UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced that his government will devolve policing and justice powers to Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom. After ten days of difficult negotiations, the nationalist party Sinn Fein and its coalition partner the Democratic Unionist Party reached agreement on Thursday about reform of the Northern Ireland police and judicial authorities. The agreement has ended the government crisis in Northern Ireland. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Irish counterpart Brian Cowen, who both took part in the negotiations, are in Belfast to endorse the accord.

Photo: Stormont, the seat of the Northern Ireland Assembly (Wikipedia)