Local reports in Mayo last night claimed the county footballers’ strength and conditioning coach Barry Solan is to work with Arsenal at the end of the championship.

ZIMBABWE: Harare resident Alice Mhandara spent a US dollar to take the bus into town to answer the government call to trade in her old Zimbabwe dollars, but she left the bank in disgust when her 90 trillion in old currency wouldn’t even cover the bus ticket home.

The British government has been accused of breaching the "fundamental rights" of a British grandmother sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug smuggling by refusing to pay for legal representation as she battles for her life.

The British Government has said it strongly objects to the death penalty imposed today on a British woman who trafficked drugs into Indonesia.

A British woman has been sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking.

Britain’s beleaguered towns and villages were dealt a further blow today as more rain battered the country and 200,000 householders were warned they could lose their home insurance policies.

Two Britons have gone on trial for allegedly trafficking cocaine onto Indonesia’s holiday island of Bali.

A British couple who had their young daughter taken into care in Portugal have been reunited with their child.

Footballer Titus Bramble was cleared today of sexually assaulting two women.

A British man arrested over a £1.6 million cocaine haul in Indonesia has insisted he was set up as he went to pick up a birthday present for his daughter.

Prosecutors in the UK have recovered more than half a million pounds from the wife of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin.

Sunderland footballer Titus Bramble has appeared in court to deny sexual assault charges.

Liverpool player Stewart Downing will not face charges after he was arrested last month on suspicion of assault, police said.

Sunderland’s Titus Bramble today denied sexually assaulting one woman in a nightclub and another in a taxi on his way home on the same night.

AN unemployed construction worker who microwaved his “favourite” hamster to death was jailed for nine weeks yesterday.

Retail giant The John Lewis Partnership has been hit by a shortage of gift vouchers after the printing firm it used collapsed into administration, the group confirmed today.

Steel giant Corus today unveiled plans to develop an offshore wind farm business and create 220 jobs on the site of a mothballed plant in Teesside.

Scott McDonald was one of three players axed from Australia’s World Cup squad today.

Shannon Airport, which reopened this afternoon with no scheduled departures, will close again at 7pm tonight, according to the Irish Aviation Authority.

Flights will finally start again in the UK tomorrow after air traffic control company Nats lifted restrictions for Scotland and part of northern England.

A PAEDOPHILE was able to rape a five-year-old girl he was babysitting because agencies failed to tell her mother he was a convicted sex offender.

Middlesbrough boss Gordon Strachan was today hoping to complete a swoop for a fourth Celtic player as Stephen McManus closed in on a move to Teesside.

London: Corus Group, the European unit of India’s Tata Steel, will mothball the blast furnace and some coke ovens at its Teesside plant in Britain and cut 1,700 jobs after a group of four customers stopped buying metal.

Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson hopes to finally unveil Gordon Strachan as the club’s new manager on Monday.

Middlesbrough and Aston Villa have agreed a fee of around £12m for England winger Stewart Downing.

GARETH SOUTHGATE was putting on a brave face in the wake of another harrowing afternoon at the Riverside, but the inner turmoil he was suffering spoke volumes for a plight that has now grown so extreme that even his own supporters have turned against him.

THIS is how it feels to be in a title race; constantly winning yet eternally disappointed. It’s been a while obviously, but it feels strange.

ALEX FERGUSON has no intention of letting any outside forces influence his Manchester United team selection.

Alex Ferguson intends to ease Wes Brown back into first-team action in Manchester United’s Premier League clash at Middlesbrough in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off.

Low-fares airline Ryanair axed more routes and jobs at Dublin Airport today, blaming a surge in Government aviation charges.

Ryanair have announced a series of route, flight and frequency cuts at Dublin Airport from July, blaming the impact of the €10 tourist tax to cause numbers at Dublin to go down 12% in February.

Middlesbrough 2 Liverpool 0

British steelmaker Corus is to cut up to 3,500 jobs this week in one of the biggest blows yet to the faltering manufacturing sector, it was reported today.

Middlesbrough were hoping to make a transfer breakthrough today as both Ben Watson and Marlon King arrived on Teesside.

OVER half the Premier League has been struck by an identity crisis.

MIKAEL SILVESTRE insists Arsenal have time to “grow up” this season and remain very much in the race for both European and Barclays Premier League glory.

A RADIO presenter was stunned when he answered a call from a listener who admitted she was once an unwitting cannibal.

Gareth Southgate has expressed his frustration at the prospect of losing key players to next week’s “futile” international friendlies.

Middlesbrough 0 Chelsea 5

CHELSEA coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is facing an injury crisis ahead of today’s clash with Middlesbrough.

Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate watched his side fight back for a home win over Stoke which means they have achieved their best start in nine seasons.

Middlesbrough defender Emanuel Pogatetz has opened talks with the club regarding a contract extension.