Agencies/Belfast

Northern Ireland’s largest pro-British party threatened to bring down the province’s power-sharing government unless parliament is suspended while talks to save the grand coalition take place.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) last week unsuccessfully sought the permission of a parliamentary committee to suspend all sittings ahead of talks, which began on Tuesday, to avert a crisis over an Irish Republican Army-linked murder.
A senior member of Northern Ireland’s main Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, the one-time political wing of the IRA which leads the government with the DUP, was arrested in relation to the murder earlier yesterday, prompting the fresh threat.
“As a consequence of the latest events, we are seeking the recall of the Business Committee to consider adjourning the Assembly,” Northern Ireland’s First Minister Peter Robinson said in a statement.
“If that does not happen or, as an alternative, the secretary of state does not suspend the assembly, then DUP ministerial resignations will follow immediately,” he said.   
Police suspect members of the IRA were involved in the August 12 shooting of Kevin McGuigan.
Sinn Fein said one of three men arrested yesterday was its regional chairman, Bobby Storey.
“I was surprised to learn about the arrest of our six-county party chair Bobby Storey,” said Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness, deputy first minister of Northern Ireland. “We look forward with confidence to his early release.”
“Storey is a valued member of Sinn Fein’s core leadership. He has played a leading role in the development of Sinn Fein’s peace strategy and is a longstanding and loyal supporter, defender and advocate of the peace and political processes.
Police have said the murder of McGuigan was not sanctioned by the IRA.
But they said one of the major lines of inquiry is that members of the Provisional IRA were involved in the murder.
It has been alleged to have been carried out in retaliation for the murder of another former IRA prisoner, Gerard “Jock” Davison, at his home in the Markets area of Belfast in May.
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams also reacted to the arrest, describing Storey as a valued member of the party leadership, a person of great integrity and someone he trusts.
“He’s been charged with nothing. I have grave concerns about how all of this current crisis has developed since the dreadful killing of McGuigan, and am mindful in recent times that two families, the Davison and McGuigan families, have both been grieved,” Adams said.
McGuigan, a 53-year-old father-of-nine, was gunned down outside his home at Comber Court in the Short Strand area of east Belfast last month. He was suspected by some in the republican movement of involvement in the Davison murder.