UK faces government decision on deadlocked Northern Ireland

by Dramelin 4:00 AM 0 comments

The British government faces a deadline on whether to extend negotiations on Northern Ireland`s political future or renew direct control from London.
Northern Ireland`s latest unity government collapsed in January amid deepening disputes between the British Protestants of the Democratic Unionist Party and the Irish Catholics of Sinn Fein.
Britain`s secretary of state, James Brokenshire, faces a legal deadline of 4 p.
m.
(1500 GMT; 11 a.
m.
EDT) Monday to announce what happens next.
Sinn Fein withdrew Sunday from talks aimed at reviving its partnership with the Democratic Unionists, saying no agreement was in prospect.
Britain`s system of "direct rule" ran from 1972, the deadliest year of Northern Ireland`s conflict, until the Good Friday peace accord of 1998 paved the way for the first of several Catholic-Protestant coalitions in Belfast.