Sinn Fein members overwhelmingly voted Sunday to begin cooperating with the Northern Ireland police, formally abandoning their decades-old hostility to legal law and order in the British territory.

By Jodie Ginsberg DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland will mark two anniversaries in April. The first -- 100 years since the birth of playwright Samuel Beckett -- has provoked little drama.

By Kevin Smith BELFAST (Reuters) - Northern Ireland followed in the footsteps of the Irish Republic on Monday by outlawing smoking in all workplaces, including pubs and restaurants.

By Jodie Ginsberg CROSSMAGLEN (Reuters) - With its hanging baskets full of glossy pink flowers, squares of green lawn and old-fashioned pubs, the center of Crossmaglen looks the picture of a traditional British village. But the outskirts of this Northern Irish border town tell a different story.

The IRA has said it will stand down all units from 4pm today. A statement said it would put an end to 'armed struggle' and devote efforts towards peaceful solutions. It instructed all members to "assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means".