A referendum on an Irish Language Act should be held in the North this summer, three former Belfast Agreement negotiators have said.

Emergency response teams have been alerted across the North amid fears the overnight flooding that swamped Belfast could be repeated today.

Emergency medical care hours will be cut at Lagan Valley Hospital from today because of a shortage of staff, it has been revealed today.

SINN Féin will take the education portfolio in the next Northern Ireland Executive.

AND herein lies the North’s problem. The public sector grew so large when the Northern Ireland Office was running a virtual war economy that no party dares put it up to NIPSA, the public sector trade union and one of the last communist refuges between Havana and Pyongyang.

The Northern Ireland Assembly has today passed a hard-hitting budget dealing with billions in cuts from London, but ministers were left divided over the controversial financial plan.

Two of the parties in the North's power-sharing Government are poised to vote against a hard-hitting Budget that follows £4bn in cuts from London.

The minimum cost of a bottle of Chardonnay could be between £4 and £7 (€4.65 and €8.15) under fresh pricing proposals in the North.

The SDLP have branded the draft Budget lazy and unimaginative – heightening fears of a Stormont split on the crucial legislation.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said his thoughts were with all of those affected by the crash at Cork Airport today.

The North's Finance Minister Sammy Wilson has faced claims that the Assembly's draft Budget is based on "ifs, buts and maybes".

Two young children with swine flu have died in the North today.

A two-year-old boy with swine flu has died in the North.

A GROUNDBREAKING new online protection service, aimed at better informing child care professionals working on the island of Ireland, has been hailed as the first of its kind in the world.

The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Barry Andrews will join with his Northern counterpart Minister Michael McGimpsey to launch a cross-border child protection innovation today.

Michael McGimpsey and Martin McGuinness were at loggerheads today after the North's deputy first minister rebuked his colleague for missing a North South Ministerial Council (NSMC) meeting in Dublin.

Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA Tom Elliott confirmed today that he will run for the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party.

The North's Health Minister says a state inquiry to discover the extent of historic institutional and clerical child abuse in the North should be considered.

More than 100 children were taken from their families in the North by Catholic agencies to former British colonies, the health minister said today.

A public inquiry into how a convicted sex offender set fire to his home and killed his family was called for today by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

A nine-year-old child has died after catching swine flu in the North, it was confirmed today.

A public inquiry into how a convicted sex offender was able to kill himself and his family in a deliberate house fire should not become a witch hunt, social workers warned today.

Swine flu has claimed the lives of two more people in the North in the past week.

Swine flu has claimed another victim in the North, the Health minister announced today.

Some staff in special schools for Northern Ireland pupils with severe learning difficulties will be vaccinated for swine flu, the North's Health Minister announced today.

Three swine flu-related deaths in the North were announced tonight – one of them a girl who attended the same special needs school as a teenager with the virus who died last week.

Another child has died in the North after contracting swine flu, it was confirmed tonight.

Health Minister Michael McGimpsey tonight apologised to the family of a teenage Derry girl for the delay in telling them she had swine flu.

A disabled child with swine flu has died in the North, it emerged tonight.

Another child with swine flu died in the North today – the second in less than 48 hours.

A young child with swine flu has died in the North, it was announced today.

The British Department of Health has awarded a contract worth up to £70m (€77.5m) to Hewlett-Packard for a new IT system to modernise the technology which handles hospital patient administration systems.

A baby who died in the North had swine flu, Stormont’s health minister confirmed tonight.

The death of a baby in the North is suspected to be the second fatal case of swine flu in the region.

The Irish language college in Donegal where six students contracted swine flu has been temporarily closed.

Social housing projects are to get a £20m (€23.1m) boost as part of a reshuffle of Stormont funds announced today by Finance Minister Sammy Wilson.

Daily updates on the spread of swine flu have been halted after the health authorities in the North gave up on trying to contain the virus, it was confirmed today.

The number of swine flu cases in the North is continuing to accelerate.

Romanian families forced to flee their homes in Belfast in the wake of racist attacks are to be temporarily re-housed, the North's government announced today.

More than 400 under-18s are treated for alcoholism and drug addiction in the North each year, it was revealed today.

A fourth case of swine flu has been confirmed in the North, the British Department of Health said today.

A third case of swine flu has been confirmed in the North, the Department of Health said today.

A second case of swine flu has been confirmed in the North tonight.

Construction work on the new £270m (€307m) acute hospital for Enniskillen is finally starting following the signing today of the contract with the consortium which will build it.

Passengers who shared a flight with the North’s first swine flu sufferer do not appear to have been infected, Health Minister Michael McGimpsey said today.

Health authorities were tonight still trying to contact every one of more than 150 people on an easyJet flight to Belfast after one of them was confirmed as the North's first case of swine flu.

The North has its first confirmed case of swine flu, health minister Michael McGimipsey said today.

Extra stocks of antiviral drugs are being bought by the Department of Health to protect the North against any major outbreak of swine flu.

The first case of swine flu has been confirmed in this country in a person who recently returned from Mexico, health experts confirmed tonight.

A suspected case of swine flu in this country has not been identified as lab tests can not detect the deadly virus, health experts confirmed today.