Northern Ireland News for July 2003

Recruitment News, Jul 31, 2003
Massive rescue package set to save 10,000 jobs
The government is set to offer a £50 million rescue package to help safeguard over 10,000 jobs in the UK chemicals sector. Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt announced today that Regional S...
Recruitment News, Jul 31, 2003
ICI axes 1,400 on ‘uncertain future’
Chemicals giant ICI are to cut another 1,400 jobs worldwide, with a further 300 of the axed jobs to go in the UK. This will bring the total jobs shed by ICI in the UK this year to around 600. ICI has...
UK National News, Jul 31, 2003
Sex charges against TV presenter are dropped
The television presenter John Leslie has seen the two sex assault charges he was facing dropped by the CPS today. Mr Leslie, 38, had been charged with carrying out two alleged assaults on the same w...
UK National News, Jul 31, 2003
Government insists Iraq war 'legal and justified'
The government has restated its view that military action in Iraq was "legal and justified", following the publication of a critical report by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. Foreign Office Min...
UK National News, Jul 31, 2003
10,000 jobs 'safeguarded' by £50m rescue package
The government is set to offer a £50 million rescue package to help safeguard over 10,000 jobs in the UK chemicals sector. Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt announced today that Regional S...
Business News, Jul 31, 2003
Trinity Mirror to axe 550 jobs
Newspaper publishing group Trinity Mirror are to shed 550 jobs and dispose of its publishing interests in Ireland as part of a restructuring programme announced today. Trinity Mirror Chief Executive ...
Northern Ireland News, Jul 31, 2003
Major Belfast centre gas leak causes office chaos
Hundreds of workers have been evacuated from their offices following a serious gas leak in Belfast. It is believed that a digger struck a gas main in Donegall Quay causing part of Belfast city centre...
Northern Ireland News, Jul 31, 2003
Young girl escapes injury in bomb find
The young daughter of a Prison Officer has escaped serious injury after she carried a bomb into her Co Down home last night. The 10-year-old girl found the device in the garden of her Brunswick Road ...
Northern Ireland News, Jul 31, 2003
Trinity Mirror seek buyer for NI papers
Newspaper publishing group Trinity Mirror are to dispose of its Northern Ireland publishing interests as the group strives to protect the business against falling regional and national sales. Trinity...
Northern Ireland News, Jul 31, 2003
Colombia three trial enters final stages
The trial of the three Irish men facing charges of training left-wing guerrillas in Colombia is entering its final stages as the lawyers for the defence make their final statements this week. The thr...
UK National News, Jul 31, 2003
BA announces £40m losses
British Airways today posted a pre-tax loss of £45 million for the first quarter to June 30 – a huge turnaround on last year's £65 million profit for the same period. In their quarterly report releas...
Northern Ireland News, Jul 31, 2003
NI Human Rights chief under pressure
The head of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has come under fire from the SDLP and Sinn Fein following two separate meetings on Thursday. NIHRC Chief Commissioner Brice Dickson has been c...
Northern Ireland News, Jul 31, 2003
Shorts pay negotiations to begin next week
Negotiations are to begin next week in the current pay dispute between staff and management at Bombardier Shorts in Belfast. It followed talks yesterday between both sides into resolving the current ...
Northern Ireland News, Jul 31, 2003
£2m lottery windfall for disadvantaged communities
More than £2 million of lottery funding is set to transform some of Northern Ireland’s most disadvantaged communities. Announcing today's windfall, the New Opportunities Fund's 'Transforming your Spa...
Northern Ireland News, Jul 31, 2003
SDLP call for an end to 'rip off' border mobile charges
Mobile telephone operators in Ireland have done far too little to cut the charges levied on customers living in border areas and urgent action should now be taken by regulators. That was the message ...
UK National News, Jul 31, 2003
NHS doctors and nurses numbers at 15-year high
The government has claimed that there are more doctors and nurses working in the NHS than at any time in the past 15 years, following the release of new figures. The new statistics show that in the l...
Northern Ireland News, Jul 31, 2003
Two men die in separate road accidents
Two people have died following separate road accidents in Co Tyrone and Co Armagh. Paul Devenney, 24, from Keady, died in hospital on Wednesday after he fell from the back of a taxi bus in Crossmagle...
Northern Ireland News, Jul 31, 2003
Trócaire urges Government action in Liberia
Leading Irish charity, Trócaire has called on the UK and Irish Governments to take swift action in Liberia. The call came as the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) received...
UK National News, Jul 31, 2003
Airline steward and accomplice convicted of drug smuggling
A British Airways (BA) steward and his accomplice have been found guilty of attempted drug smuggling at Croydon Crown Court. Stephen Akpabio-Klementowski (38), of Hounslow, Middlesex, was sentenced t...
UK National News, Jul 31, 2003
Care home places drop by 13,400 in a year
UK care capacity in residential settings for elderly and physically disabled client groups shrank by some 13,400 places last year. According to figures published in Laing & Buisson’s annual market u...
UK National News, Jul 31, 2003
Austrian skydiver wings it to France
A former mechanic has become the first man to skydive across the English Channel. Felix Baumgartner, a 34-year-old Austrian, leapt from a plane above Dover on the English coastline at 30,000 ft and p...
UK National News, Jul 31, 2003
Bank apologises for Nazi 'Outlook'
The July issue of “Outlook” attempted to make an isolated economic analysis of the Depression-era German economy under Hitler. We have received many letters and calls from people who were deeply troub...
UK National News, Jul 31, 2003
Grant to preserve 'best view' in Britain
Ancient water meadows in Avon Valley will be preserved by a £100,000 grant over the next ten years. The were voted best view in Britain in a Country Life magazine poll in 2002. The meadows, made famo...
Recruitment News, Jul 31, 2003
Good bosses at a premium
The adage is “no one is indispensable”, but the more senior you are in an organisation, the harder it is to replace you, according to the latest figures from the Recruitment Confidence Index. Out of ...
Northern Ireland News, Jul 30, 2003
Pay dispute talks begin at Shorts
Talks began today aimed at resolving the long running pay dispute between Shorts management and the firm's workers. Around 1,000 jobs have been under threat at the company's Belfast base after the em...
Northern Ireland News, Jul 30, 2003
Colombia three appear before Bogota Court
The three Irish men facing charges relating to the training of left-wing FARC guerrillas in Colombia have made their first appearance in court in Bogota today. The three men, Niall Connolly, Martin M...
Northern Ireland News, Jul 30, 2003
Robinson calls on nationalists and republicans to 'wise up'
Nationalists and republicans need to "wise up" over their support of the Good Friday Agreement, DUP deputy leader, Peter Robinson has said. In a statement issued from DUP headquarters, the east Belfa...
Northern Ireland News, Jul 30, 2003
NI hospitals unlikely to meet junior doctors' hours deadline
Hospitals who fail to recognise new contractual rights for junior doctors are risking possible legal action, the British Medical Association (BMA) has warned today. This Friday, limits on hours, mini...
UK National News, Jul 30, 2003
Annan 'outraged' at humanitarian crisis in Liberia
The Secretary-General Kofi Annan has voiced his "outrage" at the continued high incidence of civilian casualties in and around the Liberian capital Monrovia, as the result of "indiscriminate shelling"...
Northern Ireland News, Jul 30, 2003
Early morning security alerts hit Belfast
The security alerts which caused traffic havoc in and around Belfast this morning have now ended, police have confirmed. Dissident republicans are believed to have been behind today's nine alerts wh...