Orkney's rugby team returned to winning ways on Saturday with a 41-7 victory against Banff.

Lucas Chapman, Andy McGill, David Campbell and Rupeni Tuimavana all scored tries. Erlend Hutchison was back on form with three conversions.

The Taste of Orkney Food "Oscars" were presented on Saturday evening at the Food Festival Gala Dinner in Stromness.

The Awards recognise the effort of local businesses in improving their production, marketing, customer service and presentation, and the contribution this is making to putting Orkney on the gastronomic map.

Police are seeking witnesses after another series of broken windows in Kirkwall overnight.

Between 1.30am and 2.30am this morning the window of a shop in Bridge Street Wynd and another in a shop in Junction Road were broken. Anyone with information should contact Kirkwall Police.

An Orkney Islands councillor has expressed concern that the council are paying to maintain the police and fire service throughout the Highlands and Islands, but appear to have no say over what the money is spent on.

Birsay and Dounby Councillor Keith Johnson told members of the finance and general purposes committe that he found it strange there was no avenue within the OIC to debate the amount of funds given to both police and fire services.

Work begins this weekend on finding a site to install a fibre optic cable linking Orkney and Shetland with the Scottish mainland and the rest of the world.

The proposed connection could mean new business, education and social opportunities for Orkney, bringing the islands in line with cities such as London and New York.

Using the vessel Titan Surveyor, a team from Titan Environmental Surveys Ltd are currently carrying out a feasibility study of the seabed off Redbanks in Tankerness to find a secure route for the cable.

Orkney Islands Council has a new assistant chief executive following two senior appointments made on Thursday.

Mr Malcolm Burr, currently the council's chief administrative officer, has been named as the new assistant chief executive while Mr Ian Watt, presently chief trading standards officer, takes on the role of head of protective services.

The appointments were made as part of a restructuring exercise within the chief executive's department.

Rocky the ringed seal - who ended up in Orkney after a marathon journey from the icy waters of the Arctic - has died before having a chance to return home.

Ross Flett, from Orkney Seal Rescue, had appealed to any oil companies with rigs in the far north to transport Rocky back home.

But the adult seal, who had been rested and doing well started to deteriorate this week and sadly died.

The seal is being sent to Inverness where an autopsy will be carried out.

An Aberdeen-based offshore company could solve the problem of oil leaking from the Royal Oak, The Orcadian can reveal this week.

Stolt Offshore have successfully removed oil from a sunken warship in the past, and they expressed an interest this week in Orkney’s Royal Oak oil leak problem.

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Local fish farmers dismissed reports this week that large numbers of farmed salmon escaped from sea cages in the Bay of Firth area.

Reports have been recently made of a large shoal of fish lying under the brig near the Firth School. The occurrence has also been reported to the Fisheries Research Laboratory at Torry in Aberdeen.

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Kirkwall lifeboat was called out yesterday to assist in the recovery of a yacht that broke her moorings in the strong wind.

Normally anchored off Aikerness in Evie, the yacht, Renegade, broke free and was blown ashore near the Broch of Gurness. Kirkwall lifeboat attended but low water meant the yacht could not be pulled back into the water without further damage.

The owners were hoping to refloat the vessel at high tide.

Councillors have agreed to postpone a number of capital projects in order to make further savings of £2.4 million.

Among those deferred is the new Burray school and the upgrading of some island airfields.

Orkney Islands Council have to find £4.2 million in savings this year as a precautionary measure in case they receive a poor settlement from central government next year.

A Tourist Information Centre employee is under investigation after alleged financial irregularities at the Stromness office.

Kirkwall Police confirmed this week that they had received a complaint from Orkney Tourist Board at the beginning of September.

Orkney Tourist Board chief executive, Mr Gareth Crichton, said it was a relatively minor issue. "Because we are a public body there has to be a full enquiry. We should have it tied up by the end of the week. It would be inappropriate to comment further."

The Papa Stronsay Cross

A ceremony to mark the erection of a new Celtic Cross on the island of Papa Stronsay was held this week.

The ten foot stone cross, engraved with the Papa Stronsay Cross, was blessed by Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X, at 12 noon.

