Cork-headquartered investment firm Kernel Capital has continued its expansion and its relationship with Bank of Ireland through the launch of a £25m (€29m) venture capital fund; aimed at investing in SMEs north of the border over the next five years.

The North’s Finance Minister has said that progress in the North will not come about unless unionists and nationalists feel they are a part of each other’s cultures.

A bid by the Democratic Unionist Party to challenge the legality of the election of David Trimble as the North’s First Minister has been rejected in the High Court in Belfast.

The North’s Security Minister, Jane Kennedy has announced an extension of the Belfast ‘peace line’ in an attempt to calm tensions between Protestant and Catholic residents in north Belfast.

The North’s Minister for Agriculture Brid Rogers has confirmed that no trace of foot and mouth disease has been found and that the all clear has been passed throughout the North.