SDLP Leader Mark Durkan sprang to the defence of President Mary McAleese today after she compared the Nazis’ hatred of Jews to those who taught children in Northern Ireland to despise Catholics.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble should quit while the going is good, his main rival the Rev Ian Paisley claimed today.

At the Stormont assembly, the speaker has ruled the term 'papish bigot' out of order.