Hundreds of people have flocked to the Orkney Marinas' stand at the Stockholm Boat Show with lots of them showing an interest in sailing to and around Orkney.

Representatives from Orkney Marinas have been in Sweden for the past two weeks to publicize Orkney's facilities.

Project manager of the company, Ian Johnstone, said: "I was over last week and it seems to have gone really well. We had lots of interest from people who are rich and think nothing of jetting off for holidays, to those who have retired and would like to take longer and more challenging sailing trips."

Orkney Islands Council has welcomed a positive performance report of its community social services department.

The Social Work Inspection Agency concludes that the department is performing well, with eight areas classed as "good" and two as "adequate". Inspectors described it as being a "robustly managed" service, with an impressive performance in adhering to national standards.

Alexis Jay, chief inspector, said: "Overall, today's reports give a positive account of social work services in Orkney."

A 27-year-old man who spent thousands of pounds on a betting channel, using stolen credit card details, was jailed for three years at Kirkwall Sheriff Court on Thursday.

Charles Henry Hutchison was found guilty of a string of frauds following a three-day jury trial last month.

Hutchison was found guilty of obtaining the credit card details of four people and using them to spend thousands of pounds on betting channels, and hotels, between February and April, 2005.

He was ordered to serve three years in prison and a further four months for failing to make a court appearance.

BP Fuels Marketing has sold its fuels storage and distribution business in Orkney to GB Oils Ltd, which will operate under the name Scottish Fuels.

This week the company said GB Oils had bought the businesses in the Western Isles, Shetland, Orkney, Skye and and Arran, with effect from March 1.

The director of BP Fuels Marketing Ltd, Ramsay MacDonald, told customers in a letter that the changeover would be as seamless as possible, with phone numbers and ordering and payment arrangements remaining the same. Scottish Fuels said the only difference most customers would see was that company’s name instead of BP’s on bank statements.

Police are keen to hear from anyone who may have witnessed an attempted break-in on Great Western Road, Kirkwall.

Thieves tried, unsuccessfully, to force their way into a metal shed at West View, some time between 10pm on Monday and 9am on Tuesday.

Anyone with information is asked to call Kirkwall police station on 872241.

A 19-year-old man was arrested by police and charged with committing a breach of the peace at Powerbowl in Kirkwall, about 9pm, on Tuesday night.

A report is to be submitted to the procurator fiscal.

For the past 12 months, the children at Papa Westray School have been 'season spotters' for the BBC children's series Seasons.

Along with other schools throughout the UK, they have been armed with video and stills cameras, sketchpads and tape recorders recording the diversity of each season in their locality.

The programmes started transmitting this week, on BBC2 at 11.30am.

The first programme, on Thursday, featured spring. The second, on March 15 is on summer, autumn comes on March 22 and winter on March 29.

NorthLink is to charter the livestock vessel Buffalo Express for the busy autumn season to provide back-up to the first batch of animal pens, which will be used on the company's freight ships Hascosay and Clare.

Chief executive, Bill Davidson, said the charter - initially for six weeks begining early September - would provide a "degree of comfort" to farmers concerned that the new pens would not be ready in time.

Prototypes of the containers have raised a number of concerns from Orkney farmers and development work on the pens is continuing.

The education system and schools in the county are top of the class, according to a follow-through inspection report from the HM Inspectorate of Education.

The education functions of every local authority in Scotland were inspected between 2000 and 2005, with the second cycle beginning in 2006.

Attainment levels across all schools in the county were described as "strong", while, in general, performance in all age groups is above the national average.

OIC chief executive, Alistair Buchan, said: "Given the size of the council, its limited resources, and the comparatively small number of managers we have, I believe this is an outstanding report."

A Westray cow has just had twins bringing her total amount of calves to nine in just eight years.

The Simmental cross owned by Geordie Drever of Trenabie Farm in Westray has had five of them in the past 11 months - a phenomenal rate of production. Her mother, which was a cow bought from Chalmersquoy, also had good breeding skills as she had three sets of twins in the time she was at the farm.

Throughout her eight-year lifespan the Simmental has produced a set of twins, a set of triplets, two single cows and this year another set of twins.

Orkney is to receive an extra £1 million from the Scottish Executive to spend on transport during the current financial year.

Transport minister Tavish Scott announced the extra funding during a visit to the county on Monday. The cash will be given to Orkney Islands Council to spend as it sees fit.

Mr Scott said: “I recognise that Orkney has special circumstances when it comes to transport that the OIC has to meet. I hope the council will make good decisions on what to spend this additional money on."

The latest circulation figures show that The Orcadian has a circulation of 10,256. That is almost 2,000 more than there are households in Orkney.

Orkney Today’s circulation is 6,518, of which 6,163 are actively purchased.

The figures were released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), the official body recording and regulating newspaper circulation figures for the benefit of advertisers and other interested parties.

Kirkwall police confirmed this week that they have received a formal report from NHS Orkney in relation to "accounts discrepancies".

Sergeant Gordon Deans said they would make no further comment while investigations are ongoing.

A spokeswoman from NHS Orkney declined to make any additional comment on the matter.

Stromness lifeboat was called assist a broken down speedboat off Hoy Sound at the weekend.

The single male occupant used his mobile phone to call Shetland Coastguard for help just after 2pm on Saturday.

The NorthLink ferry, MV Hamnavoe, stood by while the lifeboat took the vessel under tow, and took it safely back to Stromness harbour.

Two men have been commended by the police for their actions in pulling a man from Stromness harbour on Saturday night.

It was about 10.40pm when Ricky Moar and Graham Tait heard cries for help coming from the Hamnavoe berth. They found a 36-year-old man, from the town, clinging on to the side of the MV Sunrise.

Sergeant Gordon Deans said: "They managed to drag him aboard and an ambulance took him to the Balfour Hospital as he was showing early signs of hypothermia.."

He was discharged on Sunday.

Orkney's oldest resident, Hilda Reid, died at the weekend - just a month before her 104th birthday.

Born at Yarpha, Orphir, in 1903, Mrs Reid attributed her long life to a positive outlook and never touching a drop of alcohol. She married the late William Reid in 1925 and had a daughter, Winnie (Brown), 80, James, 78, and Norman, 68.

Norman said: "She fell out of bed and broke her hip three weeks ago. They managed to put a pin in her hip, but her condition deteriorated and she passed away in her sleep on Saturday."

The funeral will be from the Stenness Church at 2pm on Tuesday.

It has been confirmed that Orkney will have three plays competing at the SCDA Divisional Finals which will be held on March 29, 30 and 31, in the Birnam Institute, in Perthshire.

Performances by Ad Hoc were placed first and second in the Orkney district festival, but as there is an SCDA ruling that only one team from a club can progress to the next round, it means that the first, third and fourth placed teams go forward.

Orkney's three teams are: Ad Hoc, with September in the Rain by John Godber, Stromness Drama Club, with John Godber's Bouncers, and Birsay Drama Group, with My Brilliant Divorce by Geraldine Aron.

The first avocet recorded in winter in Orkney, pictured right, has been in Tankerness for a week.

It is only the seventh recorded sighting of the wading bird in Orkney and the first since one was seen at Orphir in 1993.

Birder Keith Hague found the avocet at Mill Sand last Saturday. It normally winters along the coasts of southern England and the southern North Sea, south to the Mediterranean and North Africa.

Keith's bird pictures are at www.keithhague.com

The official 2007 Bag the Bruck Clean-up weekend is to take place on Saturday, April 21 and Sunday, April 22.

Organisers, Environmental Concern Orkney (ECO) , will be contacting participants from last year in the hope of securing their continued support.