As has been shared by the owner Associated British Foods, popular clothing chain Primark has continued to perform strongly, recording a sales growth of 8% over the past six months.

Like-for-like sales, which excluded the impact of new stores, were mainly boosted by "exceptionally strong performance" across the company's 14 Spanish outlets. Overall, total sales were also quite strong, after the opening of as many as 5 new stores across UK, Germany, Portugal and Belgium.

Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams has declared that his wife is being treated for cancer.

The couple was taken back when she was diagnosed with cancer a month ago.

The announcement was made at a party meeting where he was chosen as the representative to stand in the approaching Westminster elections.

He was thankful to the medical staff that looked after his wife Colette during, and post, her surgery.

"Now she is fine and recuperating after her operation last Thursday", he said.

£8m (€9m) investment was confirmed by Ryanair for a new aircraft maintenance facility at Glasgow Prestwick Airport. A major expansion is planned following the announcement made yesterday regarding new routes and the base that is the biggest maintenance base.

A planned four-hour strike by air traffic controllers in Ireland on Wednesday is all set to disrupt the travel plans of more than 20,000 airline passengers as they will face delays and cancellations.

A walk out by air traffic controllers between 2pm and 6pm will result into the cancellation of around 150 flights at Cork, Shannon and Dublin airports.

As has been recently announced by the company, Wolseley has agreed to divest 100% of its stake in Wolseley Ireland Holdings Limited to WIBHM, which is a private investor backed firm, for a total of 23.8 Million Pounds. WIHL is inclusive of the largest plumbers' merchant in the entire Republic of Ireland, Heatmerchants, which is also designated as the largest distributor of oil heating equipment across the country.

During the month of December, Irish budget carrier Ryanair witnessed a 12% growth in Traffic as travelers continued to make the most of the firm's low fares over the Holiday season.

As many as 4.9 million passengers were flown by the company over the month, as compared to the figure of 4.37 million passengers recorded for December 2008. Load factor, which is the measure of how full the airplanes are, jumped by 2 percentage points to 82%.

Reports have confirmed that its portfolio of GSM base station and switching products have been sold by ADC Telecommunications Inc. to the Irish mobile network operator, Altobridge.

The deal was announced on Thursday, and apart from the fact that about 70 of ADC's employees will be taken in by Altobridge, no other terms have been disclosed.