Loyalists were blamed today for setting fire to a bar and attacking two Catholic churches with paint bombs in Co Antrim.

Police and soldiers moved into a Belfast estate today after loyalist paramilitaries forced families to flee their homes.

Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force are openly patrolling the Garnerville area of east Belfast today as part of a deepening feud with the rival Loyalist Volunteer Force.

The British government was urged tonight to stump up extra funding to pay the running costs of Northern Ireland’s new police training college.

The site for Northern Ireland’s new £80m (€119.1m) police college will be selected today.

Members of Northern Ireland’s policing board were under pressure today to ratify moves to site a new £80m (€118.6m) officer training academy at a food science centre.

The Government is prepared to pay at least €44m towards the cost of Northern Ireland’s new police training college – if it is built in Derry, it was claimed today.

Student police officers in Northern Ireland have been issued with personal protection weapons because of an increased terrorist threat, it emerged today.

A senior loyalist has been shot in the face in east Belfast.

A 16-year-old boy has been arrested following the seizure of a huge haul of ammunition, police said today.

The Continuity IRA has admitted responsibility for a bomb attack on a police training college in east Belfast on Tuesday night.

Student police officers in the North are back in class after a bomb explosion outside their training base earlier.

Unionist fury erupted today at the graduation ceremony for trainees to the North's new police service over a speech made by the Garda Commissioner.