Another Ulster Unionist has defected to the UK's Conservatives, it emerged tonight.

Ulster Unionist Party offices were raided today as part of a continuing police investigation into money laundering.

There are serious question marks about the Democratic Unionist commitment to power sharing at Stormont, a nationalist councillor claimed tonight.

Sinn Fein is looking for a strengthened mandate when it returns to crucial peace process negotiations after the Westminster and local government elections, party leader Gerry Adams claimed today.

Soccer superstar George Best has been given the freedom of the borough where he grew up as a boy.