The opening ceremony for the 2007 Nat West Island Games took place in Greece on Saturday, with teams from Orkney competing in eight events.

This year’s games are being held in Rhodes – in somewhat warmer weather than the 2005 games in Shetland.

Orkney are participating in the archery, table tennis, triathlon, athletics, volleyball, clay pigeon shooting, golf and sailing.

Orkney’s final medal tally in Shetland was two gold, three silver and four bronze.

The Vikings were back in Kirkwall on Saturday!

A replica Viking village officially opened at Pickaquoy, offering visitors the opportunity to wander round an accurate Viking settlement and talk to actors in character to get a real idea of how the Vikings lived.

Kirkwall Grammar School has scooped a top prize for young entrepreneurs in Scotland. 

Pupils from the school were runners-up in the Best Trade Stand category at The Royal Bank of Scotland Young Enterprise Scotland Finals, held at the Old Fruit Market, City Halls in Glasgow.

NHS Orkney gave a briefing session to all Community Council chairmen on Saturday, on the progress of its Creating Sustainable Services Programme (CSSP).

The CSSP has been set up to implement a major re-design of NHS Orkney’s clinical and non clinical services.

Mail deliveries in the county were disrupted on Friday as a result of a 24-hour national strike by postal workers.

Up to 130,000 members of the Communication Workers Union took action on Friday after dismissing a 2.5 per cent pay offer and warning that the Royal Mail's modernisation plans will lead to 40,000 job losses.

Coastguard teams and the Kirkwall lifeboat were called out on Thursday night after a suspected red flare was reported off Deerness.

Shetland Coastguard received a report of a flare between Burray and Copinsay at 10.20pm on Thursday evening. An appeal for information was put out to shipping, the Kirkwall lifeboat launched and coastguard teams from Deerness, Stromness and Kirkwall mobilised.

NHS Orkney has confirmed they have met all their financial targets for 2006/07.

The health board are left with a £139,000 revenue surplus and a capital surplus of £186,000 – thanks to the ‘non-recurring gain’ resulting from the sale of Garden House and Graham House to the OIC.

However, it was stressed to members at this week's meeting of the board that next year will be a different story with no non-recurring gains left to fall back on.

All eyes should be at sea this weekend to keep a lookout for whales, dolphins and porpoises passing through Orkney waters.

The Sea Watch Foundation’s national whale and dolphin watch runs until July 1 and aims to provide a snapshot picture of the distribution and status of the animals.

The organisers say you don’t have to be an expert to help. All they need to know is where you saw the animal, when, how many there were, and as much detail as possible about the type of animal.

A woman accused of stealing nearly £10,000 from a Kirkwall man is to face trial in October.

Pat Williamson, 40, of Kirklands Road, Kirkwall, faces 41 charges relating to alleged fraud and theft from Ashley Nicolson, Clay Loan, Kirkwall.

A string of charges – including the possession of a knife – has earned a Kirkwall man 13 months in prison.

Norman Wood, 38, of Gunn’s Close, Kirkwall appeared from custody at Kirkwall Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

An 18-year-old Tankerness man was sentenced to 220 days in prison at Kirkwall Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

Appearing from custody, Thorfinn David Ross, from Skibbowick, Tankerness, was facing a number of charges, relating to separate incidents.  

Northern Isles MSPs, Tavish Scott and Liam McArthur, have written Kenny MacAskill, Cabinet Secretary for Justice, asking for an amendment to new child protection legislation.

The legislation makes it impossible for visiting Junior Inter-County competitors to stay with host families, which has been the tradition over the 60 years of the competition. As a result, accommodation costs are now concerning organisers in Orkney and Shetland.

A working group is to be set up in Orkney to consider a bylaw against drinking alcohol in public places.

Orkney Islands Council is one of only two local authorities in Scotland not to have put in place measures to make it an offence to consume alcohol in designated public places.

Orkney Ferries officials are due to meet with RMT union officials in Edinburgh on Friday in an effort to halt threatened industrial action.

Union representative Ian Macintyre said: “We are hoping it will be meaningful discussion, but to have that the company have to come with a new and improved offer. If they are coming with an empty chalice there is no point.”

The Lord Lyon King of Arms has approved the new design for an Orkney community flag.

Councillors noted at Tuesday’s policy and resources committee that flagmakers and local suppliers would be invited to submit quotations for the provision of flags.

Police are urging the public to be wary of dealing with a visiting salesman offering generators for sale.

The man has an Irish accent and is driving a silver-coloured Ford Transit van. He prefers to deal in cash and no paperwork changes hands.

All aspects of the nursery provision at the Papa Westray primary school are very good or good – according to the latest inspection report by HMIE.

The inspectors identified several strengths of the nursery, including the very positive ethos, the very good relationship between the school and the community and the quality of the curriculum.

A Kirkwall man was charged with a number of road traffic offences, including drink driving, in the early hours of Saturday morning. He was also charged with assault, a breach of the peace and malicious mischief.

A report is being submitted to the procurator fiscal.

Meanwhile, a report is being submitted to the fiscal after another alleged drink-driver was stopped by police on the Kirkwall to Stromness road at 10.30pm last Thursday evening.

Witnesses are being sought to an alleged assault in Stromness at the weekend.

The alleged incident occurred in the Ferry Inn around 9.30pm on Saturday. Anyone with information is asked to contact Kirkwall police on 872241.

Meanwhile, a report is being submitted to the procurator fiscal after an alleged assault in Kirkwall's Bridge Street at 12.30am on Sunday morning.

The first major changes to Scottish crofting law for nearly 15 years took effect from Monday. 

The changes are expected to lead to more land being used for crofting across the Highlands and Islands, and, for the first time, crofting is also expected to expand to other areas of Scotland.

Kirkwall police are again reminding people not to release details of their bank or credit cards in response to telephone calls from unknown sources offering deals on a range of items and services.

Even should the caller sound "genuine", calling the recipient by name and suggesting an already established link, they must be treated with suspicion.

Under no circumstances should personal details be released over the phone.

A police spokesman said: "Despite repeated reminders in the recent past, it would seem that some individuals continue to fall prey to telephone or cyber fraudsters."

The former bank boat, the Otterbank, is now back in Orkney for restoration for the planned Orkney Boat Museum.

At the yacht club's Hatston yard to greet the boat was Willie Groat, who was the banker on board during the time the boat served the North Isles as a floating bank.

Tom Muir, from Orkney Museums and Heritage, said the historic vessel was bought with grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Fund for Acquisitions. NorthLink and Heddle Construction provided their services free and the Friends of the Orkney Boat Museum donated £2,500 to cover transport costs.