Ulster sufferers of an eye disease are being left to go blind because of indecision among health chiefs on whether to fund new sight-saving drugs, two charities have warned. The grim warning was delivered ahead of a public meeting in Belfast to highlight concerns for those diagnosed from wet age-related macular degeneration.

Health Minister Michael McGimpsey vowed today that carers will not be overlooked and their importance to society will be reflected in his priorities.

The Pond area, a park overshadowed by tall trees, stands at the heart of Laurelvale in County Armagh. It has got no playground or bench but it is here that teenagers gather in the evening.

A cocaine treatment clinic is expected to open in Cork later this year.A cocaine treatment clinic is expected to open in Cork later this year.

Ulster’s judges are still being transported across the border by private jet based on 20-year-old security advice. A Belfast Telegraph Freedom of Information request has revealed that almost £200,000 of public money has been spent on the luxury flights in two years.

Suicide rates among young men in Northern Ireland have risen by more than a third since the end of the Trouble. Research conducted at Belfast City Hospital indicates a 34% increase in the number of suicides among men aged 25 to 34 since the 1994 ceasefire, and a 26.5% increase among those aged 15 to 24.

Local MLAs, including Ulster Unionist, Tom Elliott and Sinn Féin’s Gerry McHugh have welcomed last week’s visit by the Health Minister, Michael McGimpsey to the county. However, Mr McHugh was unhappy at what the Minister had omitted from his speech at the Erne Hospital.

Before leaving school today more than 8,500 children and young people throughout Northern Ireland will be carrying out tasks about which neither their school friends nor their teachers may possibly be aware. They do it every day, before school, after school and on weekends.

The parents of a seven-year-old boy with autism have lodged a Supreme Court appeal against the High Court’s decision not to compel the State to provide him with a particular type of education.

The parents of a seven-year-old boy with autism have lodged a Supreme Court appeal against the High Court’s decision not to compel the State to provide him with a particular type of education.