The European election cannot be allowed to become a sectarian vanity contest, the SDLP warned today.

The North’s government has been locked in suspended animation by the dispute between the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin, it was claimed today.

Peacelines and current public spending on law and order should remain for the foreseeable future, Ian Paisley said today.

Paramilitary groups must go out of business in the North and stop issuing death threats to all people including civil servants, a senior nationalist politician said today.

Loyalist killer Michael Stone’s former paramilitary bosses must bear some of the blame for his bomb attack on Stormont, it was claimed today.

The British government was condemned today after announcing it was providing more than £3m (€4.3m) to have paramilitary murals in Northern Ireland painted over.

A former police chef is to be extradited from the United States to face charges linked to the theft of Special Branch files in Belfast.

Sinn Féin and the SDLP have both criticised the delay in bringing charges against 20 RUC officers accused of complicity in murders carried out by loyalist paramilitaries.

Ulster Unionists are in Dublin today for talks with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and a senior member of the SDLP have clashed over their views on the UVF.

Councillors in Belfast tonight overturned a block on the family of Lord Fitt using City Hall for a memorial service to the SDLP founder.

Belfast City Council will tomorrow be asked to overturn a decision to deny the family of Gerry Fitt the City Hall for a memorial service.

A high-profile member of the nationalist SDLP is quitting politics, it was announced today.

The British government was under pressure today to press ahead with establishing a public inquiry into the murder of Patrick Finucane following the guilty plea by former police informer Ken Barrett.

THE Government was yesterday urged to consider plans for an all-Ireland agency along the lines of the State’s Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB).

An SDLP negotiator was today challenged by a republican rival to “move beyond sound bites” and get more involved in outreach work to unionists.

Protestants in Northern Ireland need to be persuaded of the logic of a united Ireland, a nationalist politician acknowledged today.

POLICE are hunting for a gang of 10 youths who sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl in a park.

Police officers investigating the Belfast attack of a teenage girl said tonight the girl had not been raped but had suffered a “traumatic indecent assault”.

Police were today hunting up to 10 youths who sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl in a Belfast park.

The SDLP tonight called for the speedy implementation of all-Ireland policing structures.

The SDLP’s Alban Maginness has called on the IRA to disband in order to save the Irish peace process and restore confidence in Sinn Fein.

The Government has been urged to speedily set up procedures to allow the passage of senior members of the Republic’s police force into the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

A Democratic Unionist Assembly member was accused today of having a “sick sense of humour” as the row rumbled on over a controversial cinema advert against the euro.

A nationalist SDLP Assembly member was today told he needed a “humour transplant” as the row intensified over a controversial cinema advert against the euro.

A High Court judge will today rule on a freedom bid mounted by jailed loyalist Johnny Adair.

An end to the Holy Cross School dispute could be in sight, it was claimed tonight.

There will be death on the streets if the sectarian violence in north Belfast does not end, an Ulster Assembly member warned today.

Nationalist and loyalist politicians were tonight locked in a desperate bid to resolve the north Belfast school dispute after the protest reached a terrifying new level of violence.

The PUP’s Billy Hutchinson has said that he is ashamed to call himself loyalist following a blast bomb attack on Catholic schoolchildren in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast this morning.

A Northern Ireland Assembly member is urging political figures to withdraw from the frontline of violence engulfing north Belfast.

Members of the Stormont Assembly were today accused of ignoring Department of Agriculture foot-and-mouth precautions by travelling to Scotland.

A device has exploded outside the offices of the nationalist SDLP in north Belfast.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Northern Secretary Peter Mandelson are in conflict over reducing the military presence in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness claimed today.