A LOT OF PEOPLE have serious concerns about the way that planning permission is granted in Ireland - and it's not just about brown envelopes. There is a major conflict brewing between developers and local communities as the developers tear down whole districts for `profitable redevelopments' and select sites to dump or burn our waste, or sites for pylons and mobile phone masts. Free article

Loyalist warnings that the UDA's ceasefire is on ``tenterhooks'' are being ``underscored by an increase in loyalist activity in Belfast'', Sinn Féin councillor Tom Hartley has told An Phoblacht. Free article

A new report into the use of plastic bullets in the North says that two in every five plastic bullet injuries inflicted during the 1996 Drumcree standoff were potentially life-threatening. Free article

Cuts in holiday pay and exclusion from partnership negotiations are just two of the issues that could lead to industrial unrest among construction workers this week Free article

The announcement on Tuesday, 10 August, of an additional £15 million for drugs task forces in Dublin, Wicklow and Cork has been welcomed by the Dublin Sinn Féin representatives. Free article

As in previous years, Prisoner Day at the West Belfast Festival proved to be one of the most popular events of the Festival. Free article

10,250 families will be housed by the state in 1999. This is just under 27 per cent of the total numbers of families on local authority housing waiting lists. 38,000 people were registered on waiting lists at the end of June this year. Free article