Police in Belfast have retreated from a confrontation at a bonfire site over concerns innocent bystanders could be hurt, a senior commander has said.

Two young people are protesting on top of the pile of wooden pallets, which was due to be set alight on Thursday night.

Concern has been voiced about the appearance of threatening graffiti at a republican bonfire site in north Belfast.

Belfast City Council abandoned an attempt to demolish the bonfire in east Belfast when hired private contractors pulled out of the job after menacing threats were daubed on walls close to the site, purporting to identify them.

Firefighters saw a "significant decrease" in the number of emergency calls due to loyalist bonfires in Northern Ireland at the start of the Twelfth of July festivities.

All 462 seats have now been filled, with the DUP coming out on top, despite securing fewer seats than in the last election.

Belfast’s St Patrick’s Day festival should become a three-day weekend event to rival some of the world’s largest cities, a report from Féile an Phobail said.

Kenneth Branagh said he was humbled and proud after being awarded the freedom of his home city of Belfast.

A pig's head and racist graffiti have been left at a community centre in a suspected hate crime in Belfast.

Belfast city councillors have voted to hire language officers for Irish and Ulster Scots, after a public consultation found support for the proposal.

Another car has been set alight in Belfast as localised disorder erupted for a second night.

Police in the North are on standby for this evening's highly anticipated Champions League clash between Linfield and Celtic at Windsor Park in Belfast.

Homes have been boarded up at a number of huge bonfire sites in the North amid concerns around safety and risk to property.

Masked loyalists appear to have broken a court order banning them from extending an Eleventh night bonfire in Belfast.

Des Breen looks at a landmark book which not only shines a light on the creativity of Irish artists and writers, but also on the philistinism of the nation.

A Belfast resident has won a case at the UK's highest court over the failure of the PSNI to prevent union flag protests.

The UK's highest court gives a ruling today in the latest round of a legal battle over how police in the North handled the union flag protests.

Irish SMEs foresee the UK’s proposed exit from the EU as being significantly more negative to Ireland’s economy than the pending US presidential change.

The owners of a family pet broke down in court as a judge ruled the pit bull-type dog could be returned home.

President Micheal D Higgins has pulled out of attending a civic dinner in Belfast to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising.

Unionists have demanded answers after an Irish Tricolour was run up the main flagpole of Parliament Buildings at Stormont.

Guinness Pro12: A reinvigorated Ulster could not have asked for a better incentive to lift their first silverware for almost a decade when Belfast won the bid stage to host the Guinness Pro12 final at the Kingspan Stadium on Saturday, May 30.

The Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin have secured the lion’s share of seatson the North’s new-look councils.

Smaller parties and independents scored some notable successes in the North's local elections.

One of Belfast’s most senior Protestant clerics has said he would welcome a visit from Pope Francis.

Pope Francis is set to be invited to Belfast, it can be revealed.

The O2 in Dublin is paying for 23 Gardaí to police tonight's Hardwell gig.

PSNI chief inspector Mark McEwan has said a small quantity of suspected drugs was seized outside the Odyssey Arena in the wake of a major incident that saw 17 teenagers taken to hospital.

Belfast has avoided the serious flooding that many feared after a tidal surge came and went without breaching defences.

Police have warned that the docks area close to Belfast city centre could flood in a tidal surge later today, but have expressed hope that serious flooding in the east of the city may now be prevented.

Final hothouse political negotiations will begin in the North today in a last-ditch bid to find agreement on contentious issues left over from the peace process.

Abortion legislation

Political parties have been asked for their views on a new flag for Northern Ireland.

Thousands of people are expected to take part in a flag protest in Belfast later.

A new Bank Holiday should be created in the North to celebrate the achievements of the peace process, the British Labour Party has proposed.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny will join British prime minister on a visit to a First World War memorial in Belgium next month.

Well, it's the logical thing to do, isn't it?

Van Morrison is to be granted the Freedom of Belfast.

Frontline police officers caught up in this summer’s violence on the streets of Belfast are undergoing psychiatric treatment, it has been revealed.

A controversial Democratic Unionist councillor has issued an unreserved apology for a post on Facebook that endorsed a fictional account of a massacre of senior Sinn Féin members.

An anti-G8 rally in Belfast has passed off peacefully amid an unprecedented security operation.

Belfast City Council tonight elected an entrepreneur with a media empire in Belfast and New York as the new Lord Mayor.

Martin McGuinness has accused unionists of running into a cul de sac over the Union flag dispute.

A bullet and sympathy card have been sent to an SDLP Assembly member, the party has said.