A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Air tax down
Travellers on direct long haul routes from Northern Ireland airports can look forward to a significant reduction in air passenger duty (APD).
The direct long haul rate of APD will fall from £60 to the short haul rate of £12 per passenger in economy and from £120 to just £24 for business and first class passengers.
The move is a bid to protect the only direct long haul service operating from Northern Ireland and the local jobs servicing the route. Continental Airlines operates a daily service between Belfast and New York. The airline recently said the £3.2 million it would pay in tax on the route this year made it commercially unviable.
Plane plunges
A Japanese plane narrowly avoided disaster recently when it plunged over the Pacific, almost turning upside down.
The All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight, with 117 on board, dived 1,900 metres in 30 seconds in the incident off the southern Shizuoka district on September 6th.
The manoeuvre happened when the co-pilot, in trying to unlock the cockpit door for the captain who was returning from the toilet, mistook a command button for the cockpit door lock switch nearby. The plane landed safely, but two crew members were slightly injured, and four passengers reported health problems.