The British government is to impose a budget on Northern Ireland for the first time in a decade, a major step towards imposing direct rule after attempts to form a power-sharing government in Belfast collapsed.
Many in the province fear direct rule would further destabilise a political balance between pro-British unionists and Irish nationalists that has already been upset by Britain's vote to leave the European Union. The move also creates a headache for British Prime Minister Theresa May, whose minority government is dependent on Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to pass legislation.
Irish Nationalists Sinn Fein and the pro-British DUP have shared power in Northern Ireland for a decade under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, which ended three decades of violence that killed 3,600 people. But Sinn Fein pulled out in January, complaining it was not being treated as an equal partner.