A clergyman, at the centre of a storm over mimicking the ailing Pope, almost provoked a walkout when he told jokes about the Pontiff at a previous function, it emerged tonight.

NORTHERN IRELAND Chief Constable Hugh Orde yesterday called for a review of parades legislation.

A senior police officer says lives have been saved by the discovery of handguns and ammunition in Co Fermanagh.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble was today facing the prospect of a more hardline Assembly team as some of his harshest critics in the party were selected as candidates for the next Stormont election.

It is thought that the Fermanagh Assemblyman, Sam Foster, will resign from the North's Dept of the Environment as part of a reshuffle by First Minister, David Trimble.

Army bomb experts were today examining a customs office in Co Fermanagh after reports of an explosion.

The Northern Ireland Assembly was not consulted about the new mox reprocessing plant at Sellafield.

Ulster Unionist ministers in the Stormont Executive were returning to their ministerial desks today, as the British Army dismantled four military installations in response to IRA decommissioning.

The Irish and British Governments were today planning their response to the latest crisis to hit Northern Ireland’s troubled power-sharing Government.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has said his three ministers in the Northern Assembly will resign their positions as of midnight tonight following the failure of a motion last week to expel Sinn Fein from government.

An early move by the IRA on arms decommissioning is inevitable, Ulster Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson predicted today.

With the last three weeks dominated by saturation coverage of the race for Westminster, people could be forgiven for forgetting that another election is taking place.

Unionists should back the UUP in the local government elections and transfer their votes to other pro-Good Friday Agreement candidates, they were advised today.

A controversial proposed retail and leisure development on the outskirts of Belfast was given formal planning permission today.

Republicans are the only people who can secure a lifting of the ban on Sinn Fein ministers attending cross-border body meetings, an Ulster Unionist minister insisted today.

Sports ministers from both sides of the border were among thousands of mourners at the funerals of car rally champion Bertie Fisher and his son and daughter.

Northern Ireland rally driver Bertie Fisher and his wife are still critically ill in hospital after a helicopter crash in which their son and daughter were killed.

Supporters and opponents of the Good Friday Agreement in the Ulster Unionist Party are certain to hotly contest the position of veteran MP Ken Maginnis who retires at the next election.