Snooker legend Alex ’Hurricane’ Higgins struggled to cope with the fame and fortune thrust upon him at a young age, a memorial service heard today.

Northern Ireland’s firefighters tonight donated their £50,000 (€70,960) hardship fund to the victims of the Asian disaster.

A cleaner who claims she was pressurised into quitting her job at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast phoned the Dean sobbing that she did not want to leave, a tribunal heard today.