NI To Lose 26,000 Jobs By 2017

Northern Ireland will be the UK region hardest hit by public sector job cuts. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has called on the executive to take account of the cuts in public sector jobs. It said the executive must take firm action to defend the NI economy from the coalition government's plans.The ICTU claim that 26,000 public sector jobs would go in NI by 2017.

NI Business Man Pleads Guilty To 100 Fraud Charges

A businessman, already convicted of an international property fraud scam, has pleaded guilty to more than 100 further charges. Fifty -Two-year-old Kevin O'Kane was unanimously convicted of 25 charges of obtaining money and property by deception relating to the Golden Beach Villas development in Turkey. Yesterday O’Kane pleaded guilty to a total of 126 counts of obtaining money or property by deception and a further two charges of fraud by false representation on various dates between August 8, 2005 and April 13, 2007.

Support Given To Over 40 Green Community Projects

Local environmental charities will receive nearly £250,000 from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency to carry out projects over the next three months. Over 40 projects will receive funding of up to £10,000 each to carry out work to benefit Northern Ireland’s people and wildlife. Bats in Londonderry, red squirrels in Fermanagh, puffins on the Copeland Islands, seabirds in Strangford Lough and butterflies throughout Northern Ireland will benefit. Selected projects will decrease wildfires in the Belfast Hills, construct weirs in the Dun River in the Causeway Coast and Glens and manage woodland at the Crom Estate in Fermanagh. Port Moon Bothy will have improved facilities, sand dune erosion will be managed by volunteers at Tyrella and children in the north east will hatch salmon in their own classrooms and release them in local rivers. Anti-littering campaigns, environmental education websites, school energy conservation programmes,a poster promotion of nature’s financial benefits, a sustainable food conference and digitisation of architectural records have also been supported.

(LB)