PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde has defended the actions of officers who came across a gang of armed dissident republicans in south Armagh last Friday.

The reappearance of paramilitary checkpoints on the streets of Northern Ireland was tonight branded sinister and unwelcome.

Three men have been killed and one woman injured in separate road crashes, police said today.

An urgent all-island approach to stop foot-and-mouth disease from entering Ireland today swung into action.

The North's power-sharing executive will today hold a special Cabinet meeting to consider their response to the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Surrey, England.

Police in the North have arrested two men in connection with the theft of a camper van in Co Louth overnight.

A fire which ravaged a beauty spot may have been started deliberately.

Firefighters were tonight tackling a major mountain blaze in Co Armagh.

A raging bull gored a retired farmer as his family tried frantically to halt its rampage, an inquest heard today.

JOHN WALSH, the man who brought foot-and-mouth disease to Ireland, is to have his house compulsorily sold by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) and is also facing a new set of smuggling charges in Scotland.

Northern Ireland agriculture minister Brid Rodgers was today facing calls for her resignation after it emerged that farmers making fraudulent compensation claims during the foot-and-mouth crisis will escape prosecution.

Four former police officers are to help investigate the illegal movement of livestock in Northern Ireland before and during the foot-and-mouth crisis.

At least three livestock dealers in Northern Ireland are at the centre of investigations into the movement of sheep before foot-and-mouth occurred in the province, according to reports tonight.

Preliminary tests on a suspected case of foot-and-mouth at Ardboe in Co Tyrone have proved negative.

A new fortress regime has been put in place in Northern Ireland after a third outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed.

Northern Ireland has had a fresh suspect case of foot-and-mouth, it emerged today.

The Minister for Agriculture is to meet his northern counterpart, Brid

Restrictions on the movement of livestock in Northern Ireland will be eased tomorrow.

The North's Agriculture Minister Brid Rodgers has held talks with farmers whose animals have been affected by foot-and-mouth.

Northern Ireland is set to resume agriculture exports to Europe after confirmation that a cull of sheep in South Armagh will now go ahead.

An extended cull of sheep in the south Armagh area gets underway today.

The North's Agriculture Minister Brid Rodgers has confirmed that all the missing sheep which were part of the load which caused the outbreak in Co Armagh have been traced.

Farms in a number of counties remain sealed off this morning following the confirmation last week that foot-and-mouth disease has spread to Ireland.

News that foot-and-mouth had spread into Ireland devastated the community clustered around the Co Louth border with Northern Ireland - and sounded alarm bells nationwide.

The first case of foot-and-mouth disease has been confirmed in the Republic.

The livestock haulier who delivered sheep to the Co Armagh farm where the North's only outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease occurred has said all the animals are now accounted for.

The sheep dealer who took foot-and-mouth disease to Northern Ireland has claimed he may never be able to return to the area.

The results from samples taken from a sheep suspected of being infected with foot and mouth disease in Co Tyrone are expected later today.

Sheep at the centre of the latest foot and mouth scare in Co. Louth have been slaughtered.

A farm in Co Louth and a meat plant in Co Kildare have been sealed off this morning as a precaution against foot and mouth disease.

A livestock dealer at the centre of the foot-and-mouth emergency in Northern Ireland has been questioned by officials investigating the outbreak.

The owner of the farm in south Armagh where foot and mouth was confirmed has issued a statement through his solicitor.

Chairman of the Stormont Agriculture Committee Ian Paisley today called for those responsible for bringing diseased sheep into the province to be ‘‘named and shamed’’.

Department of Agriculture officials are waiting to interview a man who delivered sheep now at the centre of a Foot and Mouth disease scare in Armagh to a processing plant in Roscommon.

It is now understood the sheep at the centre of the alert have shown clinical signs of foot and mouth.

A flock of sheep are being slaughtered in the North this afternoon and tests carried out to see if they had the foot and mouth virus.

The Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mrs Brid Rodgers MLA has confirmed that the sheep involved in the foot and mouth scare in Co Armagh should not have reached our shores.