To mark the third anniversary of the war in Iraq, a vigil was held outside St Magnus Cathedral on Saturday.

The Orkney Islands Council has released its annual performance report for 2004/05.

The report covers everything from staff sickness absence levels to its best value reviews and each department’s key actions for the coming year.

The council will also be producing Reporting to You, a leaflet containing highlights of the main report, which will be distributed in The Orcadian next Thursday.

Supermarket chain, Lidl, hosted a recruitment open day in Kirkwall on Friday, in the hope of catching potential store managers, deputy store managers and store assistants for their forthcoming Orkney branch and throughout the rest of Scotland.

idl’s Kirkwall store is due to open later this summer.

Six new directors were elected to the Westray Development Trust, at the group's AGM on Wednesday night.

Graham Maben, Elizabeth Drever, Alistair McVicker, Colin Risbridger, Christopher Rendall and Geordie Thomson will serve as directors for the next two years.

Preliminary test results have confirmed that the mass death of poultry at a farm in Sandwick is not linked to avian flu.

But a Scottish Executive spokesman added that the farm of Bon Accord would remain closed off while investigations into the deaths continue.

Speaking on Thursday afternoon, the birds' owner, John McNally said that around 100 of his birds had died.

The farm had been sealed off on Wednesday and visited by a state veterinary officer following the discovery of the dead birds.

Orcadian fencer, Maggie Tait, was in Ireland on Friday representing Scotland for the second time.

The 46-year-old épée competitor was in Cork as part of the Scotland ‘B’ team in a quadrangular competition.

Piercing and tattooing businesses in Orkney must now register with the OIC.

To reduce the risk of blood-borne infections, any business in the county that involves skin and body piercing activities needs to be regulated according to a new Scottish Executive order.

To register, applicants need to submit an application to the OIC by March 31 so they can continue trading until a licensing decision has been made.  The licences, which will cost £100, will run for one year and will be reviewed annually.

A 39-year-old man who stored more than 20,000 indecent images of children at two homes in Orkney has been placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for five years.

Colin Wilson, now of Logan Court, Elgin, admitted at Inverness Sheriff Court taking or permitting 23,000 indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children and 570 indecent moving image picture files of children to be in his possession.

The offence occurred between August 1998 and June 2004 at 3 King Haakon Street and 6 Meadowbank in Kirkwall.

Sentence was adjourned until next month for social inquiry and community service reports.

Three workers at Orkney jewellery firm, Ortak, have been issued with redundancy notices, with a further three being redeployed within the company.

Alistair Gray, director, confirmed the decision on Wednesday afternoon, which he said was no reflection on the company's workload, adding that their turnover had increased last year for the second year running.

A bus carrying about 30 schoolchildren was struck by a wave while crossing the notorious number two Churchill Barrier on Tuesday morning.

The windscreen of the Orkney Coaches vehicle was damaged while passing the causeway’s controversial wave wall.  The accident happened just before 8.30am, while the bus was taking South Isles pupils to Kirkwall Grammar School.

The captain of the coastguard tug Anglian Sovereign has admitted polluting the sea near Scalloway Harbour in Shetland after his vessel ran aground.

Appearing at Lerwick Sheriff Court today, Peter Leask of Gulberwick, Shetland, pled guilty to three charges resulting from the incident, including allowing fuel from the vessel to enter the water.

The Anglian Sovereign, which patrols Orkney and Shetland, ran aground in September 2005. The collision damaged fuel tanks, resulting in a spillage of approximately 200 tonne of fuel oil.

The NFUS is reminding sheep farmers they need a separate flock register for each holding.

From Monday, March 20, a separate register will be required for each holding with a different Country Parish Holding number, even if they operate only one flock under one business name. But the union says farmers also have the option of amalgamating their CPH numbers and should think about this to cut down on duplicate paperwork.

The new rule is part of cross-compliance for the single farm payment, so anyone ignoring them risks a financial penalty, the union said.

NorthLink’s fundraising Breakfast at Sea will take place on Friday, March 31.

Special menus will be offered on board all three of the company’s passenger vessels and the public will be invited on board the Hrossey in Aberdeen harbour and the Hjaltland in Lerwick. The charity breakfast menu will be offered on the Hamnavoe’s 6.30am sailing from Stromness and the 8.45am from Scrabster.

The breakfasts, costing £5 a head, will raise money for Cancer Research UK (Scotland).

