The SDLP has called on the Irish government to help fund the building of a new police training college in the North.

A Democratic Unionist Party councillor has criticised the PSNI's intelligence capabilities following last weekend's raid on a Boots outlet in Belfast.

The Democratic Unionist Party is believed to have chosen a former head of the North's Police Federation as one of its candidate for the upcoming British election.

A row over whether the full time police reserve will be disbanded intensified this afternoon after the Police Federation met the Northern Secretary.

The North's Police Federation has objected to a new policy obliging all PSNI officers to declare their membership of organisations like the Freemasons, the Knights of Columbanus or the Orange Order.