In Briefs

Suicide prevention strategy needs to be implemented

Sinn Féin President and West Belfast MP Gerry Adams has said the speedy and effective implementation of the regional suicide prevention strategy in the Six Counties and a co-ordinated all-Ireland approach to this issue is urgent.

Adams made his call on World Mental Health Day (Tuesday 10 October) as new figures show that, last year, 645 people on the island of Ireland lost their lives through suicide.

UDA denies threat to Irish civil servant

The UDA did not threaten a senior Irish Department of Foreign Affairs official based in Belfast who has been withdrawn to Dublin after a unionists paramilitary death threat against her, according to a UDA spokesperson.

Frankie Gallagher, of the UDA's Ulster Political Research Group, told The Village magazine that the UDA denied having threatened Aine de Baróid

David Ervine, leader of the UVF-aligned Progressive Unionist Party, has also condemned the threat.

Collusion tribunal concerns raised with Taoiseach

Sinn Féin's Justice spokesperson, Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD, has said that the party's negotiations team has raised concerns about the proposed Tribunal of Inquiries Bill with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

The Dublin TD stressed the possible implications of the legislation "for revealing the truth about collusion in Ireland".

He went on to describe the position of the Labour Party as utterly inadequate and suggested that Pat Rabbitte's party has clearly not understood the implications of the legislation.

Call for independent investigation into Galway shooting

Sinn Féin's Justice spokesperson Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD has called in the Dáil for an independent investigation into the Garda shooting on Monday in Co Galway which left a man, named locally as Mr Anthony Burke, in a critical condition. Deputy Ó Snodaigh argued that "there is no longer any tolerance for the practice of Gardaí investigating themselves".

Strabane calls on DUP to support restoration of institutions

A majority of Strabane District Councillors have this week backed a motion calling upon the DUP "to support the immediate restoration of the Assembly and the Executive, given the dire consequences of British Direct Rule".

DUP councillor quits over vote fraud

A DUP councillor and former mayor of Coleraine has quit the council after pleading guilty to electoral fraud.

Dessie Stewart was DUP mayor of Coleraine in 2003 and had been a councillor for 17 years.

He confessed at Antrim Crown Court on four counts of pretending to be someone else in order to cast postal votes, and two of fraudulently stopping free exercise of a proxy vote. The charges relate to the last Westminster and local government elections, which were held on the same day in May 2005.

He will be sentenced later this month.

outreach to Poles

Belfast Sinn Féin Councillor Tom Hartley has produced bilingual literature in English and Polish about services constituency and facilities in the city.

Urging other agencies and parties to follow suit, Tom Hartley said:

"As members of our community people from Poland should be able to avail of the services and entitlements we all enjoy."

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams delivered a lecture on the life and times of republican and Land League leader Michael Davitt in Michael Davitt's GAC on the Falls Road in West Belfast on Monday, 9 October. The lecture, which looked at Davitt's role in the struggle for freedom and social justice in Ireland, marked the 100th anniversary of Davitt's death and the 94th anniversary of the founding of Michael Davitt's GAC

Sean 'Seando' Moore, who was given the Bobby Sands Freedom Award in the Balmoral Hotel, Belfast on Saturday, 7 October. The presentation of the Bobby Sands Freedom Award is an annual event organised by Republicans in the Colin area of West Belfast. Pictured with Seando are members of the Colin 1981 Hunger Strike Commemoration Committee, which organised the award ceremony, and Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams, who made the presentation