A community project to provide vital support and training for the families of people with autism in Omagh has received a massive boost from the Big Lottery Fund. The National Autistic Society received a grant of £345,114 to provide support, advice and information to local parents of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and raise awareness and understanding of autism amongst professionals in order to improve access to services.

The community and voluntary sector in the west of Ulster is currently working closely with the Western Health and Social Services Board to host two major workshops. The first of these workshops organised by Fermanagh Rural Community Network and Omagh Forum for Rural Associations was held recently in Killadeas.

President McAleese signed the controversial Criminal Justice Bill into law last night. Earlier, she had held a meeting of the Council of State to consider whether the measure should be referred to the Supreme Court.

Nurses and midwives staging a work-to-rule have until 5.30pm this evening to call off their action or face having 13% deducted from their pay. The HSE said it planned to take the action in a bid to recoup the €2m a week which it claimed the dispute was costing.

An Irish teenager has won a High Court battle in Dublin to be allowed to visit Britain for an abortion. The 17-year old was told by doctors her four-month foetus would not live more than a few days beyond its birth.

Community workers are to launch a campaign to tackle the problem of children taking and dealing in drugs. Parents in Ligoniel in north Belfast said children as nine are stealing, not only to feed their habit, but to keep the dealers away from them.

The Health Service Executive has told schools in Naas, Co Kildare, that it is closing its waiting list for child and adolescent psychiatric services. It says this is because the list is now running at a two-year wait.

A Fermanagh priest and a Co Antrim man are due to go on trial in Liverpool today for a catalogue of horrific child sex attacks. Billy Adams (38), a native of Newtownabbey, is accused of several rapes and a string of other offences against a 12-year-old girl.

The INO and the PNA are expected to seek legal advice following the HSE’s threat to dock nurses’ pay as a result of their industrial action.

Inflation, new terms and conditions for staff, developments in the service, and general population growth have all been blamed for an increase in Government spending on Northern Ireland’s health service.