NI watchtowers to be dismantled

Border control at Crossmaglen

The Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr John Reid, announces that four security installations are to be dismantled immediately following the IRA's decision on decommissioning.

The Prime Minister's office says the IRA's move was a 'decisive step', the government has also indicated that a reduction in troop numbers will follow "when the 'threat-level' allows."

The Ulster Unionists' Dermot Nesbitt tells us that he wants to see a return to normality, which means an end to paramilitarism. And the decision has not been welcomed unconditionally in the nationalist heartland of South Armagh - so-called 'bandit country' as Richard Miron discovered.

The International Development Secretary Clare Short has been updating MPs on the humanitarian effort in and around Afghanistan. She said the situation "remains fragile," but that progress was being made towards the target of 1,700 tons of aid a week - however Ms Short again ruled out a pause in the bombing. Christian Aid's Roger Riddell gives his reaction.

Ancillary workers at one the country's most controversial PFI hospitals have started industrial action today. Staff at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle - already the subject of much bad publicity - are refusing to clean some areas of the hospital and have also begun an overtime ban. They accuse their new private employer of attacking pay and conditions and they say strike action may follow - which would be a major embarrassment for the government. Our North of England correspondent Luke Walton reports.

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