The minimum cost of a bottle of Chardonnay could be between £4 and £7 (€4.65 and €8.15) under fresh pricing proposals in the North.

The SDLP have branded the draft Budget lazy and unimaginative – heightening fears of a Stormont split on the crucial legislation.

More people than ever before died of alcohol abuse in the North last year.

Flats where a west Belfast man was killed are to be demolished, it was revealed today.

THE INLA will later today declare its terror arsenal has finally been destroyed.

Stormont Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie was today elected as the new leader of the SDLP.

Mark Durkan steps down as the leader of the SDLP today after a decade at the helm.

THE 21-page Hillsborough Agreement sets out plans for devolving policing and justice powers, dealing with contentious loyal order parades and resolving outstanding issues facing the Stormont Executive.

Democratic Unionist leader Peter Robinson faced calls today to publish legal advice clearing him of breaching his code of office.

THE Ulster Defence Association (UDA) was established in 1971 as a cover name for several loyalist organisations.

A stable future for the North would be the best monument to Cardinal Cahal Daly, mourners at his funeral heard today.

The North's political leaders Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness clashed in public today as the split at the heart of the power-sharing government was dramatically exposed.

The Ulster GAA released 125 balloons today to mark its foundation.

The SDLP’s youth wing today backed Margaret Ritchie as the next leader of the party.

A policeman forced from his home by dissident republican threats on his life must not be used as a pawn in a political push for extra funds, the North's First Minister said today.

Social housing projects are to get a £20m (€23.1m) boost as part of a reshuffle of Stormont funds announced today by Finance Minister Sammy Wilson.

The SDLP today announced a wide-ranging reshuffle of its Assembly team.

The home of another Romanian family came under attack last night in Belfast, the Police Service of Northern Ireland have said.

A £100m (€116m) plan to transform the seafront at one of the North’s most popular coastal towns will create around 1,750 jobs, it was announced today.

A masterplan for a redevelopment of Ballymena town centre which could cost up to £200m (€226m) to implement was published today.

The North's Executive will hold a special meeting this morning where it is expected to finalise an economic aid package to tackle the credit crunch.

An SDLP minister in the power-sharing the North's Executive warned today that the party would have to consider its continued participation in government if she is prevented from doing her job by fellow ministers.

A major reorganisation of the Social Security Office network in the North will not mean job losses, it was insisted today.

The North's Social Development Minister moved today to plug a hole which sees almost one-in-two workers without a private pension.

Passers-by who tried in vain to rescue four policemen trapped in their burning 4x4 vehicle in the North were commended for their bravery today.

Pub owners in the North could be put out of business for up to three months under tough new laws to curb illegal drinking, it was revealed today.

A multi-million pound injection of funds into the North’s community and voluntary sector was announced today by the Big Lottery Fund.

People struggling to heat their homes were today urged to deluge Sinn Féin offices with copies of their energy bills in protest at the Stormont stalemate.

Schemes to boost disadvantaged parts of Belfast will receive more than £7m (€8.98m), the Social Development Minister said today.

Hundreds of Belfast community workers have not been paid since the end of August because of a funding crisis, representatives said today.

The growing crisis over the future of the Northern Ireland Assembly is fuelling the violence of dissident republican groups, it was claimed today.

Concerns for the future of the North's power-sharing Government heightened today after a senior politician said the Assembly may need to be recalled from summer recess.

Ambitious plans to transform a rundown part of Belfast city centre were unveiled today.

It has been a long apprenticeship. However today Peter Robinson finally got the chance to take over as leader of the North’s most successful political party, the Democratic Unionists, after 28 years of being the Rev Ian Paisley’s understudy.

A Stormont minister has briefed New York housing chiefs on the power-sharing executive’s bid to build more than 5,000 new social and affordable homes in three years and tackle segregation.

Politicians in the North are considering making developers contribute to the provision of new social housing, an Assembly committee was told today.

The regeneration of one of Dublin’s neighbourhoods proved successful because it placed the needs of the community at its core, a Stormont minister claimed today.

The honeymoon is over for Stormont’s power-sharing ministers, it was claimed today.

A community group in the North has threatened to take legal action against the Stormont Executive over the withdrawal of British Government funding from the UDA.

Police in the North have warned the SDLP that all of the party's elected representatives are under "immediate and serious" threat from loyalist paramilitaries.

The loyalist Ulster Defence Association’s announcement that it was standing down its military wing and putting weapons 'beyond use' from midnight last night was welcomed - coupled with the message it was not enough.

Sinn Féin and the DUP are behind a cynical carve-up of power, the UUP’s annual conference was told today.

The gap between health spending in the North and England is set to widen if current budget proposals at Stormont stand, a power-sharing minister warned today.

IN view of the decision by Social Development Minister and MLA Margaret Ritchie of the SDLP to pull public funding earmarked for loyalist areas in the North following the refusal of the UDA to decommission its arsenal of murderous weaponry, is it not incumbent on the Government here to pursue a similar line?