Breakthrough deal close in North

A BREAKTHROUGH deal to keep power-sharing alive was tantalisingly close last night as both sides in the Northern stand-off were bluntly told to “share pain”.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen and his British counterpart Gordon Brown ploughed into a second night of hectic negotiations with Sinn Féin and the DUP as a compromise on the crisis-trigger issues of parades and devolving justice was pushed at round table talks in Hillsborough Castle.

Sinn Féin trading reform of how parade and march routes are decided in exchange for the DUP agreeing to justice and police control devolving to the Assembly by May has emerged as the way to break the deadlock as both premiers indicated talks would not stretch into a third night.