Communities are hitting back at a surge in solar farm construction spreading across the country with no specific planning guidelines in place to regulate them.

Rulings in favour of people who disregard the vital, democratic, planning process send a worrying message, writes Mary Crowley.

The Planning Minister Jan O'Sullivan has said she will order an external investigation if there is a hint of corruption in files under review in the Department of the Environment.

George Best Belfast City Airport has dropped an application to extend its runway, airport authorities said.

Fast food outlets are to be banned near schools, under plans being considered by the Government.

DEVELOPERS will be forced to finish and clean up ghost estates after a survey found more than 100,000 dwellings are lying empty, incomplete or were planned but never built.

BROKE developers who have abandoned unfinished housing estates will be pursued by local authorities and in some cases will be forced to give up funds to finish stalled developments.

A SIZEABLE number of housing estates “thrown up” by developers in recent years are plagued by serious health threats, including open sewers and water contamination, a Government survey said.

A quarter of housing estates thrown up in recent years are plagued by serious health threats including open sewerage and water contamination, a Government survey signalled today.

AN independent inquiry is urgently needed into “all aspects of the planning system and its operation within and across different agencies”, according to a State-funded research group.

ONE-IN-SIX houses are lying idle for the majority of the year resulting in growing economic and criminal problems.

Planning Minister Ciaran Cuffe says there no "God given right" for people to build houses in the countryside simply because they were born there.

All flights from Brazil’s airports have been suspended amid a protest by striking air traffic controllers.

Palestinian Cabinet ministers from Hamas handed in their resignations today, a step toward forming a unity government with the moderate Fatah.

Catholic bishops today warned stringent new planning regulations for rural communities in the North could force people off the land.

ELDER statesman Shimon Peres looks set to leave Israel’s Labour Party, his political home for 60 years, and join Ariel Sharon’s government if the prime minister is re-elected in March.

A deal was emerging today for elder statesman Shimon Peres to leave the Labour Party, his political home for 60 years, and join Ariel Sharon's government if the prime minister is re-elected in March.

A top Mideast envoy has criticised Israel in especially tough language for moving too slowly on negotiations to open Gaza’s borders, saying the country is behaving almost as if the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip never happened.

A top Middle East envoy has criticised Israel in especially tough language for moving too slowly on negotiations to open Gaza’s borders, saying the country is behaving almost as if the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip never happened.

With blazing speed, Israeli bulldozers are demolishing the 2,800 homes left behind after Israel cleared the Gaza Strip of its Jewish residents in less than a week.

Investigators have clear evidence of ballot-stuffing in Afghanistan’s landmark presidential election but not on a scale that would overturn interim leader Hamid Karzai’s victory, according to a senior official.

The Palestinian parliament today rejected Yasser Arafat’s request that a Cabinet formed by a future prime minister be “presented” to him – one of several amendments to a reform package the Palestinian leader had proposed.

SEVEN Palestinians were killed yesterday five in a mysterious explosion and two by Israeli army fire, while Yasser Arafat affirmed in a letter to Britain’s prime minister Tony Blair that he will honour a pledge to appoint a prime minister.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a bus stop in northern Israel today, killing himself and an Israeli policeman.

Two Israelis were killed in the West Bank today after the government spurned a Palestinian offer to halt attacks on civilians as the first stage of a gradual truce.

THE Palestinian Cabinet yesterday accepted Israel’s proposal to begin withdrawing troops from some parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in exchange for security guarantees.

Yasser Arafat will run for re-election, snubbing a call from President Bush for a new Palestinian leadership as part of a deal for provisional statehood.

Despite US pressure to enable Yasser Arafat to join this week’s crucial Arab summit, Israel will not lift the travel ban on the Palestinian leader unless he takes decisive steps against militants, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said today.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to meet key Cabinet ministers today to decide whether to allow Yasser Arafat to attend this week’s crucial Arab summit in Beirut.

Yasser Arafat called off what would have been his first visit to Syria in eight years today, after getting a last-minute request from Damascus to stay away.

An Israeli motorist was killed in a West Bank drive-by shooting today as Israeli and Palestinian officials spoke of resuming security talks after two rounds of United States mediation.

After a round of shuttle diplomacy by the new US Mideast envoy, Israel and the Palestinians agreed to resume talks on security cooperation today, but the scope of the negotiations wasn’t clear.

Israel fired surface-to-surface rockets at Gaza City police headquarters and the offices of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement today.

Israelis and Palestinians have traded mortar fire in the Gaza Strip, while the two sides also held high-level political talks.

Israel and the Palestinians have made good progress in drawing the borders of a future Palestinian state, say negotiators.