North South council meeting off

It is longer than three months since the executive last met

Friday's meeting of the North South Ministerial Council in Armagh will not be taking place, Stormont sources said.

It follows the cancellation of a meeting of the assembly executive scheduled for Thursday.

Earlier, Sinn Fein Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy said the meeting should go ahead.

He said the same "urgent procedure" mechanism should be used which allowed a meeting of the British Irish Council to take place last week.