While the country moaned and whinged about the cold yesterday, one man and his best friend made the absolute best of it.

THE role played by a seven-year- old black labrador in a drugs swoop at Shannon Airport last August was yesterday praised by a circuit court judge.

CONSERVATIVES yesterday announced tax breaks worth £250 million (€272m) to new businesses, as the party’s leadership sought to put a lid on internal discontent over Europe at their annual conference in Manchester.

RUBY WALSH and Willie Mullins continued in irresistible form when sharing a treble at Navan yesterday, scoring with odds-on shots Lilywhitedancer and Barker and marker-drifter Palace Merano, which needed all of Walsh’s strength to land the Irish Stallion Farms Novice Hurdle.

Customs sniffer dogs stopped almost €20m worth of drugs being smuggled by sea, air and post into Ireland last year, it was revealed today.

Members of the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing syndicate almost outnumbered racegoers at Lingfield on Monday – but their presence was worthwhile as Hustle took the feature HBLB Handicap.

Former champion jockey Ryan Moore collected more winners in an afternoon at Lingfield than his previous seasonal total as he steered home a 17-1 treble.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown tonight delivered his strongest signal yet that stricken bank Northern Rock could face nationalisation.

It will be several political lifetimes before policing and justice powers are transferred to a devolved government in the North if Sinn Féin continues to delay moves to endorse the police, Gerry Adams’s party was warned today.

TWICE of late Walk In My Shadow has done us tasty favours and one cannot resist rowing in with her again in the first division of the Connollys' Red Mills Horse Care Cubes Handicap at Roscommon this evening.

Howard Johnson’s powerful string has suffered a few reverses in recent days but Deja Vu got the County Durham trainer back in the winning groove at Sedgefield today.