The island of Ireland's first private abortion clinic will officially open today amid protests from pro-life campaigners.

Stormont’s Health Minister Edwin Poots is taking legal advice on how to regulate Ireland’s first private abortion clinic.

Pro-life campaigners have threatened to shut down Ireland’s first abortion clinic which is due to open next week.

Pro-choice campaigners have called for the Irish Government to change the law on abortion after the Marie Stopes charity announced it is opening a private clinic in Belfast.

Anti-abortion campaigners have hit out at the opening of the North’s first abortion clinic.

A member of Sinn Féin has said that the former loyalist paramilitary leader Gusty Spence was a "major influence" in loyalism's movement away from violence in the North.

Peter Robinson's journey to political redemption reached another landmark as he topped the Assembly poll in the East Belfast constituency where he lost his Westminster seat.

A man shot dead by an off-duty police officer in the North during a suspected filling-station robbery was named today.

Members of a major loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland are considering buying guns only months after they were supposed to have disarmed, it emerged today.

The Independent Monitoring Commission is to issue a report on the death of leading loyalist Bobby Moffatt, it was announced today.

Dr John Kyle will remain as stand-in leader of the Progressive Unionists, a spokesman for the party said last night.

Police in the North have confirmed today that members of the on-ceasefire Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) were responsible for the murder of a man shot dead in front of stunned shoppers.

The leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), which is linked to the loyalist paramilitary UVF, confirmed today she is resigning after the terror group was involved in a brutal murder.

The Taoiseach Brian Cowen may be forced to intervene unless there is an 11th hour deal on the transfer of policing and justice powers to the North's Assembly.

THE Government has welcomed the announcement by loyalist groups that they have destroyed their weapons and pledged to respect democratic rule.

Loyalist paramilitary groups in the North have destroyed their weapons and pledged to respect democratic rule, it was announced today.

Former PSNI assistant chief constable Peter Sheridan today challenged the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) to lead people towards reconciliation in the North.

Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness has accused loyalists of "rank hypocrisy" on the issue of decommissioning.

A LOYALIST ceasefire in the north is to be recognised, the Northern Ireland secretary said yesterday.

A loyalist ceasefire in the North is to be recognised, the Northern Secretary said today.

A loyalist ceasefire in North is to be recognised, the Northern Ireland Secretary said today.

IF recent events showed a week can be a long time in politics, then a decade can be an eternity.

All sides involved in the creation of the Good Friday Agreement should feel proud of it, Bertie Ahern said tonight.

The Good Friday Agreement set the North on a path to reconciliation and peace 10 years ago, Senator Edward Kennedy said today.

BILL CLINTON’S decision to pull out of a Belfast conference marking the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement is a vote of no confidence in it, a leading unionist claimed yesterday.

Bill Clinton’s decision to pull out of a Belfast conference marking the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement is a vote of no confidence in it, a leading unionist claimed today.

THERE were demonstrations in cities across the world yesterday — including Dublin, London and Belfast — to mark the sixth anniversary of the opening of the American detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.

US President George W Bush today faced demands from Parliamentarians on both sides of the border to shut its controversial Guantanamo Bay detention centre.

Tony Blair and Bill Clinton have been invited to an event in the North marking 10 years since the Good Friday Agreement, it was revealed today.

Nearly half the workforce at a Belfast engineering company which was forced into administration tonight appeared on the verge of being saved.

A former Sinn Féin mayor of Derry is to join the party’s first three Assembly representatives on the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

The Ulster Volunteer Force is expected to make a major announcement on its future today.

PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde today quizzed the Progressive Unionist Party leader Dawn Purvis about the UVF's plans to wind down as a paramilitary organisation.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will today meet the loyalist Progressive Unionist Party after the North’s ceasefire watchdog publishes its latest report.

A senior loyalist politician tonight moved to reassure nationalists and republicans that their lives were not in danger from the Ulster Volunteer Force.

NORTHERN Secretary Peter Hain last night insisted a final settlement was now at hand after the ground-breaking deal between the DUP and Sinn Féin to share power.

“THINGS fall apart, the centre cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,” — well the fallout from the Belfast Assembly poll is not quite as bad as WB Yeats’s words suggest, but he was spot-on about the middle ground parties going south.

Voters in the North have elected their first ever ethnic minority candidate, with the Alliance Party's Anna Lo winning an Assembly seat in South Belfast.

Democratic Unionist deputy leader Peter Robinson and Alliance deputy leader Naomi Long were today elected as the first members of the new Northern Assembly.

The North’s Assembly Election candidates will learn what the electorate has in store for them today as counting gets under way in 18 constituencies.

The Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin will today focus on the controversial issue of water charges in the North as the Assembly Election enters its final stage.

Democratic Unionist claims that alternative forms of academic selection could stop parents from paying for extra tuition for their children were dismissed today by a loyalist rival.

The Progressive Unionist Party is to field three candidates in the March 7 Northern Assembly Election, it was confirmed today.

The North's political leaders were today urged to hold their nerve and leave their constituents the legacy of a fully-functioning devolved Assembly.