Drugs Bust In Glengormley

Cannabis plants (pictured) estimated to be worth £32,000 along with cultivation equipment have been seized during a search operation of a house in Newtownabbey. The house, in Hillview Park, off the Ballyclare Road, was raided on Thursday and the material removed after a planned operation. A 29-year-old man who was arrested appeared in court on Friday morning and was remanded in custody

Police Probe Orange Hall Blast

Reports are coming in that police are investigating an apparent explosion at an Orange hall in Co Tyrone. UUP MLA for the area Billy Armstrong said substantial damage had been caused to the hall in Pomeroy. Officers have appealed for anyone who was the Pomeroy Road area late on Thursday night or early on Friday morning to contact them. The incident was reported to police at 8.30am this morning and the Pomeroy Road has been closed and diversions are in place. Sinn Féin MLA Michelle O'Neill has stated that all attacks against Orange halls should be stopped and those who are behind them are only setting back community relations. "This attack is wrong, such attacks can only be described as sectarian."

Bank On It!

There was good news yesterday that a second Northern Ireland bank had agreed to pass on benefits from the recent national drop in interest rates to thousands more mortgage customers, although not by the full 1.5%. First Trust Bank announced that it was planning to reduce its Standard Variable Mortgage Rate (SVR) from 6.65% to 5.44% - a drop of 1.21%. The bank's move, which will benefit thousands of hard-pressed mortgage customers, followsed the lead set by Ulster Bank last Thursday when it agreed to drop interest rates for both its tracker and SVR customers. Ulster Bank, however, passed on the full 1.5% cut on to those customers. Meanwhile, it has just emerged that Ulster Bank's parent company, Royal Bank of Scotland is to cut about 3,000 jobs in the next few weeks. The positions will go in its global banking and markets workforce and other jobs are likely to go in the City of London. However, it is understood the bank's High Street operations, and those of subsidiary NatWest, will be unaffected.

Fueling Controversy

The national retail giant Sainsbury's has moved away from its earlier uniform price for Northern Ireland motorists. Customers are now paying a 1p difference for a litre of unleaded petrol at some of the supermarket's seven stations in the province. Sainsbury's had last month dropped its tariffs and introduced a common price at its pumps for all customers. This resulted in drivers across Northern Ireland paying the same regardless of where they bought Sainsbury's fuel and is no longer the case.

(BMcC)