Madame Chiang Kai-shek, famous for using her beauty, charm and fluent English to lobby Washington to help China fight the Japanese and later the Chinese Communists, has died in New York at the age of 105, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said today.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble is to call for a poll on a united Ireland next year, in his speech to party members at the Unionists’ annual general meeting today, UUP sources indicated today.

Sinn Fein has accused Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid of showing "an alarming state of complacency" in the face of damage to the credibility of the political institutions.