The Irish women’s date with destiny edges ever closer with the Energia Park stage all set for their Olympic qualifier showdown with Canada.

BRITAIN’S previous government did “all it could” to help Libya win the release of the only man convicted of the Pan Am bombing in Scotland in 1988, though it insisted the decision was made entirely by Scottish officials, Britain’s senior civil servant said yesterday.

Scotland’s justice secretary faced a barrage of criticism today as he explained why he freed the Lockerbie bomber.

UN diplomats said they would give France more time to reach agreement on its demands for new compensation from Libya for a 1989 bombing of a French airliner before voting to lift sanctions against the North African country. But they stressed that France needs to move quickly.

Negotiators are close to an agreement on the amount of compensation Libya will offer families of the 270 people killed in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, a lawyer involved in the talks said today.