The cross stands as a permanent memorial to Celtic and Norse monks and hermits of the first two millennia in Orkney.

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A special public meeting about the council and Orkney Health Board's "One Stop Shop" project took place at the Pickaquoy Centre on Thursdayt.

The One Stop Shop initiative aims to bring together housing, health and social services under the one roof.

A bid will be made this week to secure almost £1 million of Government funding for the radical project that will improve public access to key services in Orkney through the use of new technology.

Three Orkney food firms took part in a trade fair at Hampden Stadium in Glasgow this week.

The Orkney representatives - Grimbister Farm Cheese, the Orkney Cheese Company and the Orkney Brewery - were among the 25 businesses from the Highlands and Islands in attendance.

Organised by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the event brought together food buyers from all sections of the industry including Harrods, the Scottish Parliament Shop and supermarket chain Tescos.

The manager of the Pickaquoy Centre defended the facility following recent comparisons that likened it to the beleaguered Millennium Dome in London.

Speaking to The Orcadian Mr Kieran Henderson wholeheartedly supported the Pickaquoy Centre and the services within it.

The financial figures quoted, he said, were misleading but added that if required additional steps would be taken to reduce the operating costs of the facility.

A Government Minister has given his support to strengthening the “Initiative at the Edge” project which includes the island communities of Westray and Papay.

Speaking at the project’s conference this week, Scotland Office Minister, Mr Brian Wilson MP said: “I believe there is much more we can do, across government, to be sensitive to the urgent and distinctive needs of these peripheral communities. There are still too many areas in which the periphery is at the mercy of policies which were not designed with these places in mind."

A number of delegates from Westray and Papay attended this week’s conference at Ardnamurchan in Argyll.

Fish farming pollution could be causing the toxic algal blooms that have lead to shell-fishing bans around Orkney.

This is the claim made by international ecological scientist Dr Malcolm MacGarvin, whose report points to a link between fish farming and algal blooms and refutes claims that they are natural events.

Dr MacGarvin's claims have been welcomed by the Orkney Fisheries Association who said that it will help them in the argument with the Government that it is not a naturally occurring phenomenon.

A fibre-optic communications network linking Orkney, Shetland and the Scottish Mainland is in the pipeline with surveys expected to take place within the next week.

The Shetland Islands Council Charitable Trust project could see the arrival of state-of-the-art telecommunications to the islands.

Three seabed survey vessels will follow routes from Shetland down to Tankerness in Orkney and then from South Ronaldsay across the Moray Firth to Banff.

The three per cent fares increase introduced by British Airways and their franchise operator, Loganair, has been greeted with dismay by the travelling public in Orkney.

A council spokesman said that they were concerned that such a significant increase had been introduced apparently without consultation.

The percentage rise means that return fares from Kirkwall will see an increase in fares ranging from £3 to £15.

The road safety message seems to be getting through to Orcadian drivers, according to police officers from Northern Constabulary’s road policing unit.

Two police bikes were in the county last week cracking down on speeding, drink driving and seatbelt offences. They reported that there was a marked improvement from drivers since their last visit to the county.

The cargo vessel that lost power in the Pentland Firth in the early hours of Monday morning arrived safely in Kirkwall.

The 80-metre Emsland was en-route from Sweden to Wicklow in Ireland with a cargo of timber when she suffered engine problems in the Pentland Firth at around 2.30 am on Monday.

The Orkney Towage tug Einar put a line on board the stricken vessel, which was reported to be drifting slowly on the tide, and towed her into Kirkwall, arriving around 10.30am.

Kirkwall police are seeking information after an incident in the early hours of Sunday morning in which a Kirkwall woman woke to find an intruder in her house.

The intruder, a young man in his late teens, fled the house in the Quoybanks area after stealing a £10 note.

A team of Royal Navy divers arrived in Scapa Flow this weekend to survey the leaking oil from the sunken battleship, HMS Royal Oak.

A Royal Navy spokesman said the team from the Marine Salvage Unit North are hoping to come up with a temporary solution to stop the leak until the oil is removed next year.