Republicans must spend "many months" rebuilding trust shattered by the IRA's alleged bank robbery before any new Ulster peace talks, the Democratic Unionist leader, Dr Ian Paisley, warned last night.
Dr Paisley emerged from meeting the PSNI chief constable, Mr Hugh Orde, to insist a fresh attempt to broker a power-sharing agreement with Sinn Féin was off until cast-iron guarantees were given that all paramilitary guns and crime operations were scrapped for good.
"There was a golden opportunity which they refused. Maybe they saw the gold of the Northern Bank was more precious than the gold of the Assembly."
He continued: "I feel very strongly that all the time we were doing our negotiations there was an unreality about the IRA/Sinn Féin."
Smyth will not defend Belfast seat
Veteran Ulster Unionist MP the Rev Martin Smyth (73) will not defend his South Belfast seat in the upcoming general election, ending a Westminster career that began in 1982, writes Frank McNally.
His decision, announced yesterday, sets up a four-way fight for the once unionist-dominated constituency.
The DUP has stood aside in recent elections in favour of Rev Smyth, a leading opponent of the Belfast Agreement.
But with the UUP now likely to select a successor loyal to leader Mr David Trimble, the Democratic Unionists are expected to contest the poll.
Rev Smyth said he was stepping down to spend more time with his wife, Kathleen, who has been ill.
Baby's body kept in wardrobe
A woman who kept the body of her still-born baby in a wardrobe for two weeks and then tried to burn it has been given a probation order by a Belfast court, writes Frank McNally.
Ashleigh Laura Hopkins (24), from Ballyclare, Co Antrim, admitted trying to conceal the baby's birth in December 2002.
In early January 2003, she took a bag containing the body and attempted to set fire to it near Ballyclare before a farmer reported her behaviour.
Belfast Crown Court heard that the young woman was "not herself at the time", and was under "unimaginable pressure".
Imposing two years' probation, Mr Justice Gillen said that, given "the limitations of [the defendant's] maturity and coping skills", he did not believe a custodial sentence was in her or the public's best interests.