A third of non-users said nothing would persuade them to step onto buses or trains, a survey revealed today.

Assembly members clashed today over a proposal to extend Stormont business into the Christmas holidays.

A senior Ulster Unionist was tonight replaced as chief whip amid claims from the DUP he was sacked after clashing with his party’s would-be partners – the UK's Conservative Party.

Households in the North are going to have to pay water charges - but they have been delayed for another year, it was announced today.

A full audit should be carried out of the land and assets owned by the North’s new government owned water company, Stormont Assembly members will be urged today.

THE British Government has ruled out calls for a public inquiry in Northern Ireland into allegations that Special Branch officers colluded in covering up murders by loyalist informers.

A bitter row erupted between nationalist parties in the North tonight as Tony Blair tried to nudge Sinn Féin towards supporting the North's police service.

Sinn Féin could contaminate policing and justice if the party gets control over it in a devolved government, a hardline Democratic Unionist said tonight.

Three generations of a family were killed in a fire in a house in Belfast today.

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

Ulster Unionists today stayed away from the first meeting of Northern Ireland’s new Policing Board in protest at its membership.

Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey challenged the British government today to reveal any secret deal with republicans on policing.

The IRA must surrender every property, piece of land or business it has acquired over five decades if Sinn Féin is to have a future policing or justice minister in Northern Ireland, a unionist claimed tonight.

The British government today faced fresh demands in the North for a pension which all citizens would be eligible for and could afford to live on.

A Catholic priest who witnessed the completion of IRA disarmament was tonight embroiled in a fresh political storm after he refused to accept that the Provisionals were involved in the £26m (€37m) Northern Bank robbery.

Policing Board vice chairman Denis Bradley could have been killed by a thug who bludgeoned him with a baseball bat, police claimed tonight.

A former Stormont minister was today preparing to enter the race for the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party.

PUPILS at a Belfast primary school were “devastated” that President Mary McAleese cancelled a planned visit to the Shankill Road area, its principal said yesterday.

Deric Henderson

President Mary McAleese was tonight urged to stay away from the loyalist Shankill area of Belfast later this month.

Ulster Unionists should consider declining ministerial seats if power sharing is restored and going into opposition instead, one of its Stormont Assembly members said today.

A unionist policing representative tonight pledged to resign if his absence from a crucial vote impacted on Northern Ireland chief constable Hugh Orde’s decision to axe more than half his full-time reservists.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors have demanded an explanation from the Government over claims that that the IRA killers of garda Jerry McCabe were to be released from prison under the aborted peace deal that was supposed to restart the peace process last October.

Two-thirds of Catholics are too scared to join Northern Ireland’s new police force because of fears of being attacked, a new report revealed today.

The far-right British National Party is planning its first electoral assault on Northern Ireland, it emerged today.

With all 108 seats filled in the Northern Ireland Assembly the party shares are:

The PUP's Billy Hutchinson has been eliminated from the North Belfast count where Sinn Féin's Kathy Stanton is going to pick up a second seat.

The SDLP and the Ulster Unionists are involved in a furious row over policing.

The withdrawal of disciplinary action against three rebel Ulster Unionist MPs could unite the party, they claimed today.

Less than a quarter of crimes in Northern Ireland last year were detected by police, it was revealed today.

North Belfast Ulster Unionist Party Assembly Member Fred Cobain says republicans must end the fudge and double-speak, and get on with the job of committing the IRA to history.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan has proposed closing down 25 police stations in the North and beginning a process towards the eventual disarming of the police force.

Sinn Fein cannot sustain its criticism of rival nationalists for endorsing Northern Ireland’s police if it is prepared to do the same on the back of commitments made by British Prime Minister Tony Blair last year, it was claimed today.

Northern Ireland’s politicians tonight agreed to continue meeting to find a way to end the misery of sectarian street violence.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble was today facing his Assembly party at Stormont as speculation mounted that hard-liners might try to force him to drive Sinn Fein out of the government of Northern Ireland.

A senior Ulster Unionist has hinted his party will boycott the Stormont Assembly if it is unhappy with the British government’s declaration on paramilitary violence and the IRA ceasefire.

Police have used water cannons to break up a nationalist riot following a controversial Protestant Orange Order parade in west Belfast.

The Ulster Unionist Party has warned that the Northern Assembly is facing collapse within weeks unless unionist confidence in the peace process is restored.

Commanders in the North’s police service have given their full support to the force’s new chief constable, Hugh Orde, who was appointed to the job earlier this week.

Unionists may have to rethink whether they will take part in future selection panels for top posts in Northern Ireland’s police service after the appointment of Huge Orde as Chief Constable, it was claimed today.

A senior Ulster Unionist today expressed grave reservations about the appointment of Hugh Orde as Northern Ireland’s Chief Constable.

There is no evidence that the IRA is poised to resume its terror campaign, Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid insisted today hours after it emerged that a republican hit list had been found.

Unionist fury erupted today at the graduation ceremony for trainees to the North's new police service over a speech made by the Garda Commissioner.

With the departure of Ronnie Flanagan, Northern Ireland’s new policing service was today losing one of its most articulate and controversial figures.