-in at Castlereagh police station in Belfast on Sunday night.