Dublin and London to host crisis talks on North
Crunch talks on the North's deteriorating political situation will take place in London and Dublin today.
British Prime Minsiter David Cameron is expected to come under pressure to penalise Sinn Féin when he meets Peter Robinson and his Democratic Unionist Party deputy Nigel Dodds at Downing Street today.
The political fallout following the murder of former IRA man Kevin McGuigan will also top the agenda at Iveagh House where the UK's Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers will sit down with Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald, who have tasked Garda chiefs with reviewing Provisional IRA (PIRA) activity.
The controversy was sparked when Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) chief constable George Hamilton said the PIRA still exists and some members, along with a groupcalling itself 'Action Against Drugs', were involved in the murder of the 53-year-old father-of-nine earlier this month.
Police believe the killing was a revenge attack by republican associates of IRA commander Gerard 'Jock' Davison who was gunned down in May.
The chief constable said the PIRA is not engaged in terrorism - instead pursuing peaceful, political republicanism - and that there is no evidence the McGuigan killing was sanctioned by the IRA leadership.
But the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) said it could no longer work with Sinn Féin because it says that trust has been shattered.
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On Saturday it unanimously voted to leave the power-sharing Executive and the party's only minister Danny Kennedy is due to resign today.
Although the move is not enough to collapse the Executive, it has put pressure on the DUP - the largest unionist party in the Assembly.
Peter Robinson, who has been on holiday, branded the UUP decision irrational, illogical and based on "political expediency" rather than principle.
Walking away should be a last resort, he said.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin said it would not be "deflected" and accused political opponents of exploiting murder.
Conor Murphy, MLA for Newry and Armagh, said: "We and the 178,000 people who voted for us in the last Assembly elections will not be excluded or discriminated against. Those days are over."
