Embrace London Astoria

Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam had talks with DUP leader Ian Paisley last night as part of her efforts to maintain the momentum of the Stormont peace process.

Profile: David Trimble has made some radical moves in his chequered career in loyalist politics. But now the leader of the Ulster Unionists faces his most critical decision, says David McKittrick

Deepening gloom as marching impasse nears

When the Reverend Lucy Winkett was appointed a canon at St Paul's Cathedral, it was a first, and a cause for some celebration. But to Paul Williamson, most tireless adversary of women priests, it was yet again time to go to court. By Andrew Brown

To know Him is to love Him - but first you must find Him. Photographs by Steve Pyke

The Government yesterday issued a pointed public warning to loyalist groups that more violence would jeopardise the place at the conference table which is occupied by "fringe loyalist" parties.

Which four people would form your balloon crew from hell? Which quartet would make you ditch so quickly that Richard Branson would look like Phileas Fogg by comparison? We posed the question on Tuesday and readers responded with all the hunger of publicity-crazed tycoons.

Frantic attempts were under way yesterday to persuade loyalist paramilitaries not to break their two-year ceasefire in the aftermath of the IRA attack on police officers in a Belfast children's hospital on Friday.

Sectarian violence has returned to blight Ballymena. Michael Streeter reports on the attacks on Catholics

David Trimble's Unionists hold the timing of the general election in their hands. But, despite Labour's overtures, they like things as they are

A rare instance of progress in the multi-party talks at Stormont yesterday led participants into their first substantive discussions on the issue of arms decommissioning, a move hailed as a modest breakthrough.

Harry Mullan tells how a Briton's independence has been richly rewarded

Sir: If the possessor of one of "the brightest, most subtle and most perceptive minds of his generation" ("Twenty-five years of Ireland's Dr No", 20 September) believes in the Devil, the Anti-Christ and God's curses on unbelievers, there can be no hope for the people of Northern Ireland.