Republic of Ireland 2 England 0: First-half goals from Eleanor Ryan-Doyle and Saoirse Noonan got the Republic of Ireland off to a winning start in the elite qualifying round of the UEFA Women’s U17 Championships at Turner’s Cross last night.

Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has won the latest round of a legal fight with a German media company.

Talented engineer Norah Patten is hoping to become the first Irishwoman in space — and is appealing for votes to help her reach for the stars.

The BBC Trust chairman insisted he had to give former director general George Entwistle a huge payoff when he quit in the wake of paedophilia scandals engulfing the corporation — and hinted that Entwistle wanted even more money.

Britain’s BBC must undergo a radical overhaul in the wake of “shoddy” journalism which led to the resignation of its chief or its future will be in doubt, the head of the state-funded broadcaster’s governing body said yesterday.

David Cameron raised the prospect today that Sir Jimmy Savile could be posthumously stripped of his knighthood amid allegations of sexual abuse against young girls.

The Monkey with the Bright Blue Bottom by Steve Smallman (Little Tiger Press; €9.50).

The 50/50 recruitment of Catholics and Protestants to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is to cease within days, the British government has confirmed.

A decision that could force airport operator BAA to comply with an order to sell three of its airports was restored by the Court of Appeal in the UK today.

The 50:50 recruitment scheme for Catholics and Protestants entering the PSNI must continue if a balanced service is to be delivered, nationalists claimed today.

Woolworths Group was granted an administration order in the British High Court today.

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THE drinks industry representative group is forecasting a 10% decline in alcohol consumption levels for 2008.

ALCOHOL sales slumped 7% in the first eight months of this year and a staggering 14% last month alone — a greater decline than experienced over the past six years combined.

FARMERS warned yesterday of more protests over barley prices after Guinness producer Diageo refused to step-in and help resolve the row.

Sinn Féin is to press the Government for more Catholics to be recruited into the Police Service of Northern Ireland than the targeted 30%, it was revealed today.

TWO Irish cancer patients died within weeks of each other from a very rare toxic reaction to a common chemotherapy treatment, an inquest has found.

THE mastermind behind the Harry Potter phenomenon JK Rowling has expressed disappointment after her four-year-old son lost a case claiming his right to privacy was infringed by the publication of his photograph in a newspaper.

The man who oversaw the blueprint for sweeping reforms to the North's police service will today give his assessment on the scale of change.

NEWS flash!

Punters across Ireland are drinking more than half a billion pints of milk a year, it has emerged.

Ireland’s reputation as a nation of drinkers took a knock today as it was revealed that alcohol consumption has fallen by almost 7% in five years.

Sinn Féin joining the Policing Board which holds the Police Service of Northern Ireland to account will be the last piece in the jigsaw of policing reform, the board chairman said today.

LARISA Ilchenko was repeatedly stung by jellyfish as she battled through one of the toughest races of her life to win the 10km open water world title in Melbourne by barely a second.

The North's rank-and-file police today lambasted Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Ian Blair over claims he referred to RUC members in the North as members of a paramilitary force.

The grieving mother of an army officer killed by the Taliban while serving in Afghanistan appealed today to thieves to return precious mementoes given to her by her son.

Education in schools and at home is key to any measures attempting to tackle alcohol problems in society, the drinks industry claimed today.

The expansion of MI5’s role in the North is to be raised with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Dublin tomorrow.

Senior police in the North are today facing a shortfall of 107 detectives.

The drinks industry agrees that reducing the level of alcohol-related harm in Ireland is “imperative”, according to Michael Patten, Chairman of the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI).

One in five police officers in the North are now Catholic, it emerged today.

PUBLIC health doctors have called on the Government to face down the drinks industry in the same manner it took on the tobacco industry.

A Northern soldier killed in Afghanistan was totally committed to his job, mourners today heard.

IRISH whiskey makers are trying to crack the world’s largest whiskey market in India with the help of the Irish Government.

MICHAEL PATTEN, group corporate relations director for Diageo in Ireland, has been appointed chairman of the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI).

Irish Americans are still focused on the demand that the IRA ends all its involvement in criminality and recognises the rule of law, a nationalist member of Northern Ireland’s Policing Board said today.

THE PSNI response to the orgy of pyromania directed at the Catholic community in Ahoghill, Co Antrim, is bizarre.

The University of Ulster was fiercely criticised today for its decision to confer an honorary degree on Chris Patten, one of the architects of police reform in Northern Ireland.

The IRA is sick of being blamed for everything which goes wrong in the peace process and recent developments reflect that, writes Danny Morrison

The EU yesterday warned Russian president Vladimir Putin that he must not use the fight against terrorism to increase his powers in the Federation.

TWO more SDLP councillors have received death threats, the party confirmed last night.

Two more SDLP councillors have received death threats, the party confirmed tonight.

The chairman of a local policing partnership board in Northern Ireland today hit out at those who sent him a death threat.

RUC reformers Chris Patten and Maurice Hayes should be recruited to review An Garda Síochána and devise an alternative to the proposed Garda Ombudsman, the Labour party said yesterday.