A long-serving prison officer was murdered in a motorway ambush by dissident republicans in Northern Ireland today.

A man mistakenly freed from prison last year and wanted by police leading a murder hunt has been arrested.

Colin Howell's US-born wife may be questioned again by detectives who re-opened the investigation into the deaths of his first wife and PC Trevor Buchanan, it was revealed today

One of the North's leading Press and PR photographers John Harrison has died suddenly at his home.

A dentist accused of murdering his wife and his ex-lover's husband pleaded guilty today to indecently assaulting three women patients at his surgery.

Jail chiefs braced themselves today for a major report of a £30m (€367m) UK government investigation into the 1997 murder inside the Maze Prison of loyalist Billy Wright, one of the North's most feared assassins.

A major investigation has begun today at a high security prison today after the second suicide of an inmate in more than a year.

An investigation was under way tonight into the death of a prisoner found collapsed in his cell in the North.

Three men were charged today with the murder of a man who was stabbed to death in the North at the weekend.

The popularity of sunbeds among the young is storing up long-term health risks which far outweigh the short-term cosmetic benefits of a tan, a cancer conference was told today.

A top loyalist was arrested at a jail in the North today by police investigating the murder of another Protestant paramilitary.

Two men were arrested in the North today by police investigating an alleged rape and a security breach at a nearby RAF base.

An Irish soldier in jail for almost 25 years after shooting dead three colleagues while on duty in the Lebanon is to be transferred to a prison in the North, it was confirmed today.

Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan will reveal today the findings from her probe into the first fatal shooting by the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

An escape tunnel discovered on the site of the North's infamous Maze Prison may have been dug by loyalist paramilitaries 30 years ago, it was claimed tonight.

Pregnant women are being forced out of their jobs as part of the worst alleged gender discrimination in the North, it was claimed today.

FORMER RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan last night resisted demands for his resignation over revelations that police in the North protected a loyalist murder gang.

The North’s main agricultural show could be staged on the site of the former Maze Prison, it was confirmed today.

The former deputy leader of the non-sectarian Alliance Party in the North is to leave politics.

A Northern Ireland minister told the Home Office tonight to forget any hope it could solve the overcrowding crisis in Britain’s jails by reopening the Maze Prison.

Work started today to demolish the infamous Maze Prison in the North.

Police and prison officers’ sick leave in the North cost almost £47m (€67.8m) in the last two years, it was revealed today.

Northern Ireland was today branded the race hate capital of Europe.

The authorities in the North have seized around £750,000 (€1m) worth of assets from a second-hand car dealer suspected of fraud and tax evasion.

A former soldier jailed over the loyalist murder of two Catholic workmen was found dead in his cell today.

An organised crime gang which kidnapped a grandmother as part of a robbery plot is being hunted today.

A high-risk prisoner who had been on the run in the North for more than a month has been rearrested, police said today.

A man who is to be charged with the 29 Omagh bomb atrocity murders will face a remand hearing later today.

Tony Blair will today honour an elite military unit that defused thousands of terrorist bombs over three decades in the North.

Alan Erwin and Deric Henderson

Northern Ireland’s prison chief faced demands for his resignation today over alleged abuse of loyalists held in a high security jail.

A suspected bomber accused of a fatal IRA attack on the British army’s Northern Ireland headquarters was holidaying in Spain when he was arrested, a court heard today.

A suspected IRA member wanted for a fatal bomb attack on the British Army headquarters in Northern Ireland was today being questioned by Spanish police.

Ken Barrett - who today pleased guilty to the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane - just nodded when asked to confirm his identity in court today, but when a series of charges, including Mr Finucane’s murder, were put to him, he replied quietly: “Guilty.”

A convicted murderer is on the run after failing to return from Christmas home leave from a Northern Ireland jail.

Police in the North are investigating an assault on a woman in her 50s in Lisburn, Co Antrim, this morning.

Loyalist paramilitaries were tonight suspected of bludgeoning a man to death.

AN ALGERIAN man arrested in Belfast by police investigating terrorism by al-Qaida has claimed he was the victim of racial discrimination, a court heard yesterday.

Police in Northern Ireland were today given another 48 hours to question an al-Qaida suspect arrested by detectives investigating possible terrorist threats on Britain.

A daughter of IRA murder victim Jean McConville has changed her mind about plans to boycott her mother’s funeral.

Relatives of IRA murder victim Jean McConville – shot in 1972 for helping a dying British soldier – were tonight urged to unite around their mother’s grave.

A report on safety in Northern Ireland’s top security prison was today expected to recommend separating loyalist and republican inmates.

A British agent at the centre of alleged security force collusion with loyalist paramilitary killers died of natural causes in Cardiff, it was revealed today.