NorthLink said the breakfasts would use locally sourced ingredients and include items such as potato scones and Shetland smoked salmon.

The AGM of Orkney Renewable Energy Forum (OREF) saw a new chairman being elected to take the organisation forward.

Dr Jon Side was elected as chairman to replace Mike Holgate who was thanked for all his hard work during the past year, at the meeting in the Royal Hotel in Stromness on Tuesday night.

Five other directors were voted onto the board: Colin Risbridger, Sandy Kerr, Barry Johnston, Gareth Davies and Jim Chalmers.

Changing the organisation’s name to include “sustainable energy” was ruled out, because it was felt that OREF, the brand, is too valuable to lose and already encompasses sustainability.

An Orkney teacher is one of 138 Scottish teachers to have received their Scottish Qualification for Headship (SQH) awards.

Jean Ward, from Kirkwall Grammar School, successfully completed the course and received her award at a ceremony in Glasgow last week.

The SQH is designed to prepare teachers for the key role of school leadership and help them develop the necessary skills.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has published the final report on the potential health effects of irradiated nuclear fuel particles found in Caithness.

So far, the particles, believed to be the result of operations at the Dounreay nuclear power stations in the 1960s, are relatively low in activity and any affect on human health is likely to be short term.

Although there is the potential for short-term visible effects to occur through skin contact with more active particles, the report concludes that the chance of coming into contact with such particles is extremely low.

Click here for full report

Does your organisation have any ideas that could help the county celebrate Orcadian culture during 2007?

Highland 2007 is an event managed by the Scottish Executive, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Highland Council. In an Orkney context, it aims to celebrate the unique and special nature of Orcadian culture past, present and future.

The project is built around six key areas – arts, heritage, language, sports, environment and science – focusing on the themes of youth, local dialect, creativity, homecoming, access and inclusiveness, Orkney as an inspirational place and the re-interpretation of traditional local icons.

For more information log onto www.highland2007.com

Private landlords in Orkney are being reminded to register with the OIC as part of a drive to improve standards in private rented housing.

Deputy Communities Minister Johann Lamont said that registration will improve the quality of the private rented sector by ensuring all landlords understand their legal responsibilities and removing the worst operators from the market.

By April 30, all landlords must have submitted a registration application to the council, or face having their rental income withheld or a £5,000 fine.

A Highlands and Islands MSP has repeated his call for Orkney students to receive the Scottish Executive’s 40 per cent discount on flights when returning home from college or university.

Jim Mather MSP questioned the Transport Minister on the availability of the discount for students, and has been promised details soon.

A 17-year-old, accused of taking a car without the owner's consent, was released on bail from Kirkwall Sheriff Court on Monday.

Arthur Bruce Gunn, whose address was given as Cumlybanks Bed and Breakfast, Cromwell Road, Kirkwall, allegedly took the vehicle from Royal Oak Road, Kirkwall, on Saturday.

He is also charged with driving while almost two times the alcohol limit, driving without a qualified driver and without an insurance policy. The case was continued without plea until March 22.

A number of salmon cages have been recovered after breaking loose from Inganess Bay at the weekend.

A warning went out to all boats in the Shapinsay Sound area after the cages were blown into the busy shipping channel.

On Monday, most of the cages were recovered after being washed ashore at Yenstay Bay and Head of Holland.

Just over £42,000 worth of grants were approved by Orkney Enterprise in February.

Among the £42,296 worth grants approved was £4,900 for WRO & SE McEwen in Westray for the establishment of a business to provide cooking courses and £3,350 to Orkney Chair maker, Fraser Anderson, to attend exhibitions in 2006.

The Orkney Museum received £5,100 funding for environmental monitoring equipment.

The winners of the annual Marjorie Linklater Writing Award have been named.

The award, run by the Orkney Heritage Society,  is for a piece of original writing which must relate to Orkney.

First place went to Jenny Skene of Stromness Academy for To an Orkney Vole. Kirkwall Grammar School pupil Charlotte Platt was second with Orkney Sanctuary.

A new website went online at the weekend – offering buyers a wide range of Orkney products.

Highlands and Islands Airports Limited is on target to record its busiest ever year by the end of March, with its 10 airports handling the company’s highest ever passenger total.

At Kirkwall Airport, there were 7,963 passengers in February, a 4.6 per cent increase over the February 2005. This brings the annual running total for the year to 108,354 - an increase of 2.8 per cent.