Irish Newsbriefs a.m. 4/21/99 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit News from the Wire Services Re: Ireland & the Irish PA 04/21/99 07:28 Plane Attack Businessman Gets Probation RT 04/21/99 07:23 Ireland To Float 20 Percent Of Telecom Eireann PA 04/21/99 04:46 Belfast Gets #60m Leisure Complex Boost PA 04/21/99 04:11 Death Of Judge's Son _ Police Step Up Probe PA 04/21/99 03:51 Police Question Leading PUP Member PA 04/21/99 01:30 Alliance Leader Throws Hat Into Election Ring ****************************** Plane Attack Businessman Gets Probation PA 04/21/99 07:28 Copyright 1999 PA News By Simeon Tegel, PA News Businessman Ian Coutts, who attacked an air stewardess in an aircraft flying at 18,000 feet, was today put on probation for 12 months. Stewardess Thelma Rooney was left bruised and cowering in terror after Coutts, 55, punched her three times on the arm. Today, Coutts, a company director, of Hammersmith, west London, was put on probation, ordered to pay court costs of 120, and to pay Miss Rooney 75 compensation. The attack took place after Miss Rooney accidentally banged a drinks trolley into Coutts's arm, magistrates at Uxbridge, west London, were told. Mr Neville Kesselman, prosecuting, said that when Coutts boarded the British Midlands jet at Dublin he complained about being placed in "scum class" because there was no room in business class. "It led to display of ill grace and violence later in the flight," Mr Kesselman said. The attack happened as Miss Rooney, from Dublin, and a steward attended to a passenger with a bleeding nose who was sitting next to Coutts. Mr Kesselman said: "She felt severe blows to her left arm, causing excruciating pain. "She looked and saw Mr Coutts hitting her with his fist. "She was frightened and remained for the remainder of the journey in the rear of the galley." Coutts, who had denied one charge of assault but was found guilty in March, was spared community service because he has a slipped disc. Miss Elizabeth Jay, for Coutts, told the court: "This case has never been put as an air rage case. There is no suggestion that the aeroplane was in danger. He was not restrained on the aeroplane." Coutts, refused to comment after the case. ****************************** Ireland To Float 20 Percent Of Telecom Eireann RTw 04/21/99 07:23 Copyright 1999 Reuters Ltd DUBLIN, April 21 (Reuters) - The Irish government said on Wednesday it planned to sell at least 20 percent of state-owned Telecom Eireann in mid-June in the largest share offer by the Irish government to date. The exact number of shares to be sold would be set closer to time of the share offer, Minister for Public Enterprise Mary O'Rourke said in a statement at the launch of the marketing campaign for the flotation. ****************************** Belfast Gets #60m Leisure Complex Boost PA 04/21/99 04:46 Copyright 1999 PA News By Melissa Kite, PA News The regeneration of Belfast city centre took another step forward today with the unveiling of plans for a 60 million leisure and entertainment complex. The Lincoln Centre, which will be close to the loyalist Sandy Row area, will include a 200-bedroom budget hotel, five star hotel, luxury apartments, 18-screen cinema, as well as a health and fitness club, restaurants and shops. Up to 2,000 jobs are set to be created by the futuristic complex, the largest of its kind ever seen in Northern Ireland. Diljit Rana, the chief executive of property developer Andras House, which is behind the project, said its location in an area better known for poverty and unemployment would be a massive boost. "This area of Belfast has been neglected for nearly 25 years. Now this is the only big site which is left for development and we are very happy to be creating something there," he said. "We are talking to national and international companies who will be coming and trading in this centre." Mr Rana said the much hoped for tourism boom in Northern Ireland depended on more hotels being built. "Belfast has to grow quite a bit, it has lagged behind due to the conditions of the past 30 years," he said. "During the troubles we lost 11 hotels and we are only now catching up with the number of rooms which were available in Belfast in the 70s. "Everything depends on political stability, but I believe in the good sense of people -- eventually we will have to solve our problems, and tourism will grow despite some hiccups here and there." Former Conservative Party chairman Sir Brian Mawhinney, chairman of Andras House, said the complex demonstrated the confidence planners now had in Northern Ireland. "This is a unique development which will offer an exciting mix of leisure retail and entertainment facilities and will be Northern Ireland's largest entertainment complex," he said. ****************************** Death Of Judge's Son _ Police Step Up Probe PA 04/21/99 04:11 Copyright 1999 PA News By Chris Parkin, PA News Irish police today stepped up investigations into the death of a man whose body was found with gunshot wounds at his home. The body of David Macklin, 25, the son of former Irish District Court President Judge Oliver Macklin, who died three years ago, was found last weekend at his home in County Roscommon. Mr Macklin had a gunshot wound in the back of his head, but no weapon has been recovered. Police said they were treating the death as suspicious. A family member found the body in a corridor of the house in the village of Shannonbridge in the early hours of Saturday morning after a party in the house the previous night. The house was sealed off today as police inquiries continued. ****************************** Police Question Leading PUP Member PA 04/21/99 03:51 Copyright 1999 PA News By Melissa Kite and Deric Henderson, PA News A senior member of the Progressive Unionist Party's talks team at Stormont was today being questioned by detectives investigating serious crime. Winston Churchill Rea, 48, was held at Castlereagh detention centre in Belfast after he and his solicitor walked into a police station in the city. It is not clear what Mr Rea was being questioned about, but his wife Elizabeth said: "He has received a number of death threats in the past couple of weeks." Mr Rea, a senior member of the PUP, the political wing of the Ulster Volunteer Force, has been heavily involved in the party's work since the loyalist paramilitaries declared a ceasefire in October 1994. His home was one of 10 raided by Royal Ulster Constabulary officers yesterday morning, but he was not there at the time. Meanwhile, police investigating the murder of leading loyalist Frankie Curry were today questioning three men who were detained yesterday in early morning raids in Belfast's Shankill Road area. Mr Curry, 46, a former Red Hand Commando chief, was gunned down outside a social club in the Shankill Road area on St Patrick's Day, March 17. He was chased across waste ground at the back of the club where he had been watching the Cheltenham races and shot several times in the back of the head. His murder was thought to be the result of an internal loyalist dispute. ****************************** Alliance Leader Throws Hat Into Euro Election Ring PA 04/21/99 01:30 Copyright 1999 PA News By Dan McGinn, PA News Alliance leader Sean Neeson will contest the European elections in Northern Ireland, it was confirmed today. The East Antrim Assemblyman, who became the leader of the centre ground party last year, said he would be promoting a "new type of politics" on the campaign trail beyond the confines of unionism and nationalism. He said: "The European elections offer the opportunity for parties to explain the importance of Europe to Northern Ireland. "Alliance is an unashamedly pro-Europe party. We support the deepening and widening of the European Union and the UK's swift entry into the single currency." Mr Neeson urged voters to back him in the election, if it was turned into a referendum on the Good Friday Agreement, as the only party which was "unambiguous" in its support for the full implementation of the accord. The Alliance Party leader will be hoping to capture one of Northern Ireland's three seats in the European Parliament -- currently held by the Democratic Unionists, nationalist SDLP and the Ulster Unionists. ------- Jay Dooling (jdooling@worldnet.att.net) Irish Aires - 90.1FM KPFT in Houston http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Irish_Aires/homepage.htm Dooling & Mabe, CPA http://www.doolingmabe-cpa.com/ ------------- ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-04.24.99-12:54:45-11601