Northern Ireland leaders reached agreement to sustain their troubled Catholic-Protestant government Tuesday following all-night Belfast talks that reduced some negotiators to bleary-eyed exhaustion.
British Prime Minister David Cameron in London heralded a deal that became possible when his government offered an extra 2 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) over the coming decade to Northern Ireland.
It will allow Northern Ireland to avoid cutting welfare payments as sharply as in the rest of the United Kingdom. Sinn Fein, the major Irish nationalist party representing the Catholic minority, had thrown power-sharing into turmoil over the last year by refusing to enact London-ordered cuts - and said Cameron's offer had vindicated its stubborn stand.
- AP