A rapist was being hunted in the North tonight after an attack on a teenage girl.

Dozens of people returned to their homes in a Co Tyrone village today after being forced out for the night by a security alert.

Two men were tonight charged in connection with the attempted arson at the Orange hall in Sion Mills.

A viable bomb was left outside the home of an independent member of a local policing body in the North, police said today.

Police in the North says innocent lives were put at risk by the people who planted two explosive devices in the Co Tyrone village of Sion Mills during the weekend.

Police in the North were today trying to establish what was behind two attempted bombings in a village in two days.

An elderly woman suffered burns when her night-dress was set alight by a firework deliberately thrown at her, it was revealed today.

Police in the North have discovered more than 350,000 contraband cigarettes during a search in Co Tyrone.

The black market tobacco trade in the North tonight suffered a setback after police came across hundreds of thousands of contraband cigarettes.

THE murder of Attracta Harron by Trevor Hamilton is still a mystery, according to people on the streets of his home village yesterday.

Eleven people were charged with drug offences today after a police operation aimed at smashing an alleged heroin network.

FOURTEEN people were being questioned in the North last night after police smashed a suspected heroin network with Dublin links.

Fourteen people were being questioned tonight after police smashed a suspected heroin network in the North.

Police in the North have arrested 10 men and woman during a crackdown on heroin dealing in the Co Antrim town of Ballymena.

The loyalist Ulster Defence Association’s involvement in criminality remains endemic, the Independent Monitoring Commission said today.

A man who held a woman’s family hostage until she took £20,000 (€28,806) from a Boots store in Co Tyrone was trapped by a crucial DNA profile, police revealed tonight.

A Northern Ireland MP today called for a full investigation into how a well known sex offender was able to murder a retired librarian.

A farm labourer was today convicted of murdering retired Co Tyrone librarian Attracta Harron.

The trial of a 23-year-old man charged with the murder of retired Co Tyrone librarian Attracta Harron is expected to last at least six weeks.

Four men questioned about a £300,000 (€369,000)-plus robbery of a bank in Strabane have been released without charge, police said today.

A man was being questioned by police today about the discovery of incendiary devices linked to dissident republicans in Northern Ireland.

The funeral of murdered Tyrone pensioner Attracta Harron is to take place later today.

THE family of a woman whose body was found by police after a four-month search had not given up hope of her safe return.

Land near the home town of missing schoolgirl Arlene Arkinson was searched by police today.

A post-mortem examination is being carried out in Belfast today on the body of pensioner Attracta Harron, found hidden near a stream.

Police in Co Tyrone have found a body in the Sion Mills area of the county.

A police officer today told a court he was satisfied that Tyrone woman Attracta Harron was murdered.

THE home of a man questioned about the murder of a missing retired librarian in Northern Ireland has been searched.

The home of a man questioned today about the murder of a missing retired librarian in Northern Ireland has been searched.

A man was today being held by detectives in Northern Ireland probing the murder of a retired librarian who has been missing for more than three months.

THE chairman of Strabane District Policing Partnership yesterday vowed to remain in his post after a lethal letter bomb was sent to his home.

The chairman of Strabane District Policing Partnership today vowed to remain in his post after a lethal letter bomb was sent to his home.

A murder inquiry was launched today into the mystery disappearance of a retired librarian in Northern Ireland.

A Catholic member of a local policing board in Northern Ireland today vowed to continue her work despite an arson attack at her home.

Catholic members of local policing boards in Northern Ireland are being subjected to “psychological intimidation” from republicans, the chairman of one district partnership claimed today.

Police investigating the murder of a civilian construction worker at a Territorial Army camp in Derry today made a fresh arrest.

Dissident republicans were today being blamed for a booby trap device found under a car in a village in Northern Ireland.

A 21-year-old man was hospitalised in the North last night following a paramilitary-style punishment attack.

Two men have been arrested and two cars have been seized by the RUC following disturbances at a Travellers' wedding in Co Tyrone.

Reports of disturbances and gunfire in the vicinity of Mellmount church in Strabane, Co Tyrone, are being investigated by the RUC.

Dissident republicans are being blamed for the overnight explosion outside a Co Tyrone RUC station.