SINN FÉIN President Gerry Adams has wished Cuban leader Fidel Castro well in his retirement. Adams who has in the past visited Cuba and met with Fidel Castro was speaking after the Cuban Revolutionary leader announced his intention not to seek re-election to the Cuban Presidency. Free article

Sinn Féin MP for Mid Ulster Martin McGuinness has paid tribute to Maggie Hughes the mother of IRA Hunger Striker Francis Hughes who passed away on Tuesday. Free article

ALEX MASKEY MLA, Sinn Féin spokesperson on policing and justice issues, travelled to Westminster on Wednesday 19 February, to brief MPs, representatives of London Embassies and the media on the current situation in the political process in the North of Ireland, and in particular the issue of Policing and Justice and the transfer of powers to the Assembly. Free article

SPECULATION that the British Government-appointed Consultative Group on the Past could suggest that the conflict in the North of Ireland be officially classified as a war led several DUP MLAs to sponsor a motion in the Assembly this week that this should not happen. The DUP motion was passed by 46 votes to 20. Free article

A FULL INQUIRY into PSNI handling of a loyalist campaign of intimidation in Stoneyford has been called for after the PSNI confirmed that disciplinary proceedings have been recommended into police handling of the issue. Free article

SINN FÉIN Health spokesperson Carál Ní Chuilín says that the first-ever joint meeting between the North's Assembly Health Committee and the Leinster House Joint Committee on Health and Children in Dublin (as An Phoblacht goes to print on Thursday, 21 February) as part of the Inquiry into Suicide is a welcome step in addressing this serious on an all-Ireland basis. Free article

NEWS that the lease for the site of a Gaelscoil in Portlaoise is to be terminated this summer has placed the school and parents in an awful predicament. Free article

A DELEGATION of turkey growers, supported by broiler and pig producers and led by Monaghan IFA Executive Chairperson Kathleen Ward, accompanied Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and Monaghan County Councillor Pat Treanor to meet with Northern Executive Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development Michelle Gildernew MP MLA in Stormont on Monday. The backdrop to the meeting was the recently-announced decision of Grove Turkeys (Smithboro) to let go 130 of their 200 workforce. This decision directly affects some 85 turkey growers on both sides of the border. Free article

IF the barriers faced by people living with disability in the workplace are to be overcome, their experiences need to be listened to, Sinn Féin's Sue Ramsey said during a presentation by disability groups in Stormont this week. Sue is Chair of the Assembly's Employment and Learning Committee. She said: Free article

SINN FÉIN councillors and elected representatives at all levels have been engaged in a programme of heightened activity in their opposition to overhead pylon-supported power lines over the several weeks since the turn of the New Year. Free article