Serious rioting engulfed Belfast city centre tonight as police were attacked by loyalists protesting ahead of a republican parade.

Two police officers have been injured in clashes with loyalist protesters in Belfast tonight, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) confirmed.

One thousand people are expected to mark the murders of two Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldiers in a 1998 IRA bomb attack during a rally in Belfast city centre on Saturday.

The leader of the British National Party, MEP Nick Griffin, has refused to apologise for a tweet in which he referred to “Fenian bastards” — even though in the past he has claimed his ancestors came from a village in North Cork.

A contentious Unionist parade that passed a Catholic church in Belfast went off without incident, but residents have accused the marchers of breaking rules.

A planning application for a multi-million pound redevelopment of part of Belfast city centre has been submitted.

Car traffic around parts of Belfast’s City Hall will drop to two lanes to encourage motorists to bypass the city centre, it was revealed today.

Thousands attended a march in the North today for an end to violence in the Middle East.

Three children were held captive at gunpoint while their father was forced to take money from his workplace shop today.

A teenage girl died in hospital tonight, hours after being struck by a bus in central Belfast.

Businesses in Belfast were put on high alert tonight after an incendiary bomb partially exploded in a city centre store.

Armed police have been shot at after being called to an incident at a west London residential street.

Belfast tonight took another major step towards normality with the removal of the final security barriers within the city centre.

Norman Jenkinson, news editor of the Belfast Telegraph during the worst years of the violence in the North, has died. He was 69.

Arsonists who destroyed one of Belfast’s showpiece office blocks had burgled a top firm of solicitors before setting fire to the building, it was revealed tonight.

Arsonists may have started a massive fire which threatened to destroy one of Belfast city centre’s Victorian buildings, it emerged tonight.

Up to 17 fire crew units are tackling a major blaze in Belfast city centre.

Parts of Belfast city centre were sealed off today as police negotiated with a man on the roof of a building who claimed to be protesting at the prison conditions at Maghaberry jail.

Belfast was hit by a wave of bomb alerts today which caused major disruption in the city centre.

Belfast was today on course to get two new multi-million pound city centre retail developments.